I have deferred writing to you till I could tell you something certain of the fate of Admiral Byng:  no history was ever so extraordinary, or produced such variety of surprising turns.  In my last I told you that his sentence was referred to the twelve judges.  They have made law of that of which no man else could make sense.  The Admiralty immediately signed the warrant for his execution on the last of February—­that is, three signed:  Admiral Forbes positively refused, and would have resigned sooner.  The Speaker would have had Byng expelled the House, but his tigers were pitiful.  Sir Francis Dashwood tried to call for the court-martial’s letter, but the tigers were not so tender as that came to.  Some of the court-martial grew to feel as the execution advanced:  the city grew impatient for it.  Mr. Fox tried to represent the new ministry as compassionate, and has damaged their popularity.  Three of the court-martial applied on Wednesday last to Lord Temple to renew their solicitation for mercy.  Sir Francis Dashwood moved a repeal of the bloody twelfth article:  the House was savage enough; yet Mr. Doddington softened them, and not one man spoke directly against mercy.  They had nothing to fear:  the man,(767) who, of all defects, hates cowardice and avarice most, and who has some little objection to a mob in St. James’s street, has magnanimously forgot all the services of the great Lord Torrington.  On Thursday seven of the court-martial applied for mercy:  they were rejected.  On Friday a most strange event happened.  I was told at the House that Captain Keppel and Admiral Norris desired a bill to absolve them from their oath of secrecy, that they might unfold something very material towards saving the prisoner’s life.  I was out of Parliament myself during my re-election, but I ran to Keppel; he said he had never spoken in public, and could not, but would give authority to any body else.  The Speaker was putting the question for the orders of the day, after which no motion could be made:  it was Friday, the House would not sit on Saturday, the execution was fixed for Monday.  I felt all this in an instant, dragged Mr. Keppel to Sir Francis Dashwood, and he on the floor before he had taken his place, called out to the Speaker, and though the orders were passed, Sir Francis was suffered to speak.  The House was wondrously softened:  pains were taken to prove to Mr. Keppel that he might speak, notwithstanding his oath; but he adhering to it, he had time given him till next morning to consider and consult some of his brethren who had commissioned him to desire the bill.  The next day the King sent a message to our House, that he had respited Mr. Byng for a fortnight, till the bill could be passed, and he should know whether the Admiral was unjustly condemned.  The bill was read twice in our House that day, and went through the committee:  mr.  Keppel affirming that he had something, in his opinion, of weight to tell, and which it was material his Majesty