at the citizens of the United
States, entering the ports of Great Britain, in pursuit of a lawful
commerce, shall be protected by the laws of hospitality in usage among
nations.

It is represented to the President of the United States, that Hugh
Purdie, a native of Williamsburg in Virginia, was, in the month of
July last, seized in London by a party of men, calling themselves
press-officers, and pretending authority from their government so to
do, notwithstanding his declarations and the evidence he offered of his
being a native citizen of the United States; and that he was transferred
on board the Crescent, a British ship of war, commanded by a Captain
Young. Passing over the intermediate violences exercised on him,
because not peculiar to his case (so many other American citizens having
suffered the same), I proceed to the particular one which distinguishes
the present representation. Satisfactory evidence having been produced
by Mr. John Brown Cutting, a citizen of the United States, to the Lords
of the Admiralty, that Hugh Purdie was a native citizen of the same
States, they, in their justice, issued orders to the Lord Howe, their
Admiral, for his discharge. In the mean time, the Lord Howe had sailed
with the fleet of which the Crescent was.

But, on the 27th of August, he wrote to the board of admiralty, that
he had received their orders for the discharge of Hugh Purdie, and had
directed it accordingly. Notwithstanding these orders, the receipt of
which at sea Captain Young acknowledges, notwithstanding Captain Young's
confessed knowledge that Hugh Purdie was a citizen of the United States,
from whence it resulted that his being carried on board the Crescent
and so long detained there had been an act of wrong, which called for
expiatory conduct and attentions, rather than new injuries on his part
towards the sufferer, instead of discharging him, according to the
orders he had received, on his arrival in port, which was on the 14th
of September, he, on the 15th, confined him in irons for several hours,
then had him bound and scourged in presence of the ship's crew, under
a threat to the executioner, that if he did not do his duty well, he
should take the place of the sufferer. At length he discharged him
on the 17th, without the means of subsistence for a single day. To
establish these facts, I enclose you copies of papers communicated to
me by Mr. Cutting, who laid the case of Purdie before the board of
admiralty