Since I had the honour of seeing you I have suffered much from vomiting of blood, to which I am subject, it is very hard and very trying for me, under these circumstances, to have no one near me. If I hazard this request, my lord, it is your kindness alone, which inspires this confidence, and I implore you to consider it null and void, if you see the least difficulty—and if it should compromise you in the least. If I can have the young man that I ask for, it is to you alone that I wish to be indebted, and to you alone that he will be granted, so that the Transport Office can see in all that, only the interest you have deigned to take in me. Forgive so much liberty, so much importunity—but an honest and unhappy Frenchman, who has the happiness to see you, finds in you his prop and stay. I have the honour to be, with respect, my lord, Your very humble and very obedient servant, THE BISHOP OF MOULINS. STILTON, 27_th March_ 1808. V _Mr. Commissioner Rupert George to Captain Moorsom_, _Secretary to Lord Mulgrave_ TRANSPORT OFFICE, 19_th March_ 1808. DEAR SIR, In answer to what is stated in Lord Fitzwilliam’s letter to Lord Mulgrave, I request you will inform his Lordship that the Bishop of Moulins was introduced to me by the Bishop of Montpellier, and at his request I prevailed on my colleagues to release a Prisoner of War from Norman Cross Prison to attend upon him; this, I am sorry to acknowledge, was irregular and unauthorised, but I was actuated by motives of humanity, as the Bishop complained that his finances were so limited that he could not afford to keep any servant of a different description. This should have influenced the Bishop to keep his servant from carrying on any improper traffic with the Prisoners; on the contrary he became the instrument of introducing straw, manufactured, to the Prisoners for the purpose of being made into hats, bonnets, etc., by which the Revenue of our country is injured, and the poor who exist by that branch of trade would be turned out of employ, as the prisoners who are fed, clothed, and lodged at the public expense would be able to undersell them. I must observe that this is the only article which the Prisoners are prevented from manufacturing. When the Bishop’s servant had established himself in this trade the Bishop wrote to me, that he had found means of getting his livelihood, and desired he might remain at large, and that another prisoner might be released to serve him, neither of which the Board thought proper to comply with, for the foregoing reasons; upon which the Bishop of Moulins complained to the Admiralty, who directed us to give such answer as the case called for.