from serving as representatives in general assembly.

"We humbly pray that the elections for the representatives of the people may be triennial, may be by ballot, and that the day of election triennially may be fixed by law, and that every officer of government be particularly prohibited from interfering in elections under severe and heavy penalties.

"We humbly pray, that the judges of the supreme court of this province may have their commissions during good behaviour, in the same manner as in England.

"We humbly pray, that after the decease of the present judges, that all future judges may be appointed in England, and may not be natives of this province; we can trace the present unhappy disorders in America to the want of a regulation of this kind.

"We humbly request your Majesty will graciously permit the legislature of this province to ascertain the number and boundaries of the several counties in this province.

"Most gracious King, grant and permit us a sheriff in each and every county, and deliver us from a provost marshal, presiding over this whole province, whose influence, owing to the nature of his office and the number of his deputies, must be excessive, and whose power in elections is absolute: if we are not relieved in this particular, we can have no pretensions even to the name of freemen.

"We humbly pray, that your Majesty will graciously permit and order, that a recorder of deeds and conveyances be appointed in each and every county, and not a deputy to a principal residing elsewhere.

"Our gracious King cannot be insensible of the great necessity there is that the most respectable persons in the community be appointed to the commissions of the peace; legal authority unless aided by the good opinion of the people, can have but little effect; probably the reason why the most respectable persons decline the office, is, because they are liable to be dismissed unheard, the want of power in the magistrates to execute or enforce the laws has been a general complaint in America.

"We humbly pray, that the governor, council, and judges of the supreme court may constitute a court of vice admiralty throughout the province, to determine all

causes cognizable in such courts, agreeable to law and equity, and to receive no fees therefore.

"We humble pray, that any two or more of the judges of the supreme court, and a jury ballotted for and struck by the parties, shall constitute a court of equity in all civil cases throughout this province, subject only to appeals to his Majesty in council, where the property contested may amount to 500l. sterling, or upwards.

"We humbly pray to be delivered from the oppression of practitioners in the law, and pray that in all civil actions their fees, charges and perquisites, may be limited to 5 per cent. on all sums declared for or defended; it is not the desire of our good King to have his quiet and inoffensive subjects in this quarter of the globe given up to be persecuted by a few rapacious men.

"Most benign King, your Majesty was graciously pleased to grant tracts of land in this province, upon various conditions of settlement and payment of quit-rents, many of the conditions of settlement were impracticable, and others so expensive that the grantees were not able fully to effect them, we humbly pray to be exonerated from those severe conditions, and that you will graciously limit the power of the court of escheats to defaults in the payment of the quit-rent only.

"This house is sorry to observe that most cruel use has been made of this power of escheating land, even to the depriving of two old officers of the gratuity given them by your Majesty for near forty years of military service, and that to gratify two domestics of that governor who ordered the escheatment; and at this time a tract of land is advertised to be escheated, on which the proprietors have laid out near 4,000l.

Finally, we most humbly request that the assembly of this province may be called together annually, and that no governor may be allowed to dissolve or prorogue them when he shall be informed that they are preparing a petition to our gracious King and parliament of Great Britain.

"Most gracious sovereign, we have unhappily experienced that the redress of our grievances, and those requested regulations could not come from us in the constitutional mode of laws which must have passed a council, some of them without property in the province or interest in our welfare.

"May the God of all goodness shower

we shall, on the fullest information we can obtain, and with the most mature deliberation we can employ, review the whole of the late proceedings, that we may be enabled to discover, as we shall be most willing to apply, the most effectual means for restoring order to the distracted affairs of the British empire, confidence to his Majesty's government, obedience, by a prudent and temperate use of its powers, to the authority of parliament, and satisfaction and happiness to all his people. "By these means, we trust, we shall avoid any occasion for having recourse to the alarming and dangerous expedient of calling in foreign forces to the support of his Majesty's authority within his own dominions, and the still more dreadful calamity of shedding British blood by British hands."

The Earl of Coventry asserted the authority of the supreme legislature over the colonies, but condemned, in express terms, the madness and absurdity of expecting to reduce them by mere measures of coercion, so as to answer any one rational purpose of sovereignty, commerce, or finance. He told the noble lords in office, that they had no alternative left, but either to relinquish all connection with the colonies, or to adopt conciliatory measures; the idea of conquering them was wild and extravagant; he said, even in the event of victory; because, if they should be vanquished, they would be worth nothing to the mother country; and would besides call for such a standing military force to keep them in subjection, as we could never be able to support. In short, the whole of his argument went to this; the hazard of failing in the attempt to reduce them; the little value they would be of when conquered; and above all, the inability of Great Britain to retain, for any considerable time, such a species of dominion; put in the opposite scale against the innumerable advantages we must immediately forego in such a contest, and the substantial benefits we must continue to reap from a state of tranquillity, reciprocal good temper, and mutual confi

dence.

The Earl of Rochford said, he had every reason, as well from repeated assurances as from the real disposition of the courts of Madrid and Versailles, to be perfectly satisfied, that there was nothing to be dreaded from that quarter, there being at present a perfect good correspondence subsisting between those courts

and Great Britain. His lordship concluded with ridiculing the absurdity of supposing that France and Spain would interfere in the disputes under consideration; remarking, that it was by no means the prevailing policy of the House of Bourbon, to set so dangerous an example to their subjects in the new world, by assisting the British colonies to shake off the dominion of the mother country.

The Duke of Grafton condemned the measures recommended in the Speech, and the conduct of administration during the last twelve months. The Amendment did not entirely meet his ideas, he therefore could not vote for it; but he should certainly give the Address itself a negative. His general sentiments respecting America were well known; he should not therefore take up their lordships' time in explaining them. It was true, he had supported administration, but it was upon a general idea, that means of conciliation might be derived and adopted; he expressed his ignorance of the true state of America, and asserted he had been misled and deceived; for that reason chiefly, he could not think of concurring any longer in measures of which he never really approved; but to which he lent his countenance, in expectation that the stronger government was, the more likely matters were to be amicably adjusted. He had a proposition which, with their lordships' leave, he would submit to the House. He knew it could not originate with their lordships, as it must come through the other House, because it would affect the revenue. Perhaps, said his grace, it will not gain your approbation entirely this night; but, believe me, you will like it better to-morrow, and still better in three days hence. It will daily grow in your esteem. In a fortnight, I promise you, it will have more friends, until at length it will gain universal assent and approbation. The proposition is only this; to bring in a Bill for repealing every Act, I think there are thirteen, which has been passed in this country since the year 1763, relative to America. This, I will venture to assert, will answer every end; and nothing less will accomplish any ef fectual purpose, without scenes of ruin and destruction, which I cannot think on without the utmost grief and horror. But, my lords, though I had entertained a contrary opinion to what I do, I could by no means consent to agree with this Address in the form it is now presented. I con

fess I could not, at any time within my recollection, venture, either in conscience or judgment, to give it my support. The necessity of hiring foreign troops, for garrisoning our two valuable and important fortresses, is not accompanied with sufficient information to justify so extraordinary and unprecedented an act. It is indeed accompanied by none. Besides, this Address takes in the whole of the measures to be adopted, without a single fact being stated, or a tittle of information given, to point out their rectitude or necessity. We do not know the extent of the expences we may be put to, the general outline of the operations intended, nor the various consequences we may bind ourselves to by such an engagement. In fine, my lords, if I were not truly touched by the present very critical situation of this country, I had a sufficient apology for absenting myself, on account of a very indifferent state of health; if I were not convinced, that silence in my situation would be construed into acquiescence, if not direct approbation. But I trust your lordships will credit me, and I am convinced that my brethren in office are satisfied, that nothing but the most full and perfect conviction of my being in the right could prevail on me, under the circumstances before alluded to, to attend thus early in the session to give my vote; nor shall my indisposition prevent me from answering what I look upon as the strongest call of duty; for should it continue to increase, I pledge myself to your lordships and my country, that, if necessity should require it, and my health not otherwise permit it, I mean to come down to this House in a litter, in order to express my full and hearty disapprobation of the measures now pursuing; and, as I understand from the noble lords in office, meant to be pursued. I do protest to your lordships, that if my brother or my dearest friend were to be affected by the vote I mean to give this evening, I could not possibly resist the faithful discharge of my conscience and my duty. Were I to lose my fortune, and every other thing I esteem; were I to be reduced to beggary itself, the strong conviction and compulsion at once operating on my mind and conscience, would not permit me to take any other part on the present occasion, than that I now mean to adopt.

The Earl of Sandwich remarked, that the framers and supporters of the Amend ment, after stating the facts, that the dis

orders in America had rather increased than diminished, instead of assigning the causes that followed this assertion, should have assigned the only true cause, which was the open and avowed support and countenance given to the rebels, by men, who under a pretended regard for their country, encouraged, from the worst mo tives, an unnatural rebellion against the executive and legislative powers of the state, and the undoubted rights of the people of this country. In answer to some strictures made by the noble duke who spoke last, he defended the conduct of the naval officer who commanded on the American station, and seemed to hint some degree of censure upon the operations on shore. He confessed, that things were much altered, and that it was neces sary to considerably augment our navy; that be had already taken every precaution in his power; that the armament of last year had consisted of thirty armed vessels of different sizes, two of them two decked vessels; that twenty were actually sailed, or were ready to sail to reinforce them; and that it was the intention of administration to complete the number, by the time that operations were to commence, to seventy vessels, which would be such a force co-operating with the army, as would render it impossible for the Americans either to resist, keep together, or subsist; as they would have at once all the calamities of a war to contend with, without the means of carrying it on; being thus cut off from all supplies they might expect to derive from Europe, or elsewhere. His lordship confessed, that administration had been deceived in some measure; yet he thought it necessary now to declare, that it was his own private opinion, that the stronger the navy was, the more effectual their operations would be. He saw the matter very evidently in that light; but it was generally believed, if a larger force had been demanded, it would have raised an opposition to the measures at large; and this was one very powerful motive for his not explaining his own ideas so fully as otherwise he was most certainly disposed to do. It was fashionable to cry up the prowess and intrepidity of the Americans; but in his opinion, if they had betrayed any proofs of cowardice and want of spirit formerly, nothing had yet happened on their part, sufficient to wipe off the aspersion; for it had ever been a received opinion, that an army entrenched are at least equal to three times their