867 | To Andrew Oliver

    Hampstead, Nov. 6. 1770.

    Dear Sir,

    I have this day received your Letters by Jacobson; & tho I cannot now answer them in form, I must acknowledge the Receipt of them by a short Line to go by the Packet tomorrow.1

    I am sorry for the Publication of Your Narrative only upon Account of the present Trouble it may give you not from any apprehension of its doing you any Harm in the End. I was not concerned in the Publication it is part of: if I had I should have prevented it. It was necessarily inserted among the Informations received from Boston which were laid before the Privy Council; the suffering a Copy to be taken for Publication was an Inadvertence that I cannot now tell whose Door it should be laid.2

    You need not be afraid of the Council; they will be reconciled to you when you come to preside over them; & will I daresay be very well pleased with their own Situation, no one more that [than] the Gentleman who makes the cheif Figure in your Narrative if the Alteration in the Council is made in the Manner I expect & desire.

    I have allready acquainted you that you are allowed 100 pds extraordinary for the Castle.3 I have drawn upon Mr Dupuis for £15 odd Shillings for your Fees. The Commissioners wait My Lord Privy Seal’s coming to Town, & will all come together. This Business could not have been conducted more honourably for you, or more to the Satisfaction to Your Friends. I could not ask for a greater Increase of Salary than what amounted to a Compensation for the Castle which met with no Difficulty.

    I will write to you fully by the first Opportunity & shall in my next be able to tell you what is done in Parliament. Your Government will be treated very gently but must have one Emendation.

    I am &c

    Mr Oliver

    P.S. Octr 13. Nov. 13

    Upon an Enquiry into the Publication of your Narrative I find myself more answerable for it than I thought I was, when I wrote the foregoing. The Case was this: a Gentleman allmost a Stranger to me, expressed a Desire to refute the Boston Narrative, if he could be furnished with Materials. Another Gentleman a Friend of yours, applied to me to procure him a Sight of the Informations received.4 I procured them & delivered them to him in a Bundle as I received them, without looking over the Contents, imagining that the Purport only of the Contents were to be used; & I did not know your Paper was among them. When the Publication came out, I was greatly hurt to see your paper printed verbatim: but it was too late. I am extremely sorry that it so happened; but still hope that, as you have been so honoured since, it can do you no Harm. The Truth cannot be doubted; & as for the authenticating it it was quite justifiable: for whilst they were laying Snares for the Lieut Governor, & refused to let the Means they made Use of to influence him be attested in the usual Manner, he is not to be blamed for requiring of you nor you for giving an extraordinary Testimonial.

    L, LbC      BP, 8: 148–149.