Signed holograph draft of MINT00875 (Mint 19/1/464), also dated 1 March 1720/1

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To the Right Honourable the Lord Commissioners of his Majesties Treasury.

May it please your Lordships

In obedience to your Lordships order of Reference of 7th Ianry upon the Petition of Tho. Dearsly for a Reward for discovering several Presses sufficient for coining of money: I humbly represent that all the persons taken up on this Information, pleaded that they used those their Presses in their lawfull trades & in the opinion of the Attorney General this plea was a sufficient excuse & the Presses could not be destroyed without a suspicion of coining. And therefore the men have been set at liberty without a tryall & their Presses delivered back to them, except one or two which belonged to a person who fled & was suspected of coining. And by this escape the men are encouraged to go on. The law appoints Rewards in some cases for prosecuting to conviction: but I know of no Precedent for rewarding the Petitioner & feare the consequence of making new Precedents.

All which is most humbly submitted to your Lordships great wisdom.

[1]

Is. Newton