The Virginia Gazette

May 25. Wednesday the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, attended by the three Aldermen, Stevenson, Trecothick, and Crosby, and the two Sheriffs, together with the city officers, and seventy five of the Common Council, went, in about 50 coaches, to St. James's, in order to present to his Majesty a second address, petition, and remonstrance. Mr. Wilkes did not attend on this occasion.

At one o'clock they set out in procession, and at two reached the palace. The King was seated in his chair of state, with all the officers of state, Nobility, &c. about him. The remonstrance was read to his Majesty by Sir James Hodges (the Recorder not attending) of which the following's a true copy:

To the KING's Most Excellent Majesty.

"When your Majesty's most faithful subjects, the citizens of London, whose loyalty and affection has been so often and to effectually proved and experienced by the illustrious House of Brunswick, are labouring under the weight of that displeasure...
which your Majesty has been advised to lay upon them, in the answer given from the Throne to their late humble application, we find ourselves constrained, with all humility, to approach the royal father of his people.

Conscious, Sire, of the purest sentiments of veneration which they entertain for your Majesty's person, we are deeply concerned that what the law allows, and the constitution teaches, hath been misconstrued into disrespect to your Majesty by the instruments of that influence which shakes the realm.

Perplexed and astonished as we are, by the awful sentence of censure lately passed upon the citizens of London in your Majesty's answer from the Throne, we cannot, without surrendering all that is dear to Englishmen, forbear most humbly to supplicate that your Majesty will deign to grant a more favourable interpretation to this dutiful, though persevering, claim to our invaded birth rights; nothing doubting that the benignity of your Majesty's nature will, to our unspeakable comfort, at length break through all the secret and visible machinations to which the city of London owes its late severe repulse, and that your kingly justice, and fatherly tenderness, will discern the malignant and pernicious advice which suggested the answer we deplore, an advice of most dangerous tendency, inasmuch as thereby the exercise of the clearest rights of the subject (namely, to petition the King for redress of grievances, to complain of the violation of the freedom of election, and to pray dissolution of Parliament, to point out malpractices in Administration, and to urge the removal of evil Ministers) hath, under the generality of one compendious word, been indiscriminately checked with reprimand, and your Majesty's afflicted citizens of London have heard, from the Throne itself, that the contents of their humble address, remonstrance, and petition, laying their complaints and injuries at the feet of their sovereign, cannot but be considered by your Majesty as disrespectful to yourself, injurious to your Parliament, and irreconcilable to the principles of the constitution.

Your Majesty cannot disapprove that we here assert the clearest principles of the constitution, against the insidious attempt of evil counsellors to perplex, confound, and shake them. We are determined to abide by those rights and liberties, which our forefathers bravely vindicated at the ever memorable Revolution, and which their sons will always resolutely defend. We therefore now renew, at the foot of the Throne, our claim to the indispensable right of the subject, a full, free, and unmutilated Parliament, legally chosen in all its members, a right which this House of Commons have manifestly violated, depriving, at their will and pleasure, the county of Middlesex of one of its legal representatives, and arbitrarily nominating, as a Knight of the Shire, a person not elected by a majority of the freeholders. As the only constitutional means of reparation now left for the injured electors of Great Britain, we implore, with most urgent supplications, the dissolution of this present Parliament, the removal of evil Ministers, and the total extinction of that fatal influence which has caused such national discontent.

In the mean time, Sire, we offer our constant prayers to Heaven that your Majesty may reign, as Kings can only reign, in and by the hearts of a loyal, dutiful, and free people."

To which his Majesty, seated on the throne, read the following answer:

"I should have been wanting to the publick, as well as to myself, if I had not expressed my dissatisfaction at the late address.

My sentiments on that subject continue the same; and I should ill deserve to be considered as the father of my people if I could suffer myself to be prevailed upon to make such an use of my prerogative as I cannot but think inconsistent with the interest, and dangerous to the constitution, of the kingdom."

The Right Hon. the Lord Mayor then addressed his Majesty, in the following words:

"Most gracious sovereign,

Will your Majesty be pleased so far to condescend as to permit the Mayor of your loyal city of London to declare in your royal presence, on behalf of his fellow citizens, how much the bare apprehension of your Majesty's displeasure would, at all times, affect their minds; the declaration of that displeasure has already filled them with inexpressible anxiety, and with the deepest affliction.

Permit me, Sire, to assure your Majesty that your Majesty has not, in all your dominions, any subjects more faithful, more dutiful, or more affectionate to your Majesty's person and family, or more ready to sacrifice their lives and fortunes in the maintenance of the true honour and dignity of your crown.

We do therefore, with the greatest humility and submission, most earnestly supplicate your Majesty that you will not dismiss us from your presence without expressing a more favourable opinion of your faithful citizens, and without some comfort, without some prospect at least of redress.

Permit me, Sire, farther to observe, that whoever has already dared, or shall hereafter endeavour, by false insinuations and suggestions, to alienate your Majesty's affections from your loyal subjects in general, and from the city of London in particular, and to withdraw your confidence in and regard for your people, is an enemy to your Majesty's person and family, a violator of the publick peace, and a betrayer of our happy constitution, as it was established at the glorious and necessary Revolution."

After the delivery of the remonstrance, on Wednesday, at St. James's, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Common Council, &c. had the honour of kissing his Majesty's hand.