The Committee reported an Answer to the Governor's Meffages of the 21st and 24th of June, which was accepted by a large Majority, and is as follows.

A Meffage from the Affembly to the Governor, June 30, 1768.

May it please your Excellency, THE houfe of reprefentatives of this his Majefty's ancient and loyal province of the Maffachufets Bay have with the greatest deliberation confidered your meffages of the 21ft and 24th inftant, with the feveral extracts from the letter of the right hon. the earl of Hillsborough, his majefty's principal fecretary of ftate for North American affairs, dated the 22d of April laft, which your excellency has thought fit to communicate. We have alfo received the written answer which your exceldency was pleafed to give the committee of this houfe directed to wait on you the 29th inftant with a meffage humbly requesting a recefs, that the members might be favoured with an opportunity to confult their conftituents at this important crifis, when a direct and peremptory requifition is made of a new and ftrange constructure, and fo ftrenuously urged, viz. That we fhould immediately refcind the refolution of the last house to tranfmit circular letters to the other British colonies on the continent of North America, barely intimating a defire that they would join in fimilar dutiful and loyal petitions to our most gracious fovereign, for the redress of the grievances occafioned by fundry late acts of parliament calculated for the fole purpofe of raifing a revenue in America, We have moft diligently revifed not only the faid refolution, but also the circular letter written and fent in confequence thereof, and after all, -they both appear to us, to be conceived in terms not only prudent and moderate in themfelves, but respectful to the authority of that truly auguft body the parliament of GreatBritain, and very dutiful and loyal in regard to his majefty's facred perfon, crown, and dig nity; of all which we entertain fentiments of the highest reverence and most ardent affection, and fhould we ever depart from these fentiments, we must ftand felf-condemned, as unworthy the name of British fubjects defcended from British ancestors, intimately allied and connected in interefts and inclination with our fellow-fubjects the commons of Great-Britain. We cannot but exprefs our deep concern, that a measure of the late house, in all refpects fo innocent, in molt fo virtuous and laudable, and, VOL. I

as we conceive, fo truly patriotic, fhould have been represented to administration in the odious light of a party, and factious measure, and that pushed through by reverting in a thin affembly had been rejected. It was, and is, a house to, and re-confidering, what in a full matter of notoriety, that more than eighty members were prefent at the reconfideration of that vote against application to the other colonies. The vote of re-confideration was obtained by a large majority; it is, or ought to be well known, that the prefence of eighty members makes a full house, this number being just double to that by the royal charter of the province required to conftitute the third branch of our colony legislature.

Your excellency might have been very eafily informed, if you was not, that the measures of the late house in regard to fundry acts of the late parliament for the fole purpose of raifing a North American revenue, were generally carried by three to one; and we dare appeal to your excellency for the truth of this affertion, namely, that there were many perfons in the majority, in all views, as refpectable as the very best of the minority. Nay fo far from any finifter views, were the committee of the late house appointed and directed to take into their moft ferious confideration the then prefent ftate of the province, from going into any rafh or precipitate meafures, that they for fome days actually delayed their first report, which was a letter to Mr. Agent De Berdt, on this candid and generous principle, that those who were reasonably prefuppofed to be most warmly attached to all your excellency's measures, efpecially thofe for furthering, and by all means enforcing, the acts for levying aNorth American revenue, might be prefent, and a more equal conteft enfue. It would be incredible fhould any one affert, that your excellency wanted a true information of all these things, which were not done or defired to be hid in a corner, but were notoriously transacted in the open light at noon-day. It is to us altogether incomprehenfible that we fhould be required on the peril of a diffolution of the great and general court or affembly of this province, to refcind a refolution of a former houfe of reprefentatives, when 'tis evident that refolution has no exiftence but a mere hiftorical fact.

Your excellency muft know, that the refolution referred to, is, to speak in the language of the common law, not now executory, but to all intents and purpofes executed. The circular letters have been fent, and many of them have

been

been answered: these answers are now in the public papers; the public, the world muft and will judge of the propofals, purposes, and the answers. We could as well refcind those letters as the refolves, and both would be equally fruitless; if by refcinding, as the word properly imports, is meant a repeal and nullifying of the refolution referred to but if, as is most probable, by the word refcinding is intended the paffing a vote of this houfe in direct and exprefs difapprobation of the measures abovementioned, as illegal, inflammatory, and nding to promote unjustifiable combinations against his majefty's 'peace, crown, and dignity, we must take the liberty to teftify, and publicly to declare, that we take it to be the native, inherent, and indefeasible right of the fubject, jointly or fezerally, to petition the king for the redrefs of grievances: provided always, that the fame be done in a decent, dutiful, loyal, and conftitutional way, without tumult, diforder, or confufion. We are alfo humbly, but clearly and very firmly of opinion, that the petition of the late dutiful and loyal houfe to his majefty, and their other very orderly applications for the redrefs of grievances, have had the most defirable tendencies and effects to keep men's minds in ease and quiet. We must be excused in thinking, that the people were in truth patiently waiting for the meeting of the new parliament, their meafures, and his majesty's pleafure: and it is probable that they would every where have thus waited for the great event; had it not been revealed here that the late provincial applications for redress of grievances were fome how ftrangely obftructed, and the province, in confequence of misinformation and mifreprefentation, most unfortunately fallen under the royal difpleafure: and to complete this miffortune, it was not only divulged to the other colonies, but fome of them actually received the information before it was made known here, that the houfe had been accufed to his majefty, or his minifter, or fallen under the difpleasure of the one, or the cenfure of the other.

On the whole, Sir, we will confider his most facred majesty, under God, as our king, and beft protector, and common father; and fhall ever bear him true and faithful allegiance. We also regard your excellency as the reprefentative of the greatest potentate on earth, and at all times have, fo far as could confift with the important purposes of preferving life, liberty, and property, been moft ready and willing to treat you with all that refpect justly due to your high rank and station. But we are contrained to fay, that we are difagreeably convinced that your excellency entertains not that parental regard for the welfare of the good people of this province, which you have fome times been pleafed to profefs, and which you

have at all times an irrefragable right to expect from their governor. Your excellency has thought fit not only to deny us a recefs to confult our conftituents, in regard to the prefent requifition, but hath affured us, in effect, that you fhall take filence, at least a delay, not, as ufual, for a confent, but for a denial. You have alfo thought fit to inform us, that you cannot think yourself at liberty, in cafe of the diffolution of this, to call another affembly, without the exprefs orders of his majesty for that purpose: at the fame time your excellency has been pleafed to affure us, that you have communicated the whole of lord Hilliborough's letter, and your inftructions, so far as relates to the requifition.--In all this, however, we cannot find that your excellency is more than directed to diffolve the prefent aflembly, in cafe of a non-compliance on the part of the house. If the votes of the houfe are to be controuled by the direction of a minifter, we have left us but a vain semblance of liberty. We know it to be the juft prerogative of the crown, at pleasure, to diffolve a parliament: We are alfo fenfible that, confiftently with the great charter of this province, your excellency when you fhall think fit, with or without the intervention of the minifter, can diffolve the great and general court of this colony, and that without the leaft obligation to convene another within the year. But fhould it ever grow in ufe for any ill-difpofed governor of the province, by means of a mistaken or wilfully wrong ftate of facts, to procure orders for a diffolution, that fame charter will be of no value.

We take this opportunity faithfully and firmly to reprefent to your excellency, that the new revenue acts and meafures are not only difagreeable to, but in every view are deemed an infupportable burthen and grievance, with a very few exceptions, by all the freeholders and other inhabitants of this jurifdiction; and we beg leave, once for all, to affure your excellency, that thofe of this opinion are of no party or expiring faction. They have at all times been ready to devote their lives and fortunes to his majesty's fervice. Of loyalty this majority could as reasonably boast as any who may happen to enjoy your excellency's fmiles: Their reputation, rank, and fortune, are at leaft equal to thofe who may have been sometimes confidered as the only friends to good government, while fome of the best blood of the colony, even in two houfes of affembly lawfully convened, and duly acting, have been openly charged with the unpardonable crime of oppugnation against the royal authority. We have now only to inform your excellency, that this houfe have voted not to refcind, as required, the refolution of the last house, and that, on a divifion of the queftion, there were 92 nays and 17 yeas. In all this we have been

actuated