[Lord Bathurst.]
May 28, 1714.
My Lord,
I have received your Lordship's present of snuff by Mr. Bromley, itt is extreamly good and there is enough to last me a great while. I have sent your Lordship the Paper which was laid before the House of Commons, you can't oblige me more than in laying any commands upon me, but your Lordship will find this is only a part, and call'd for by the House upon a particular account which was the paying of the foreign troops. There was a debate the other day in the House of Commons whether the Hannover troops shou'd be paid till the time of the Cessation of Arms; itt was argued on one side that her Maty had giv'n them notice that if they did not obey the commands of her Generall she wou'd not pay them, and therefore itt was not usuall for the House to give money when it was not demanded by the Crown; on the other side the Justice of the matter was urg'd that they shou'd have their pay for the time they did serve, that they were hir'd to carry on a war against France, and that itt was contrary to the Grand Alliance to come to such a Cessation of Arms without the Consent of all the Allies; that itt might be reckon'd to be demanded by the Crown as well as any other money because itt came before the House in as regular a manner as any other, that itt had come from the Treasury, &c. but att last upon a division it was carried by a great Majority for the leaving of the Chair; so the matter remains unsettled and to be resum'd whenever the House thinks fitt.
I have no other News to send your Lordship but the melancholy account of the Duke of Beaufort's death, who was just gott into the Country, and after having heated himself a shooting in the morning he drunk a great quantity of small Liquor which made him vomit Blood and he died in three days after.
This is so small a Packett that I did not think itt necessary to send itt about but I shall observe your Lordship's direc-
