formerly been a fellow Student with Dr Lee in Edinburgh; and although
he brought no Letters from him, he made an Advantage of the old
Connection, and addressd himself to Richard Henry Lee Esqr, the Doctors
Brother & a Member of Congress, who from the Beginning of our Contest
has been exceedingly obnoxious to our Enemies from his firm &
invariable Attachment to our Cause. Dr Berkenhout was put into Prison
by the Authority of this State on Suspicion, and afterwards dischargd
for Want of Evidence against him. Perhaps he sufferd the more, from a
certain Set of Men for valueing himself on Colo Lee; and the Colo
himself has since sufferd the Reproach of an angry Writer and
disappointed Man, for shewing Civility to a Person who was once
acquainted with his Brother. So true is the Observation I have
somewhere met with, that a Man hardly ever speaks with another, but
sooner or later he finds that he has receivd Good or Harm from it.

Had Mr Temple arrivd at that Juncture, I do verily believe he would
have shared the Fate of Berkenhout. And the Testimonials he has since
brought with him, added to the warm Recommendations of some of my most
virtuous and honorable Fellow Citizens have not been sufficient to
obtain for him a welcome Reception. The Time & Manner of his leaving
England, the Company he came with and the favorable Treatment he met
with in New York, were judgd to be Grounds of Suspicion which more than
balanced the Recommendations of his Friends & Countrymen, who, though
acknowledgd to be very respectable, it was supposd, might possibly be
partial in their Judgments of him. His Connections in Boston, & the
Character he had sustaind there before he left that Place, it was said,
made him the fittest Instrument to carry into Effect the Purposes of
the British Ministers. The honest and zealous Whigs clamord against him
because they imagind him to be a British Emissary; and the artful
Tories, who would cordially receive such a Character into the Bosom of