Page:Niles' Weekly Register, v1.djvu/75

THE WEEKLY REGISTER.

Vol. I.] SUPPLEMENTARY TO No. 4.

"—I wish no other herald,

" No other speaker of my living Actions,

" To keep mine honor from corruption

" But such an honest chronicler."

Shakspeare — HENRY VIII.

Printed and published by H. Niles, Water-street, near the Merchants' Coffee-House, at $5 per annum American Public Papers. [REVOLUTION AH V.] C Continued from Page 14.^ The sarae congress agreed to a petition to the king, which, as it may serve to shew the spirit of the times, and is, besides, a piece of most elegant and eloquent composition, is annexed [It was drawn up by the iate venerable John Dickenson, Esq.]

To the King's most excellent Majesty.

We your majesty's faithful subjects of the colo- nies of Neiu-Hampshire, JMassachtisets-Bay, Rhode- Island and Providence Plantations, Connectictit, New York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania the counties of New-Castle, Kent, and Sussex, on Delaware, Alaryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and South L'a-ohna, in behalf of ourselves and the inhabitants of these colonies, who have deputed us to represent them in general congress, by this our humble peti- tion, beg leave to lay our grievances before the throne.

A standing army has been kept in these colonies . ever since the conclusion of the late war, without the consent of our assemblies ; and this army, with a considerable naval armament has been employed to inforce the collection of taxes.

The authority of the commander in chief and under him of the brigadiers-general lias, in time of peace, been rendered supreme in all the civil go- vernments in America.

The commander in chief of all your majesty's forces in North America has, in time of peace, been appointed governor of a colony.

The charges of usual offices have been greatly Increased ; and, new, expensive and oppresiive of- fices have been multiplied.

The judges of admiralty and vice-admiralty courts are impowered to receive their salaries and tees from the effects condemned by themselves.

The officers of the customs are impowered to break open and enter houses without the authority of any civil magistrate founded on legal information.

The judges of courts of common law have been made intirely dependent on one part of the legisla- ture for their salaries, as well as for the duration of their commissions.

Councellors, holding their commissions during pleasure, exercise legislative authority.

Humble and reasonable petitions from the repre- sentatives of the people have been fruitless.

The agents of the people have been discountenan- ced, and governors have been instructed to prevent the payment of their salaries.

Assemblies have been repeatedly and injuriously dissolved.

Commerce has been burthen^d withmanv useless fL.v. oppressive restrictions.

By several acts oi parliament made in thi-fouri"- fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth years of your m<'-jesty' s reign, duties arc imposed on us, for the pufpdse o* raising a revenue; and the powers of admiralty ;»nd vice-admiralty courts are extended byond their an- cient limits, whereby our property is taken from us without our consent, the trial by jury in many civil cases is abolished, enormous forfeitures are incurred for slight offences, vexatious informers, are exempted from paying damages, to which they are justly liable, and oppressive security is required from owners, before they are allowed to defend their right.

Both houses of parliament have resolved, that colonists may be tried in England, for offences alledged to have been committed in America, by virtue of a statute passed in the thirty-fifth year of Henry the eighth ; and in consequence thereof at- tempts have been made to inforce that statute.

A statute was passed in the twelfth year of your majesty's reign, directing, that persons charged with committing any offence therein described, in any place out of the realm, may be indicted and tried for the same, in any shire orcounty within the realm, whereby inhabitants of these colonies may, in sundry cases, by that statute made capital be deprived" of a trial by their peers of the vicinage.

In the last session of parliament, an act was passed for blocking up the harbour of Boston; another impowenng the governorof Massachusetts- Bay to send persons indicted for murder in that province, to another colony, or even to Great Bri- tain for trial, whereby such offenders may escape legal punishment • athird for altering the chartered constitution of government in that province ; and a fourth for extending the limits of Quebec, abolishing the English, and restoring the French laws, whereby great numbers of British freemen are subjected to the latter, and establishing an absolute government and the Roman catholic religion throughout those vast regions, that border on the westerly and north- erly boundcries of the free, protestant, English set- tlements ; and a fifth for the better providing suita- ble quarters for officers and soldiers in his majesty's service in North America.

To a sovereign, who glories in the name of Bri- ton ; the bare recital of these acts must, we pre- sume, justify the loyal subjects who fly to the foot of his throne and implore his clemency for protec- tion against them.

From this destructive system of colony adminis- tration, adopted since the conclusion of the last war, have flowed those distresses, dangers, fears, and jealousies, that overwhelm your majest'y dutiful colonists with affliction; and we defy our most sub- tle and inveterate enemies to trace the Unhappy differences between Great Britain and these colo- nies, from an earlier period, or from other causes than we have assigned. Had they proceeded on our part from a restless levity of temper, unjust impulses of ambition, or artful suggestions of scdL

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