I.-Page 134. Petition to the House of Commons, from the Convention at New York. Most humbly sheweth, The Petition of, &c. THAT the several late acts of parliament, imposing divers duties and taxes on the colonies, and laying the trade and commerce thereof under very burthensome restrictions, but above all, the act for granting and applying certain stamp duties, &c. in America, have filled them with the deepest concern and surprise; and they humbly conceive the execution of them will be attended with consequences very injurious to the commercial interest of Great Britain and her colonies, and must terminate in the eventual ruin of the latter. Your petitioners, therefore, most ardently implore the attention of the honourable house to the united and dutiful representation of their circumstances, and to their earnest supplications for relief from those regulations which have already involved this continent in anxiety, confusion, and distress. We most sincerely recognise our allegiance to the crown, and acknowledge all due subordination to the parliament of Great Britain, and shall always retain the most grateful sense of their assistance and protection. It is from and under the English constitution we derive all our civil and religious rights and liberties: we glory in being subjects of the best of kings, and having been born under the most perfect form of government; but it is with most ineffable and humiliating sorrow that we find ourselves, of late, deprived of the right of granting our own property for his majesty's service, to which our lives and fortunes are entirely devoted, and to which, on his royal requisitions, we have ever been ready to contribute to the utmost of our abilities. We have also the misfortune to find that all the penalties and forfeitures mentioned in the stamp act, and in divers late acts of trade, extending to the plantations, are, at the election of the informer, recoverable in any court of admiralty in America. This, as the newly erected court of admiralty has a general jurisdiction over all British America, renders his majesty's subjects in these colonies liable to be carried, at an immense expense, from one end of the continent to the other. It gives us also great pain to see a manifest distinction made therein between the subjects of our mother country, and those in the colonies, in that the like penalties and forfeitures recoverable there only in his majesty's court of record, are made cognizable here by a court of admiralty: by these means we seem to be, in effect, unhappily deprived of two privileges essential to freedom, and which all Englishmen have ever considered as their best birthrights, that of being free from all taxes but such as they have consented to in person, or by their representatives, and of trial by their peers. Your petitioners further shew, that the remote situation and other circumstances of the colonies, render it impracticable that they should be represented, but in their respective subordinate legislature; and they humbly conceive that the parliament, adhering strictly to the principles of the constitution, have never hitherto taxed any but those who were actually therein represented; for this reason, we humbly apprehend, they never have taxed Ireland, or any other of the subjects without the realm. But were it ever so clear that the colonies might in law be reasonably deemed to be represented in the honourable house of commons, yet we conceive that very good reasons, from inconvenience, from the principles of true policy, and from the spirit of the British constitution, may be adduced to shew that it would be for the real interest of Great Britain, as well as her colonies, that the late regulations should be rescinded, and the several acts of parliament imposing duties and taxes on the colonies, and extending the jurisdiction of the courts of admiralty here beyond their ancient limits, should be repealed. We shall not attempt a minute detail of all the reasons which the wisdom of the honourable house may suggest on this occasion, but would humbly submit the following particulars to their consideration. That money is already become very scarce in these colonies, and is still decreasing, by the necessary exportation of specie from the continent for the discharge of our debts to British merchants. That an immensely heavy debt is yet due from the colonies for British manufactures, and that they are still heavily burthened with taxes to discharge the arrearages due for aids granted by them in the late war. That the balance of trade will ever be much against the colonies, and in favour of Great Britain, whilst we consume her manufactures, the demand for which must ever increase in proportion to the number of inhabitants settled here, with the means of purchasing them. We therefore humbly conceive it to be the interest of Great Britain to increase, rather than diminish those means; as the profits of all the trade of the colonies ultimately centre there to pay for her manufactures, as we are not allowed to purchase elsewhere; and by the consumption of which, at the advanced prices the British taxes oblige the makers and venders to set on them, we eventually contribute very largely to the revenue of the crown. That That from the nature of American business, the multiplicity of suits and papers used in matters of small value, in a country where freeholds are so minutely divided, and property so frequently transferred, a stamp duty must ever be very burthensome and unequal. That it is extremely improbable, that the honourable house of commons should at all times be thoroughly acquainted with our condition, and all facts requisite to a just and equal taxation of the colonies. It is also humbly submitted, whether there be not a material distinction, in reason and sound policy at least, between the necessary exercise of parliamentary jurisdiction in general acts for the amendment of the common law, and the regulation of trade and commerce through the whole empire, and the exercise of that jurisdiction by imposing taxes on the colonies. That the several subordinate provincial legislatures have been moulded into forms as nearly resembling that of their mother country, as by his majesty's royal predecessors was thought convenient; and their legislatures seem to have been wisely and graciously established, that the subjects in the colonies might, under the due administration thereof, enjoy the happy fruits of the British government, which in their present circumstances they cannot be so fully and clearly availed of any other way; under these forms of government we and our ancestors have been born or settled, and have had our lives, liberties, and properties protected. The people here, as every where else, retain a great fondness for their old customs and usages; and we trust that his majesty's service, and the interest of the nation, so far from being obstructed, have been vastly promoted by the provincial legislatures. That we esteem our connections with, and dependence on Great Britain, as one of our greatest blessings, and apprehend the latter will appear to be sufficiently secure, when it is considered that the inhabitants in the colonies have the most unbounded affection for his majesty's person, family, and government, as well as for the mother country, and that their subordination to the parliament is universally acknowledged. We therefore most humbly entreat, that the honourable house would be pleased to hear our counsel in support of this petition, and take our distressed and deplorable case into their serious consideration; and that the acts and clauses of acts, so grievously restraining our trade and commerce, imposing duties and taxes on our property, and extending the jurisdiction of the court of admiralty beyond its ancient limits, may be repealed; or that the honourable house would otherwise relieve your petitioners, as in your great wisdom and goodness shall seem meet. APP. J. J.-Page 192. Address of the Inhabitants of the town of Boston, to Governor Bernard, after the seizure of Mr. Hancock's vessel from Madeira. June 14, 1768. PROVINCE OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY. To his Excellency Francis Bernard, esq., governor and commander-in-chief in and over the said province, and viceadmiral of the same, The inhabitants of the town of Boston, in town meeting legally assembled, Humbly shew, THAT your petitioners consider the British constitution as the basis of their safety and happiness. By that, is established, no man shall be governed by laws, nor taxed, but by himself, or representative, legally and fairly chosen, and to which he does not give his own consent. In open violation of these fundamental rights of Britons, laws and taxes are imposed on us, to which we not only have not given our consent, but against which we most firmly have remonstrated. Dutiful petitions have been preferred to our most gracious sovereign, which (though to the great consternation of the people, we now learn have been cruelly and insidiously prevented reaching the royal presence,) we have waited to receive a gracious answer to, with the greatest attention to the publick peace, until we find ourselves invaded with an armed force, seizing, impressing, and imprisoning the persons of our fellowsubjects, contrary to express acts of parliament. Menaces have been thrown out, fit only for barbarians, which already affect us in the most sensible manner, and threaten us with famine and desolation, as all navigation is obstructed, upon which alone our whole support depends; and the town is at this crisis in a situation nearly such, as if war was formally declared against it. To contend with our parent state, is, in our idea, the most shocking and dreadful extremity; but tamely to relinquish the only security we and our posterity retain of the enjoyment of our lives and properties, without one struggle, is so humiliating and base, that we cannot support the reflection. We apprehend, sir, that it is at your option, in your power, and we would hope in your inclination, inclination, to prevent this distressed and justly incensed people from effecting too much, and from the shame and reproach of attempting too little. As the board of customs have thought fit, of their own motion, to relinquish the exercise of their commission here, and as we cannot but hope, that being convinced of the impropriety and injustice of the appointment of a board with such enormous powers, and the inevitable destruction which would ensue from the exercise of their office, will never reassume it, we flatter ourselves your excellency will, in tenderness to this people, use the best means in your power to remove the other grievance we so justly complain of, and issue your immediate order to the commander of his majesty's ship Romney, to remove from this harbour, till we shall be ascertained of the success of our application. And your petitioners, &c. K.-Page 193. Instructions of the town of Boston to their Representatives, on the same occasion. June 17, 1768. To the Honourable James Otis, and Thomas Cushing, Esqrs; Gentlemen, AFTER the repeal of the late American stamp act, we were happy in the pleasing prospect of a restoration of that tranquillity and unanimity among ourselves, and that harmony and affection between our parent country and us, which had generally subsisted before that detestable act. But with the utmost grief and concern, we find that we flattered ourselves too soon, and that the root of bitterness is still alive. The principle on which that act was founded continues in full force, and a revenue is still demanded from America. We have the mortification to observe one act of parliament after another, passed for the express purpose of raising a revenue from us; to see our money continually collecting from us, without our consent, by an authority in the constitution, of which we have no share, and over which we have no kind of influence or control; to see the little circulating cash that remained among us for the support of our trade, from time to time transmitted to a distant country, |