156 Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 1753-1761.

Lib. J. R.

& U. S.

their Servants and for the present the storm is blown over,
I leave the whole to your Excellency's Animadversion.
I am your Excellency's most obedient
most humble Servant
Baltimore 21^st August. S: Gardner

S^r
Your Letters of the 15^th & 21^st Instant have been received
and laid before his Lordships' Council, by whose Advice I
now desire and recommend it to you to take your Evidences
before some Provincial or County Magistrate & let them
make Oath to the Truth of what you alledge against M^r
Ridgely and several other Persons of Baltimore County, the
Magistrate will thereupon issue his Warrant and have the
Offenders brought before him, and on their Appearance will
bind them over to the next Assizes for that County at which
you will attend with your Witnesses, and I shall give Orders
to the Attorney General to do his Duty on that Occasion. I
hope that by this Means all Cause of future Complaints from
Gentlemen who may be sent hither on the recruiting Service
will be removed and that an effectual Stop will be put to such
violent Proceedings as are mentioned in your Letter. You
may be assured that I shall always to the utmost Power en-
courage and promote the Service in which you are engaged,
and from his past Conduct I flatter myself the Gentleman to
whom you say you applied will by his Behaviour on this Oc-
casion convince you that none is more disposed than himself
to forward and promote his Majesty's Officers.
I am S^r
H: S..
Annapolis 26^th August 1756.
To Captain Gardner &c..

p. 130

His Excellency is pleased to lay before this Board the
following Letter.

S^r
I beg Leave to lay before your Excellency the Papers here-
with sent, they were about a ffortnight since taken from a
person found travelling through this County without a pass,
on his Examination he appears by his own Confession to be
a native Frenchman and a papist of the province of Gascoign
he talks Latin pretty well, says he came f rum Havre de Grace
to Quebeck, thence to Montreal to Albany, York, Boston,
Philadelphia, has been at Annapolis has passed from place to
place where the neutral ffrench reside, owns he hath formerly
personated a priest, he either is or well personates a Luna-