I had not the Honor of your Lordships Commands by the Duplicates of three Letters of the 7th. of August last until the 18th. Instant the originals of which never came to my Hands, and those were sent to me by Lieut. Governor Bull from Charles Town being inclosed to him. How the Originals have miscarried, and the Duplicates have been delayed I can't find out; so that any answer I can transmit must come to your Hands too late for this Session of Parliament—

However as to the Stamp Duties, I immediately sent Copies of that Letter to the Chief Justice & Attorney General, and hope I shall have their Answer prepared to carry with me.

As to the want of an Establisment of a Post through all the Provinces on this Continent the Miscarriage & Delay of Receiving these Dispatches is a Sufficient Testimony—

I informed Your Lordship & the Board of Trade in my last that I had procured from the Assembly £133.6.8. to be allowed to the Post Masters General to continue the Post once a fortnight & to carry on the Post through this Province for one Year, which will be paid to their Order when the Post is established. As to Ferries and Ferry Houses they are already fixt by Law; we are now preparing Charts of the whole Province from actual Surveys, but it will take up Some time before they can be finished; but shall send over as soon as possible so much as may answer to the Roads proper for the direct Post through the Province which I shall endeavour to carry with me next April when I propose going for England and shall then lay what Rout & Regulations I can think of before the Post Masters General—

As to Your Lordships third Letter about the preventing an illicite Trade, I mentioned formerly what occured to me upon that Head in Relation to the Entrance at Ocacock, and wrote fully since upon it & our Colony Commerce to the Board of Trade—

As to the several Heads your Lordship mentions I shall endeavour to answer them when I arrive in England, when I shall have the Honor of Kissing your Lordship's Hands, which I hope to do in a Month after you receive this Letter—

I have nothing to mention to Your Lordship of a public Nature, but as we have made Peace with all our Indian Enemies; and the French have ceded New Orleans & their Right in Lousiana to the King of Spain we shall now extend our Trade through this northern Continent & not only gain all the Indian Trade beyond the Mississippi, but soon obtain a beneficial Trade with the Spaniards at new orleans and also with old & new Mexico, by pushing on our Discoveries & Trade by the Missouris, & Rivers westward of Mississippi, and hope soon now to discover & have an open Trade to the western American Ocean.

I am with the utmost Gratitude and Respect