Autograph letter signed with initials : Auchinleck and Edinburgh, to [William Johnson] Temple, 1780 Sept. 3-Nov. 3.

Expressing disappointment that Temple did not visit him in Scotland over the summer; hoping they can meet in London next spring; asking him to repay a debt if it is convenient, but adding that he is "not dunning" him; describing his summer and giving an account of his brother David's character and plans; writing, "if you have money matters to transact in London, I beg you may employ [David]"; lamenting his father's "unmelting coldness to [his] wife and children"; wishing his father would give him £400 a year instead of £300; asking Temple about his current studies and what he is writing; commenting on the government: "It is shocking to think that a new Parliament is returned, which will be as subservient to Ministry as the last. I agree with you sincerely, my friend, that it would be better to be a Lord of Session, with an unblemished character, than a Peer and Lord Chief Justice by such means as these promotions have been attained. I would not have been one of those who rejected the petitions from America, -- no, not for half the British Empire. Yet I am a Tory still, for I distinguish between our limited Monarch and a despotic Ministry."