Autograph letter signed : Dover, to Matthew Lewis, 1790 January 12.

Saying that, as Sir George Yonge (the current Secretary at War) wished, he had discharged one "W. Davy" immediately from the 29th Regiment; writing that Davy came to him the next day "to say that his Friends had made no Provision for his Expences, and that he had not a Shilling in the World -- I sent him off with 14 Days Pay in his Pocket; and I know that he proceeded towards Canterbury on Sunday the 3d inst. on his Way to Honiton altho I understand from a Comrade of his that he did not mean to take the shortest Road"; mentioning that he has notified Lord Harrington of Davy's dismissal; asking Lewis to bring to Yonge's attention the fact that this may have created a dangerous precedent: "[I]t lays the Commanding Officer of the 29th Regt. under some Embarrassment, and may probably produce many memorials and applications to the Secretary of War -- As there are numberless Requisitions on the same Subject from various Members of Parliament, and many of them Persons who certainly have a Right to expect to be listened to by His Majestys Ministers. These Gentlemen & Military Constituents will not fail to quote, and to urge the Precedent of Davy, which tho' of very little Consequence in itself would, as I am sure the Secretary of War need not be told it would, prove extreamly [sic] detrimental to His Majestys Service, if admitted; and would spread very fast."