My Lord,—­In obedience to your Grace’s commands to the Lord Justice Clerk, informing him it was His Majesty’s pleasure, he should enquire upon oath into the conduct of Mr. Carre of Nisbet advocate, our Sheriff, in relation to the apprehending of Mr. Cranstoun; I yesterday waited on his Lordship at Duns; & gave him an account of what I knew of that matter upon oath.  I heard some other examinations taken at the same time, & have the pleasure to see that your Grace will receive entire satisfaction from this Inquiry.

I cannot omitt My Lord, upon this occasion expressing to your Grace the grateful sense all his Majesty’s faithful subjects here have of your goodness in ordering this enquiry to be made, without which the misrepresentations contained in Lowe’s affidavit, with the Justice of peace’s Commentary, might have lurkt & crept about unobserved in the South of England, & his Majesty’s subjects here could have had no opportunity of removing the injurious imputations cast upon them.

My Lord Justice Clerk has spared no pains to make the account compleat, and it gives me particular pleasure My Lord that your Grace will thereby be enabled to form a character of Mr. Carre from vouchers free from all suspicion of that partiality which perhaps might be thought to attend my recommendations of a friend & relation.  Your Grace will see that Mr. Carre came from his own house with the Lord Justice Clerk, in his Lordship’s post-chaise, to dine, by a previous appointment, at my house, which is only distant from his own half an hours driving; & this in order to have the advice & assistance of the Lord Justice Clerk.  I am persuaded your Grace will think, you could not have wished him to choose a more judicious adviser, or a more sagacious Inspector into his conduct.  Upon examination your Grace will find, that the Lawyers here will reckon Mr. Carre rather to have stretched a point to get over the provision in our Act of Parliament, in order to grant his Warrant, than to have affected any doubt, or dilatoriness upon the occasion.  And that those Scots Lawyers who have not studied our Law with the same superiority of capacity & genius that Mr. Carre has, would hardly have consented to give a Warrant, upon the grounds Mr. Carre granted it....

  I am, etc.,

  MARCHMONT.

  Duke of Newcastle.

VII.  DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO MR. PAUNCEFORT.

(Sate Papers, Dom.  Entry Books (George II.), vol. 134, f. 97.)

  Whitehall, Oct. 31st, 1751.

  Mr. Pauncefort,

Sir,—­Having by His Majesty’s Command, directed an Enquiry to be made into the Conduct of Mr. Carre, the Sheriff of Berwickshire, upon the application that was made to him for causing Lieut.  Cranstoun to be apprehended; and such an Enquiry having been accordingly made by the Lord Justice Clerk; I send you inclosed a Letter, which I have received from His Lordship together with the several Examinations that have been taken upon that occasion.—­I am, etc.,

  HOLLES NEWCASTLE.