do better; and this calamity, if properly handled to the government, may make your fortune." I reflected on the hint; and, accordingly, the next day, I went over to the regulating Captain of the press-gang, and represented to him the great damage and detriment which I had suffered; requesting him to represent to government, that it was all owing to the part I had taken in his behalf. To this, for a time, he made some scruple of objection; but, at last, he drew up, in my presence, a letter to the lord's of the Admirality; telling what he had done, and how he and his men had been ill-used; and, that the house of the chief-magistrate of the town, had been in a manner destroyed by the rioters.
By the same post, I wrote off myself to the Lord Advocate, and likewise to the Secretary of State, in London; commending, very properly, the prudent and circumspect manner in which the officer had come to apprize me of his duty, and giving as faithful an account as I well could of the riot; concluding, with a simple notification of what had been done to my house, and the outcry that might be raised in the town were any part of the town's funds to be used in the repair.
Both the Lord Advocate and Mr Secretary of State wrote me back by retour of post, thanking me for my zeal in the public service; and I was informed, that as it might not be expedient to agitate in the town the payment of the damage which my house had received, the Lords of the Treasury would indemnify me for the same; and this was done in a manner which showed the blessings we
