I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your lordship's letter of this date, signifying that you have had an opportunity of communicating to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent my request for the honour of the Peerage, as well as some other applications for the same honour from several distinguished officers of the navy and army, and that your lordship was commanded by the Prince Regent to acquaint me that his Royal Highness does full justice to my services on the occasions to which I refer; but he feels it, nevertheless, quite impossible, under all the circumstances, to comply with my request, and that he has directed your lordship to return the same answer to those who have made similar applications to him upon the present occasion. Without presuming to inquire into the merits of those distinguished officers with whom your lordship may have been pleased to blend my services, your lordship will permit me to observe, that the grounds upon which I found my application for the Peerage, were not confined to my services during the whole period of the late and American war; but also to my services during the five years that I had the honour to command his Majesty's fleet upon the Baltic station with the fullest approbation of Government, particularly for my uniform conduct respecting Sweden, which prevented that nation from joining the common enemy against this country, and also in having detached a timely force to Riga under the order of Rear-admiral Martin, which proved the means of preventing that city from falling into the hands of the French, and also, through the exertions of that zealous and able officer, succeeded in checking an important branch of the enemy's army from penetrating towards St. Petersburg, for which important services I have been honoured with the thanks of his Imperial Majesty, communicated to me by his ambassador at this court. As your lordship may not have laid those interesting particulars regarding my services before the Prince Regent, I now most earnestly request you will be pleased to render me that justice. I owe it to myself, to my family, as well as to the naval service, to which I have had the honour to belong upwards of forty-four years, to take the proper means, with every due respect, that my long and most faithful services are laid before his Royal Highness, in the fullest confidence that they will be found deserving the same mark of distinction that has been conferred upon an officer junior to me in the list of admirals. I beg leave to express my unfeigned acknowledgments to your lordship for the polite manner in which you have been pleased to convey to me the sentiments of his Royal Highness.