The New Hampshire Gazette And Historical Chronicle

LONDON, April 11.

YESTERDAY at one o'clock the Lord Mayor, accompanied by Alderman Bull, Sawbridge, Lewes, Hayley, Newnham, the City Remembrancer, Town-Clerk, and Mr. Silvester, a City Counsel, who officiated for the Recorder (he being indisposed) and the two Sheriffs, with about 36 Common-Councilmen and Liverymen, waited on his Majesty at St. James's, and presented the following Address, Remonstrance and Petition.

To the KING's most excellent Majesty.

The humble Address, Remonstrance, and Petition of the Lord-Mayor, Aldermen, and Livery of the City of London, in Common Hall assembled.

WE your Majesty's dutiful and loyal Subjects, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Livery of the City of London, beg Leave to approach the Throne, and to declare our abhorrence of the Measures which have been pursued, and are now pursuing, to the Oppression of our Fellow-Subjects in America. These Measures are big with all the Consequences which can alarm a free & commercial PEOPLE.

A deep, and perhaps fatal Wound to Commerce, the Ruin of Manufactures, the Diminution of the Revenue, & consequent Increase of Taxes, the Alienation of the Colonies, & the Blood of your Majesty's Subjects.

But your Petitioners look with less Horror at the Consequences than at the Purpose of those Measures. Not deceived by the specious Artifice of calling Despotism Dignity, they plainly perceive that the real Purpose is to establish arbitrary Power over all America.

Your Petitioners conceive the Liberties of the whole to be inevitably connected with those of every Part of an Empire founded on the common Rights of Mankind: They cannot therefore observe without the greatest Concern & Alarm, the Constitution fundamentally violated in any Part of your Majesty's Dominions. They esteem it an essential, unalterable Principle of Liberty, the Source and Security of all constitutional Rights, that no Part of the Dominion can be taxed without being represented. Upon this great leading Principle they most ardently wish to see their Fellow Subjects in America secured in what their humble Petition to your Majesty prays for Peace, Liberty, and Safety. Subordination in Commerce, under which the Colonies have always cheerfully acquiesced, is they conceive, all that this Country ought in Justice to require. From this Subordination such Advantages flow, by all the Profits of their Commerce centering here, as fully compensate this Nation for the Expence incurred, to which they also contribute in Men & Money for their Defence and Protection during a general War; and in their Provincial Wars they have manifested their Readiness & Resolution to defend themselves. To require more of them would for this Reason derogate from the Justice & Magnanimity, which have been hitherto the Pride & Character of this Country.

It is therefore with the deepest Concern, that we have seen the sacred Security of Representation in their Assemblies wrested from them, the Trial by Jury abolished, and the odious Powers of Excise extended to all Cases of Revenue; the Sanctuary of their Houses laid open to Violation at the Will and Pleasure of every Officer and Servant in the Customs; the Dispensations of Justice corrupted, by rendering their Judges dependent for their Seats and Salaries on the Will of the Crown; Liberty and Life rendered precarious by subjecting them to be dragged over the Ocean, and tried for Treason or Felony here, where the Distance making it impossible for the most guiltless to maintain his Innocence, must deliver him up a Victim to Ministerial Vengeance; Soldiers and others in America have been instigated to shed the Blood of the People, by Establishing a Mode of Tryal which holds out impunity for such Murder. The Capital of New-England has been punished with unexampled Rigour, untried and unheard, involving the Innocent and the Suspected in one common and inhuman Calamity; chartered Rights have been taken away without any Forfeiture proved, in order to deprive the People of every legal Exertion against Tyranny of their Rulers: the Habeas Corpus Act, and Trial by Jury have been suppressed, & French despotic Government, with the Roman Catholic Religion, have been established by Law over an extensive Part of your Majesty's Dominions in America; dutiful Petitions for Redress of these Grievances from all your Majesty's American Subjects have been fruitless.

To fill up the Measure of these Oppressions, an Army has been sent to enforce them. Super-added to this, Measures are now planned upon the most merciles Policy, of Starving our Fellow-Subjects into a total Surrender of their Liberties, and an unlimited Submission to arbitrary Government.

These Grievances have driven your Majesty's faithful Subjects to Despair, & compelled them to have Recourse to that Resistance, which is justified by the great Principles of the Constitution, actuated by which at the glorious Period of the Revolution our Ancestors transferred the imperial Crown of these Realms from the popish and Tyrannic Race of the Stuarts, to the illustrious House of Brunswick.

Your Petitioners are persuaded that these Measures originate in the secret Advice of Men who are Enemies equally to your Majesty's Title, and the Liberties of your People: That your Majesty's Ministers carry them into execution by the same fatal Corruption which has enabled them to wound the Peace, and violate the Constitution of this Country. Thus they poison the Fountain of public Security, and render that Body which should be the Guardian of Liberty, a formidable Instrument of arbitrary Power.

Your Petitioners do therefore most earnestly beseech your Majesty, to dismiss immediately, and forever from your Councils, these Ministers and Advisers, as the first Step towards a full Redress of those Grievances which alarm and afflict your whole People. So shall Peace and Commerce be restored, & the Confidence and Affection of all your Majesty's Subjects be the solid Supporters of your Throne.

His MAJESTY's Answer.

It is with the utmost Astonishment that I find any of my Subjects capable of encouraging the rebellious Disposition which unhappily exists in some of my Colonies in North-America. Having entire Confidence in the Wisdom of my Parliament, the great Council of the Nation, I will steadily pursue those Measures which they have recommended for the Support of the constitutional Rights of Great-Britain and the Protection of the commercial Interests of my Kingdoms.