Sir,—When Mr. Smith and I happened to be frequently together at London he took reason to complain of the letter my L[ord] Semple had wrote to L[ord] Marshall and particularly of that paragraph where my L[ord] hints that possibly the Scots folks were offended with my L[ord] Marshall not taking sufficient notice of them in proportion to the regard they had shown him he insisted greatly an invincible attachment his Lordship had for the King....
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Upon this I thought I should be greatly to blame if I lost any opportunity that occurred to better his Majesty’s affairs by endeavouring to reconceal and unite his friends so that as I imagine his Lordship authorised Mr. Smith to talk upon a suspicion that there might be some grounds for what L[ord] Semple advanced and thereby to reconceal himself to his countrymen I was resolved as we say to putt a Thorne in his foot as he knows I am instituted by the King’s friends here and would not advance anything contrary to their Sentiments. You will be surprised I should write this to you in so closs a Cypher....
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After reflecting upon what you had been so good as to inform me off I could not fail to write the enclosed as I have all the reason in the World to believe you my friend, so I take the liberty to beg that after perusal in case you find it not too assuming and in a stile sufficiently respectly you will be so good as take the trouble to deliver it with an appology.... [Not legible.]
(Signed) J. Broun.[156]
Murray to Earl Marischal[157]
My Lord,—I heartyly regreted it was not in my power when so near as London to do myself the honour of waiting upon your Lordship for Reasons I beg Mr. Smith to give and at the same time assure your Lordship that without the honour of being known to you there was none who had a more hearty and sincere Regard for your Lordship’s property.... [Not legible.] my Lord, abstracting from your many private Virtues makes you dear to every true Scotsman and from what I could easily learn gives your Lordship great weight with the English. This, my Lord, encourages me to suggest of what use you may be att this juncture to his Majesty’s affairs by uniting those people together who to my great concern I found (so far as I could judge) quite inactive, diffident of one another and distrustfull of those they employ. Your Lordship’s being so near them will I hope make the work short as well as Effectual, and in my poor Judgement were there any unanimity, any harmony and concord amongst them it would easily be in our power to shake off the yoke of Bondage and Slavery we now groan under; this, my Lord, I propose with great submission to your Lordship’s serious reflection and experience, I shall only add that as I have no other in any thing I do but to promote the real Interest of my King and Country so I have all the reason in the world to believe that healing the wounds and cementing the differences now subsisting amongst our Neighbours is the greatest ambition of our countrymen and must render their gratitude to your Lordship for so great a work unalterable. I begg your Lordship will pardon my presumption in writing without being asked and believe I am with the most sincere regard and esteem, My Lord, etc.[158]
These two preceding letters I gave to my L[ord] T[ra]q[uai]r on the 5th of Aprile 1743, the day before his Lordship sett out from his own house to London which he was to show Mr. McGregar who told my Lord that this was not a time to send such letters and besides that the letter to Lord Marshall was not such an one he proposed, by which means they never went. I shall here mention what occurred to me what was the reason for Mr. McGregars stoping them never having any further reason given than the above and not knowing even that till L[ord T]raq[uai]r’s return to Scotland, during the short stay I made att London after my return from Paris in company with Mr. McGregar as I said before I made it my business to learn of Coll. Cicel and Mr. Smith all the Complaints they had against Lord Semple and Mr. McGregar which I generally communicated to him being then fully perswaded of their Honesty and Abilitys. Upon telling him what Mr. Smith had said in relation to Lord Marshall he purposed I should write to his Lordship a Letter in the same Stile Lord Semple had done, purposely to let him know how little he was in favour with his Countrymen and show him how much their liking depended upon his being well with them two, and att the same time to acquaint him that his Countrymen’s regard went no further than so far as he should act entirely conformable to the King’s will, he saying that Lord Marshall pretended to stand entirely upon his own legs from the great Number of Admirers he had in Scotland, and imagined that unless he was the sole manager of the King’s affairs his Majesty’s subjects would not be brought to act for him, in short that he looked upon the King’s interest to depend upon [him] alone. I suppose he thought by my writing in this stile to draw something from Lord Marshall undervalueing of his Countrymen whereby to hurt him with the generality but particularly with those of the Concert who had first employed and still supported him, whereby he might verify to them what he had so long advance against his Lordship, but this was a thing I refused for many reasons; first that it must hurt the King’s affairs to create differences amongst his friends of which their then subsisted too many; secondly it was running myself headlong into a party quarrel, a thing I ever had the worst oppinion off; and thirdly, not to be too tedious in giving many more, it was a thing I had not the smallest tittle to do. But on the contrary I thought it was a fair opportunity of uniting people together and commencing a Correspondence with Lord Marshall whereby if I gain his friendship and confidence I [should] thereby be enabled to inform the King of the pleas of both partys without letting either of them know of it, which is acting a part some people may think odd as it is seemingly playing with both hands, but in my Eyes not only honourable but my duty, when for the King’s interest, I receive from time to time letters from L[ord] T[ra]q[uai]r when att London informing me in his way of his success with the English; but as there was nothing material in them and that they were signed by himself I did not care to keep them in case of accidents. Some time in the month of June I received the following letter from Mr. Edgar with two enclosed from the King himself in answer to two I had wrote when at Paris.
Copy Mr. Edgar’s letter, dated March 14th, 1743.