807 | To Thomas Hutchinson

    private

    No 5.

    Pall Mall Nov 4 1769.

    Dear Sir

    I received yours of Sep 8th–11th1 & the next Morning, yesterday, I had a good deal of Talk with Lord H. I had before mentioned to him that it was generally expected that you would be my Successor & I hoped it would be so: but this was en passant.2 I now entered seriously upon the Subject: I represented to him that the Intention of Lord Shellburne to appoint you to succeed me, upon my Removal to another Government, was so universally known that it was generally expected by the Friends of Government; that the Expectation had not been lessened by his Lordship’s Accession to the Administration of America; Since I doubted not but his Lordship had as good an Opinion of the Lt Govr as Lord S had. He interposed & said No one had a better Opinion of Lieut Govr H than he had. I proceeded & observed that if the Government of M B was to be put upon a new footing with an Enlargement of Powers & Salary, I did not expect that the Lieut Govr would be disappointed at seeing a Person of Rank put over his Head, & in such Case as there must be an adequate Provision made for the other Officers of the Crown, He would be well pleased with the C Justiceship with a Salary of £500 a Year which was the least that could be proposed. My Lord said that he thought that such an Establishment ought to be made immediately; but he doubted whether it would. He asked me whether I thought you would be easy in the Government if appointed to it: I told him no, nor any one that he could send thither. But that you who was well acquainted with the Humours of the Purpose People & the Constitution of the Government would be more able to deal with the bad Men that had got the Power there than a Stranger. Besides it should be considered that considering the Distraction of the Government & the paultry Income to support it, it could not be expected that a Person equal to the Office would be found to accept it. Adventurers will be ready for any thing: but a Governor for M B3 must not be taken out of such People. He asked what was to be done for a Cheif Justice: I said, I knew of no one in the Province fit to succeed you; & you was4 sensible of the same Difficulty but I thought the Office might be kept in Abeyance, if it could not be thought proper that you, after being Governor under the present Government, could with Propriety accept of the Place of Cheif Justice under a new & enlarged Establishment, which belonged to you to determine. I read to him some Passages in your Letters but did not communicate the whole, as I thought in some Parts you made your Terms too low. I have put it on this Alternative, either Govr in Cheif, or Cheif Justice with a Salary of £500 a Year: & there let it rest for the present.

    I am Sir &c.

    Lieut Govr Hutchinson.

    L, LbC      BP, 8: 14–16.