The Virginia Gazette

Nov. 21. It is said that a large body of merchants of the city of London, who have long been sufferers by the disputes between Great Britain and her colonies in America, intend to lay their case before the House of Commons at the next meeting of Parliament, in order to be indemnified against the apparent consequences of those disputes; and the application seems reasonable. The merchants here, relying on the faith of the charters granted to the colonies, were tempted to risk their fortunes in America, not suspecting they ran any risk that the trade in those parts could ever be stopped, whatever disputes the colonists might have with our Ministry; they have now seen the port of Boston shut up, and a total stagnation of trade among the Americans, who are subjects to Great Britain: and whatever may be the merits of the dispute, it is certain that a large body of merchants in London, and all over the kingdom, are almost reduced to a state of bankruptcy by the measures which the Ministry have thought proper to adopt: their goods which are abroad are prevented from coming to England, and they cannot receive remittances for the goods which they have from time to time shipped to their correspondents abroad; so that unless the sufferers here are indemnified by the Parliament, the confidence which has hitherto subsisted between the American and British merchants will be weakened, even after the present disputes are subsided, to the no small detriment of a trade which has brought upwards of two millions sterling annually into the British treasury.