The New Hampshire Gazette

BOSTON, May 19.

The following Address was presented to His Excellency the Governor on Saturday the 17th Inst. signed by upwards of One Hundred and Fifty Merchants and others.

The ADDRESS of the Merchants and others, trading in the Town of Boston.
To His Excellency Thomas Pownall, Esq:
Captain General and Commander in Chief, in and over His Majesty's Province of the Massachusetts-Bay, in New England, and Vice Admiral of the same.

May it please your Excellency,

The happy Influence of your Administration. while it has extended itself to every Branch of the public Interest, has been too sensibly felt by the Merchants and others concerned in Trade, to allow us to part with your Excellency, without the most particular Acknowledgments of Gratitude and Respect.

Amidt your various and important Engagements, you have with the kindest Care attended to the Exigences of Commerce, and avoided every Detention that might prove detrimental to it. With great Prudence you have answered the Demand of Seamen for His Majesty's Service ; and yet preserved us from the Burden of Naval Impresses : a Burden which we have sometimes severely felt : Nor has any Thing in your Excellency's Power been wanting. that might prevent, or soften and alleviate the Inconveniencies and Hardships to which Trade is exposed in a Time of War. These are some of the Benefits of your Administration, which we cannot soon forget, nor remember without the warmest Sense of our Obligation to your Excellency.

It is far from being improbable that Opportunities will meet You. tho' at a Distance from Us, of promoting the Welfare of this Province, particularly its Commercial Interest. And we cannot but indulge the pleasing Hopes that your Excellency, sensible of some peculiar Disadvantages and Pressures that now lie upon Trade, will ever be ready to express your kind and favourable Regard. to a People who follow you with their ardent Wishes for the Safety of your Person. and the Success and Splendor of your public Employments.

To which ADDRESS His Excellency was pleas'd to return the following Answer.

Gentlemen,

I THANK you for this obliging Address-I have always viewed the Colonies as establish'd in order to extend the Trade as well as the Dominions of the Mother Country ; and have therefore always in that View thought it my Duty as Governor to promote the Interest of Trade here. I have seen with Concern the Embarrassment with which it is entangled, and the Difficulties under which it labours, especially in Time of War. and have therefore done every Thing in my Power, within my own Department, to ease and relieve it : And I will never omit any Opportunity that any future Situation may give me to serve this Town and Province, in their true Commercial Interest.