My Lord, [Duke of Bedford]

Sometime ago I had the Honour of Your Grace's Commands to Proclaim the cessation of Armes betwixt his Majesty, and the King of Spain and the Republick of Genoa, which I accordingly did in all the Towns of this Province. the Proclamation for a Cessation betwixt Great Britain and France has never yet come to my Hands and indeed this is the only Dispatch I have had from the Office since Your Grace came into it.

I lament it is a great misfortune that I am entirely a stranger to your Grace, especially as I understand by my Correspondents at Home that my Enemies have taken the Liberty to represent me as a Jacobite at all the Offices, they might with equal Justice have accused me of Murder and Felony. For the last seven years before I came abroad I lived almost constantly with the late Lord President Wilmington, and have the Honour to be known for many years by the Earl of Bath, Lord Anson, the Bishop of Worcester and several other Persons of Distinction, in short I have not one Friend Relation or acquaintance in the World who are not firmly attached to the present Royal Family, who can there be in this wild and Barbarous Country that could possibly Tempt me to Abandon every Friend I have in Life and Embrace so Desperate and Profligate a Cause. Thō I have made enquiry since this malicious report has reached me I can't Hear of One Person concerned in the late Rebellion, who has come into this Province and as for turning out the Palatines from their Lands to make room for Rebels If my Adversaries can prove, that I ever turned out one Person whatsoever from his Lands or deprived one man of a shilling of his property from my first coming into the Government to this Day I will allow the truth of all the rest of their spitefull Calumnies.

I hope Your Grace will Pardon me for insisting so long on what relates to my own private Character and Impute it to my Indignation against so Vile an Aspersion

I am with the greatest truth & most profound Respect