(Prefented March 25, 1774.) SHEWETH,

TH

HAT your petitioners, being natives of his majesty's dominions in America, are deeply interested in every proceeding of the house, which touches the life, liberties, or property of any perfon or perfons in the faid dominions. That your petitioners conceive themfelves and their fellow-fubjects intitled to the rights of natural juflice, and to the common law of England, as their unalienable birthright. That they apprehend it to be an inviolable rule of natural justice, that no man fhall be condemned unheard; and that, ac cording to law, no perfon or perfons can be judged without being called upon to anfwer, and being permitted to hear the evidence against them, and to make their defence; and that it is therefore with the deepest forrow they underftand that the house is now about to pass a bill, to punifh with unexampled rigour the town of Boston, for a trefpafs committed by fome perfons unknown upon the property of the Eaft-India company, without the faid town's being apprized of any accufation brought against them, or having been permitted to hear the evidence, or to make their defence. That your petitioners conceive fuch proceedings to be directly repugnant to every principle of law and juftice; and that, under fuch a precedent, no man, or body of men, in America, could enjoy a moment's fecurity; for if judgment be immediately to follow an accufation against the people of America, fupported even by perfons notoriously at enmity with them; the accufed, unacquainted

with the charge, and, from the nature of their fituation, utterly incapable of anfwering and defending themfelves; every fence against falfe. accufation will be pulled down, juftice will no longer be their fhield, nor innocence an exemption from punishment. That the law in America minifters redrefs for any injuries fuítained there; and they can moft truly affirm, that it is adminiflered in that country with as much impartiality as in any other part of his majesty's dominions. In proof of this, they appeal to an inftance of great notoriety, in which, under every cir cumftance that could exafperate the people, and disturb the course of juftice, Captain Preston and his foldiers had a fair trial, and favourable verdict. While the due courfe of law holds out redress for any injury fuftained in America, they apprehend the interpofition of parliamentary power to be full of danger, and without any precedent. If the perfons who committed this trespass are known, then the EastIndia company have their remedy against them at law; if they are unknown, the petitioners cannot comprehend by what rule of juftice the town can be punished for a civil injury committed by persons not known to belong to them; and the petitioners conceive, that there is not an inftance, even in the most arbitrary times, in which a city was punished by parliamentary authority, without being heard, for a civil offence not committed in their jurifdi&tion, and without redrefs having been fought at common law. The cafes which they have heard adduced are directly against it. That of the king against the city of London, was

for

for a murder committed within its walls, by its citizens, in open day; but even then, arbitrary as the times were, the trial was public in a court of common law, the party heard, and the law laid down by the judges was, that it was an offence at the common law to fuffer fuch a crime to be committed in a walled town tempore diurno, and none of the offenders to be known or indicted. The cafe of Edinburgh, in which parliament did interpole, was the commiflion of an atrocious murder within her gates, and aggravated by an overt act of high treason, in executing, against the exprefs will of the crown, the king's laws. It is obfervable, that thele cities had, by charter, the whole executive power within themfelves; fo that a failure of justice neceffarily enfued from the connivance. In both cafes, however, full time was allowed them to discharge their duty, and they were heard in their defence; but neither has time been allowed in this cafe, nor is the accused heard, nor is Bolton a walled town, nor was the fact committed within it, nor is the executive power in their hands, as

proceeding of exceffive rigour and injustice will fink deep in the minds of their countrymen, and tend to alienate their affections from this country; and that the attachment of America cannot furvive the juftice of Great-Britain; and that if they fee a different mode of trial established for them, and for the people of this country; a mode which violates the facred principles of natural juftice, it must be productive of national diftruft, and extinguish thofe filial feelings of refpect and affection which have hitherto attached them to the parent ftate: urged therefore by every motive of affection to both countries, by the most earnest defire, not only to preferve their own rights, and thofe of their countrymen, but to prevent the diffolution of that love, harmony, and confidence, between the two countries, which was their mutual bleffing and fupport your petitioners humbly pray, that the faid bill may not pafs into a law.

burgh. On the contrary, the governor himself holds that power, and has been advised by his majefty's counsel to carry it into execution; if it has been neglected, he alone is anfwerable; if it has been executed, perhaps at this inftant, while punishment is inflicting here on those who have not been legally tried, the due courfe of law is operating there, to the difcovery and profecution of the real of fenders. Your petitioners think themfelves bound to declare to the houfe, that they apprehend, a

America.

equal aftonishment and grief, proceedings adopted against them, which, in violation of the first principles of justice and of the laws of the land, inflict the feveret punishments, without hearing the accufed. Upon the fame principle of injuftice, a bill is now brought in, which, under the profeffion of better regulating the government of the Maffachufett's Bay, is calculated to deprive a whole province, without any form of trial, of its chartered rights, folemnly fecured to it by mutual compact between the crown and the people. Your petitioners are well informed, that a charter fo granted, was never before altered, or refumed, but upon a full and fair hearing; that therefore the prefent proceeding is totally unconftitutional, and fets an example which renders every charter in Great Britain and America utterly infecure. The appointment and removal of the judges, at the pleasure of the governor, with falaries payable by the crown, puts the property, liberty, and life of the fubject, depending upon judicial integrity, in his power. Your petitioners perceive a fyftem of judicial tyranny deliberately at this day impofed upon them, which, from the bitter experience of its intolerable injuries, has been abolifhed in this country. Of the fame unexampled and alarming nature is the bill, which, under the title of a more impartial adminiftration of justice in the province of Maffachufett's-Bay, impowers the governor to withdraw offenders from juftice in the faid province, holding out to the foldiery an exemption from legal pro fecution for murder, and in effect fubjecting that colony to military execution. Your petitioners in

treat the houfe to confider what must be the confequence of fending troops, not really under the con troul of the civil power, and unamenable to the law, among a people whom they have been induftriously taught, by the incendiary arts of wicked men, to regard as deferving every fpecies of infult and abufe; the infults and injuries of a lawless foldiery are fuch as no free people can long endare; and your petitioners apprehend, in the confequences of this bill, the horrid outrages of military oppreffion. followed by the defolation of civil commotions. The difpenfing power which this bill intends to give to the governor, advanced as he is already above the law, and not liable to any impeachment from the people he may opprefs, muft conftitute him an abfolute tyrant. Your petitioners would be utterly unworthy of the English ancestry, which is their claim and pride, if they did not feel a virtuous indig nation at the reproach of difaffec tion and rebellion, with which they have been cruelly afperfed. They can with confidence fay, no impu tation was ever lefs deferved. They appeal to the experience of a cen tury, in which the glory, the honour, the profperity of England, has been, in their eftimation, their own; in which they have' not only borne the burthen of provincial wars, but have fhared with this country in the dangers and expences of every national war. Their zeal for the fervice of the crown, and the defence of the general empire, has prompted them, whenever it was required, to vote fupplies of men and money, to the utmost exertion of their abilities. The journals of the houfe will bear witnefs to their extraordinary zeal and fervices

during the last war, and that but a very fhort time before it was refolved here to take from them the right of giving and granting their own money. If disturbances have happened in the colonies, they in treat the house to confider the caufes which have produced them, among a people hitherto remarkable for their loyalty to the crown, and affection for this kingdom. No history can fhew, nor will human nature admit of, an inftance of general discontent, but from a ge. neral fenfe of oppreffion. Your petitioners conceived, that when they had acquired property under all the restraints this country thought neceffary to impofe upon their commerce, trade, and manufactures, that property was facred and fecure; they felt a very material difference between being reftrained in the acquifition of pro. perty, and holding it, when acquired under those restraints, at the difpofal of others. They underftand fubordination in the one, and flavery in the other. Your petitioners with they could poffibly perceive any difference between the moft abject flavery, and fuch entire fubmiffion to a legiflature, in the conftitution of which they have not a fingle voice, nor the least influence, and in which no one is present on their behalf. They regard the giving their property by their own confent alone as the unalienable right of the fubject, and the laft facred bulwark of conftitutional liberty: if they are wrong in this, they have been misled by the love of liberty, which is their dearest birthright; by the most folemn ftatutes, and the refolves of the house itself, declaratory of the inherent right of the fubject; by the authority of all great conftitu

tional writers, and by the uninterrupted practice of Ireland and America, who have ever voted their own fupplies to the crown; all which combine to prove that the property of an English fubject, being a freeman or a freeholder, cannot be taken from him but by his own confent. To deprive the colonies therefore of this right, is to reduce them to a state of vaffalage, leaving them nothing they can call their own, nor capable of any acquifition but for the benefit of others. It is with infinite and inexpreffible concern, that your petitioners fee in thefe bills, and in the principles of them, a direct tendency to reduce their countrymen to the dreadful alternative of being totally enslaved, or compelled into a contest the moft shocking and unnatural with a parent ftate, which has ever been the object of their veneration and their love; they intreat the houfe to confider, that the reftraints which examples of fuch feverity and injuftice impofe, are ever attended with the most dangerous hatred. In a distress of mind which cannot be defcribed, your petitioners conjure the house, not to convert that zeal and affection, which have hitherto united every American hand and heart in the interests of England, into paffions the most painful and pernicious; moft earnestly they befcech the houfe, not to attempt reducing them to a state of flavery, which the English principles of liberty they inherit from their mother country will render worse than death; and therefore humbly pray, that the houfe will not, by paffing these bills, overwhelm them with affliction, and reduce their countrymen to the most abject state of mifery and humiliation, or drive

them to the laft refources of defpair.

Authentic Copy of the Address and Petition prefented to the King by the Corporation of London, previous to his Majesty's figning the Bill for the better Government of Quebec.

ligion, who were invited into the faid province under the facred promife of enjoying the benefit of the laws of your realm of England, but likewise repugnant to your royal proclamation of the 7th of October, 1763, for the speedy fettling the faid new government.

"That, confiftent with the pub. lic faith pledged by the faid proclamation, your majefty cannot

Majesty.

Moft Gracious Sovereign!

WE

E your majesty's moft dutiful and loyal fubjects, the lord-mayor, aldermen, and commons, of the city of London, in common council affembled, are exceedingly alarmed that a bill has paffed your two houfes of parliament, entitled, "An Act for mak ing more effectual provifion for the government of the province of Quebec, in North-America," which we apprehend to be entirely fubverfive of the great fundamental principles of the conftitution of the British monarchy, as well as of the authority of various folemn acts of the legislature.

"We beg leave to obferve, that the English law, and that wonderful effort of human wifdom, the trial by jury, are not admitted by this bill in any civil cafes, and the French law of Canada is impofed on all the inhabitants of that extenfive province, by which both the perfons and properties of very many of your majefty's fubjects are rendered infecure and preca

rious.

"We humbly conceive, that this bill, if paffed into a law, will be contrary, not only to the compact entered into with the numerous fettlers, of the reformed re

cature and public juftice for the hearing and determining all cafes, as well civil as criminal, within the faid province, but as near as may be agreeable to the laws of England; nor can any laws, ftatutes, or ordinances, for the public peace, welfare, and good government of the faid province, be made, conftituted, or ordained, but according to the laws of this realm.

"That the Roman-catholic religion, which is known to be idolatrous and bloody, is eftablished by this bill, and no legal provifion is made for the free exercise of our reformed faith, nor the fecurity of out proteftant fellow fubjects of the church of England in the true worthip of Almighty God, according to their confciences.

"That your majefty's illuftrious family was called to the throne of thefe kingdoms in confequence of the exclufion of the Roman-catholic ancient branch of the Stuart line, under the exprefs ftipulation that they fhould profefs the proteftant religion, and, according to the oath established by the fanction of parliament in the first year of the reign of our great deliverer, King William the Third, your majesty at your coronation has folemnly fworn that you would, to the utmost of your power, maintain the laws of God, the true profeffion of the

Gospel,