Letters to. the Council. 413

proper to have those vacancies filled by us, you'll please Instruct
the Board of War to Issue Commissions Accordingly, if not be
pleased to signifie the same by the next post, Col^o Pickering informed
me he wrote you some time since and inclosed you a short list of
Officers who were to succeed to the above vacancies but had not
received any answer.
The delays that have happened in arranging the officers in our
Line has subjected us to many inconveniences we always imagined
that the Governor of our State had given general instructions to the
Board War to fill all vacancies by Officers already in Commission,
and next in succession to the one out of the service. I am persuaded
you'll agree that all vacancies ought to be filled as soon as they
happen, and that an Officer in the army views the immediate Succes-
sion as his Right of inheritance and every hour he is deprived of his
rank does him a Manifest Injury, we certainly are intitled to all the
honours that derive from the commission, we hold, or have a right
to hold, however long we may be deprived, of the Enjoyment of
them, that alone is the only compensation we at present are possessed
of, and all the object we have in view and the smalest dimunition
wounds us in the most tender part. You no doubt will acknowledge
that your officers have suffered in their rank before the Settlement of
the same last Spring, during two years service they were under the
disagreeable necessity of being subjected to the command of Junior
Officers in other lines who were fortunate enough to have their rank
setled we flatered ourselves that Dificulty would be removed, and still
trust that youll do us all the Justice the case requires as I can
assure you this and other unavoidable causes render the Service
Exceedingly irksome, and has been the cause of many valuable
Officers leaving the service, who otherwise woud have been willing
to have strugled under the numberless inconveniencies and disad-
vantages, that the times and their situation consequently involved
them in

Your answer by the next post will much oblige Sir Your Mo.
Ob. Ser^l

Red Book
No. 27

[Jno Weston, Kingsbury Furnace to His Excellency
Thos Sim Lee, Esqr.]

Sir About the first of Novem^r I ingaged M^r William Spear of
Baltimore Town to Purchase a Quantity of Corn for the Kingsbury
and Lancashire Works he had Procur'd about 800 Bushells of the Q^t
agreed for which I hawld home all Except about 300 Bushells which
the Commissioner has seized and detains tell I Can Get your Excel-
lencys order to them to Release it as they are doubtful whether they
Can Release it Consistant with the Commission they act under or
not I beg leave, to assure you the Corn was bo^t for the use of the
works and that we are in Great Distress for want of it there is not

February 2