great and respectable a Judicature as the Court of Session; more especially whilst your Lordship presides at the head of it; and you are fully at liberty to acquaint your brethren, that you are sure this will be done. But you must give me leave to say, that as I proposed this method by way of expedient to avoid disputes, so it must be understood to be on this Condition, that the answer contains no objection or insinuation touching the manner of notifying the Order; for if it does, it must come in, in the common form.-It gave me much pleasure to observe, that your letter was dated from a place of Recess from Business, where I heartily wish you the enjoyment of much pleasure, and the perfect establishment of your health, for the happiness of your Country, and of all your friends; amongst whom I beg you will always number, My Lord, Your Lordship's most obedient and most faithful humble Servant, The La President of the Session, Edin'. HARDWICKE. No. CXCV. Lady Margarett Macdonald to Lord Milton, Justice Clerk, concerning emigration to America. Dated Sky, Jan" 1, 1740. Dear Justice, BEING informed by different hands from Ed', that there is a currant Report of a Ship's haveing gon from thiss Country with a greate many people disignd for America, & that Sir Alex' is thought to [have] concurred in forceing these people away; As I am positive of the falshood of this, & quite acquainted with the danger of a Report of this kind, I begg leave to informe your Lod3 of the reall matter of fact, In Hervest last, wee were pritty much alarm'd wth accounts, from different Corners of thiss & some neighbouring Islands, of persons being seized & carry'd aboard of a Ship which putt into differant placess on thiss coast. Sir Alex' was both angery & concern'd at that time, to hear that some of his oune people were taken in thiss manner; but cou'd not learn who were the actors in thiss wicked scrape, till the Ship was gon. One Normand M'Leod, wth a number of Fellows that he had pick'd up to execute his intentions, were the Real Actors of thiss affair. Sir Alex' never made much noise about the thing, in hop's that thiss Norm M'Leod might some time or other cast up; But he has never y' appaired in thiss part of the world, & probably never will as the thing has made so much noise: he's accomplices have betaken themselves to the Hills, & lately rob❜d a Serv' of ours comeing from Ed', out of pique to his Master; and one of them knock'd him doun, & cutt him over the head terribly. Sir Alex' is just now bussy indeavouring to detect any of these Rogues that may be yet in Sky, & hopes soon to apprehend some of those who have left it. Tho' thiss is the real matter of fact, Sir Alex can't help being concerned that he shou'd be any ways mentioned in the Story, tho' quite inosent. This affair has made so much noise with you because of the way it has been represented from Irland, that possibly there may be an intention of prosecuting Sir Alex. If that shou'd go on, tho' it cannot be dangerouse to him, yett it cannot faill of being both troublesome and expensive; And therefore lett me begg of your Lop to write to the people of poure above to prevent thiss impending Evell, because a little time may bring the real Actors to a tryall, which I dare say your Lõp wou'd rather see in a pannel then imagenary persones that had no hand in the matter. Tho' I have no reasone to believe your Lop will be remiss in any affair of such consiquence consiquence to us both, my anxiety obligess me to intreate you'll take this affair so much into considderation, that you'll delay no time in makeing applications where you judge it proper; & trust me, D' Justice, thiss favour shall make me, with more Gratitude than ever, Your most Obd & ever devoted Serv', Remember me to Lady Milton, & the Young Folks. MARG" MACDONALD.. 91 No. CXCVI. My Lord, Gen' Oglethorpe to the Lord President. IT is with pleasure I take any occasion of expressing my affection to your Lordship. Captain Mackintosh gives me this opportunity, who is travelling from the South of Georgia to the North of Scotland. He has been many years in this Country; and behaved himself so well towards me, that I must intreat your Lordship's friendship to him, and shall look upon any favours bestowed upon him as if done to myself. His long absence from his Country is the only reason that makes it necessary for me to recommend him; for otherwise his birth, being the Laird of Mackintosh's Brother, is such as would have made recommendations entirely needless. He will acquaint you with the News here. We have taken two of the Spanish Forts in one day. George Dunbar, who is Lieutenant in y Regiment here, has distinguished himself; he has taken one of the Spanish Launches. We hope, with the Assistance of the Neighbouring Provinces, soon to besiege Augustine. I must not farther trespass on your Lordship's time which is so important to the welfare of thousands, and I believe the best Compliment is concluding. Frederica, in Georgia, 21 Feb: 1739-40. I am, My Lord, Your Lordship's most Obedient humble servant, No. CXCVII. My Lord, The Lord President to Lord Hardwicke. I HEREWITH send you my excuse for not returning sooner an Answer to your Lop's most obliging Letter of the 27th of September, which determined me to undertake that labour, of which the inclosed return is the result. I am in doubt whether it is prudent in me to own, that the whole trouble and fatigue of this Report fell to my share; because, of course, any imperfections that may be in it, bateing those that may be found in some alterations made by my Brethren, must ly at my door; but as it is not fit to conceal any thing from your Lop I freely confess that my Brethren are not chargeable with any escapes that may be met with in it; none of them having given themselves the least trouble about it, except in a few alterations which are not important. I am satisfied that when your Lop casts your Eye on the Report you will wonder at the uncertainty of it, and be surprized at my talking of it as a work of so much labour and fatigue; but if your Lop was to know, as from very painful experience during the course of this winter I have discovered, the absolute confusion in which all our Records (except those that regard Land Rights) lye, the Insufficiency of the Officers X 2 generally generally employed in taking care of them, and the total neglect of those who ought to be answerable for those Officers, and ought to keep them in order, you would not wonder why it gives so litle satisfaction, nor would you be surprised at my speaking of it as of what has given me much trouble. I ought to be ashamed, for the sake of my Country, of what I am now to relate; but it would be shameful for me not to relate to your Lop, who belong equally to every part of Great Britain, what is true, that since the nations have been united the most scandalous neglect has prevailed in an article very delicate, the keeping of our Records. The Lord Register, whose Province that is, has now a very large, and at the time of the union had a pretty high allowance, for taking care of the Records, Registers, and Rolls. It was his duty to enter all the orders, acts, and resolutions of the Parliament of Scotland, into proper Registers; and as the Votes at Elections of Peers since the Union were to be collected by him, or by his Deputies, it lay upon that Officer to have made some entry of the transactions at the severall, Meetings for Election; but your Lop must needs be surprised when you are told, that there is no Record made of any Election of a Peer or Peers since the union, nor any vestige of the transactions at such Elections, except that the qualifications, the proxys, and the signed Lists of the absent Peers at each Election, and the Protestations, are tied up in bundles or bags, and tossed together into a heap in the Register house, without a possibility of being satisfied as to any one question, except one look throw the whole lumber; and when you are informed of what is much more astonishing, that, tho' at the conclusion of every Parliament of Scotland before that in which the union was enacted, all the Proceedings of Parliament were regularly reduced into Registers properly authenticated, yet the Acts and transactions of that Parliament lye still in heaps of bundles unentered and unregistered; and it is now at the mercy of every Rat, by cutting the Packthread with which the several Bundles containing the Resolutions of that Parliament are bound up, to mix them together so as to make it difficult to separate them, and consequently to destroy the Evidence of the very act of the union. I mention this circumstance, not only with a view to satisfy your Lordship that I had more labor than at first sight could easily be suspected; but that, if your Lordship permit me, I may hereafter, when you have more leisure, make use of your intercession to have this gross abuse remedied; and at present I would only say, that a very small sum, under proper direction, will do it; and that if the matter is not speedily looked after, it will in a very few years prove irremediable. The hurry of Business that attends the conclusion of the Term with us hindered the dispatching of this Packet by the last post; and the fatigue of this day, which is the last of our Term, disables me from giving you any further trouble. I am perswaded it will be none to be told, what you very well know, that I am with a true heart, The Lord President to Mr. William Grant, dated 29th Febry 1740. My dear Will, YOU can better imagine than I can make an Excuse for my not returning you sooner my thanks for the hints you so kindly obliged me with, in relation to the Re port port that was expected from us on the subject of the Peerage. That Report is now finished, and transmitted to My Lord Chancellor, to be layed before the House. Prudence might require (because of the small satisfaction it can give, and the many imperfections which may be met with in it) that I should not own it as my work; but I cannot dissemble; and I do assure you, that if it was possible for you to have any tolerable idea of the confusion of our Records; the negligence and ignorance of our Officers; and the contradiction I met with from some of my fellows, from whom I had no reason to expect any; you would rather be surprised that this, such as it is, has been produced, than that it is not more perfect. One thing, however, I think of with some satisfaction; that, though it has lost me several hundred hours extraordinary labor this Winter, the Business of the Court has suffered no discontinuance. When the term ended this day, no cause ripe for judgment remained undetermined; none that, within the Rules of the Court, could possibly have been decided was laid over to the next Term; a Circumstance that has not hapened within any Man's Memory, and of which the Mob are very fond. When the Report comes to your hands, consider it; for I expect two things from your friendship: the one, that you will defend it, at least make excuses for its faults, to the person from whose motion it arose, and for whose sake I undertook the trouble; to whom also I beg you will make my compliments. The other, that when you can find so much time, you will freely censure it to me, that I may avoid mistakes upon any future occasion. By my stile you will observe that I am tyred; and therefor will pardon me that I break off abruptly, by saying that I am perfectly My Lord, Yours. No. CXCIX. Lord Hardwicke to the Lord President. Powis House, Mar. 13th, 1739-40. THIS comes accompanied with a Public Letter, serving only to acknowledge the receipt of the Return of the Court of Seffion to the Order of the House of Lords of the 12th of June last. I had barely time to read it over, before it was laid before their Lordships, who have ordered it to be printed; but from so slight a perusal I am fully convinced it must have been a work of great labour; and cannot but wonder, that in so short a time, and from such imperfect confused materials, your Lordship has been able to lay so good a foundation for proceeding in this great work. I am at present in too great a hurry to enter into all the particulars of your private letter, for which I return you my sincere thanks. But your Lordship's account of the Condition of your Records gives me equal surprise and concern; and as this public occasion of looking into them has brought to light so gross a neglect, I hope care will be taken to remedy it, in which I shall be extremely glad to co-operate. Permit me to suggest to your Lordship, whether it would not be proper, in the first place, to have some regular Representation made in form to the Lord Register, desiring his directions to his inferior Officers to redress this grievance, and to put the Records into proper order, and preserve them with due care. If this produced no good effect, it might perhaps afford a ground for some further application; but of this you are the best judge. I heartily congratulate your Lordship upon the ending of your fatigue for this time, and wish you much Relief and increase of health from the Recess, being ever, with great truth & Esteem, My Dear Lord, Your Lordship's most faithful HARDWICKE. My Lord, No. CC.. The Lord President to Lord Hardwicke. Stony Hill, 22nd March 1739-40. THE letters which your Lordship did me the honor to write the 13th Inst. were brought me by the last post. That which is intended for my brethren shall be communicated when we next meet, and will, I doubt not, give them the same sense of your Lordship's goodness that it gives me. The other gives me a peculiar satisfaction; as it shews that your Lordship enters into the calamitous state of our records with the same sentiments that possess me. The hint your Lordship gives, of making some Representation to the Lord Register before any other step shall be taken, is undoubtedly proper; and whenever the noble Lord who holds that office returns to Scotland, I shall take care that application be made to him; not that I look for any remedy directly from him, as, indeed, the confusion is not properly his fault, and as it may take more money than it might be just to expect from him to put the records in a proper Condition; but that the application for a remedy may be begun by his Lordship, which, if properly seconded, must be attended with success. When I say that the present ill state of the Records is not chargeable on the present Lord Register, I mean that the unaccountable neglect which occasioned that state began as early as the Union, and has been continued down ever since, even when men of business, who are now dead and gone, were employed in that important station. Now, as it will be a work of great labour and some expense to collect, methodize, and enter what has layen since that time in the outmost Confusion, some small aid of money will be necessary, which the L' Register ought to sollicite; & when the records are once in order, he and his Successors ought to be obliged to keep them so. As the return is ordered to be printed, it certainly will be fully considered, and undergo a carefull examination. What I earnestly beg of your Lordship is, that as you must, in course, bestow some thoughts on it, you will have the Goodness, at a leisure hour (tho' I know few such fall to your share), to let me have your free and friendly censure on it; that, if it ever hereafter be my lot to have such another spot of work on my hands, I may avoid the inacuracies and mistakes into which I may have fallen in this. I ask your Lordship's pardon for giving you so long a letter to read at this time of the Year; and I am very perfectly Your Lordship's most faithfull and most humble serv1, DUN. FORBES. No. CCI. My Lord, From Lord Hardwicke to the Lord President. Carshalton, April 5th, 1740. I AM just got to this place, quite fatigued and worn down by the attendance of two causes from your Court: Cunninghame ag' Chalmers, and the Earl of Selkirk ag Duke Hamilton. But tho' I sensibly feel the labour of going thro' them, yet I conceive great pleasure in the different degree of weight and credit with which your decrees come now before the house, from what they did a few years ago; an alteration which I presaged would happen, and do most sincerely congratulate your Lordship upon the event. At the same time, permit me to ask a few questions, for my private satisfaction only, concerning the single point in the last cause, about which we had a difference of opinion; I mean the decreeing to Duke Hamilton the principal Sums due upon those heritable Bonds, which were comprised in the Bond of Corroboration. I should be glad to know, whether +8 |