22 December 1775
No 2 Garden Court
Middle Temple
My Lord,
It is some days since I was informed, that letters for me from America, were seizd, by an Officer of the Customs, and transmitted to your Lordship. I have waited this long, out of respect to your Lordship, and in expectation, that, when the Letters had been examined, you would have had the goodness to send them as they were addressed.
My Lord, I have the best reason to believe, that those letters were from my nearest and most dear connections in that country. Your Lordship will, therefore, I trust, feel some indulgence for the impatience with which I have waited, and the anxiety with which I now request the Letters, which may be in your possession and addressed to me. I hope and believe, your Lordship, has too much humanity, to exasperate the griefs of those, who are nearly connected in that unhappy country, by withholding from them, in a season of such calamity, all intelligence concerning their friends and their affairs.
I have the honor of being, My Lord, your Lordship’s most obedient, humble Servant, Arthur Lee
The original of this document is held in the CO 5 files of The National Archives, UK. Lee received this response on the following day:
December 23 1775
Whitehall
Arthur Lee, Esq
Sir, I am directed by Lord George Germain to acquaint you that all Letters whatever from Persons in America to their Correspondents here which have been brought to His Lordship’s Office, have been sent to the General Post Office to be forwarded in the proper Channel to the Persons to whom they are addressed.