PHILLIP AND BOSS. 1790 A private letter. ApoUtio move. The Admiralty replies to Boas. consequences to Ross might have been very serious indeed. Instead of doing that^ he sent a semi-private letter to the Under Secretary, who was a personal friend, and added this sentence as a postscript : — " After reading this letter, which I have written in haste, and with a desire of explaining how little reason there has been for complaint, I think it appears so like a letter to justify my own conduct that I wish you only to lay the enclosed letters^ before L'd Sydney, and explain to his L'dship that the preamble in the Lieut. -Gov's letters was not noticed in my answer,! as I did not think it merited any attention." This was a judicious step on the part of Phillip. He knew that the letter was not one thatNepean could keep to himself, but that it must, in the regular order of things, be laid before the Secretary of State, and be brought nnder the notice of the Lords of the Admiralty, to whom Ross was immediately responsible ; and he also knew that coming in the way it did it would not necessarily lead to action on the part of either the Home Office or the naval authorities. In this way he justified his own conduct without making a case against the officer who had thwarted and embarrassed him so sorely. So far as can be ascertained, Nepean did not reply to Phillip's letter — ^no answer, in fact, was required. To Rosa's complaints, which were addressed to the Secretary of the Admiralty, a short reply was sent that " their Lordships are much concerned that any disagreement should have arisen between the Grovernor and yourself "; % and as Ross was to return to England by the vessel which carried this letter, he was informed that it was not deemed necessary to answer his communications minutely. It does not appear that any- thing was done in the matter after Ross arrived in England. • Boss's letter to Phillip, Collins's letter to Phillip, and Phillip's wply to Boss, referred to ante, pp. aS and 3. The letters are given in full in toL i, part 2, of the Historical Records, pp. 262-265. t Phillip refers here to Boss's allusion to " parties of pleasnre," of which he took no notice in his reply of 27th August. X Historical Becords, vol. ii| p. 445.
