Brunswick the 8th January 1770.
In this letter permit me my Lord to desire your acceptance of my very sincere acknowledgements for the honorable manner you bore testimony of my public services when you presented my letter No 34 to the King. As I do not find you had anything in command to me from his Majesty on the occasion, I must consider my future prospects in public character lodged in my royal masters breast. The conscious happiness that flows to my mind from a due discharge of my duty does not surpass the gratitude that warms my heart in the service of my King.
I must confess the proceedings of the last Assembly have wounded my sensibility and being dangerously ill at the time their conduct took advantage of the then weak state of my mind, and for that reason perhaps has made the deeper impression upon it. I wish I could say with Lord Botetourt that my prospect brightens. Confidence, my Lord, that delicate polish in public transactions, has
received an ugly scratch, and I fear we have no artists here who can restore it to its original perfection.I am in expectation by the end of the present year to compleat the house building at Newbern for the Governor for the time being, after which I shall loose no time in laying before the General Assembly the accounts for the disbursements of the money voted and entrusted to my care for the purpose.
As soon as that business is accomplished I greatly wish to obtain his Majestys leave of absence from the province (unless my services could be acceptable to his Majesty in the government of New York) I must therefore beg your Lordship will lay my humble request before his Majesty that I may obtain his most gracious indulgence to return to England for one year in spring twelve months. Many circumstances induce me to request such indulgence this ensuing summer, but the consideration of leaving an open account of fifteen thousand pounds currency between the public of this province and myself, carry too much weight and consequence to my family for me to harbor a thought voluntarily to cross the Atlantic before such accounts are finally adjusted.
With the highest sense of your Lordships friendly disposition towards me, and of the generous ardor with which you promote the interest of those for whom you profess esteem