[Copy] New York Novem^r 10 1785 Sir I have received your letter of requesting an Conversation, as whether you are bound to answer the demands of Creditors in cases of those Officers or Soldiers whose money you had in your hands— In this Affair I look on myself bound by the laws of the Country and that I must pay the sums due to the Army in a legal manner— you are also I conceive bound to the same rules and all the laws that respect a lender or agent respect you, and if you as such would be obliged to hold money in your hands belonging to another for the benefit of a Creditor without more— but as this question is a question of Law, I can give no directions on it, as no orders of mine can or ought to supersede the general rules of practice and of Law of the Land. [L^t Beatty]