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The House was adjourned during pleasure, and the Committee withdrew to prepare the Address.
After some time the House was resumed; and the Earl of Hillsborough reported from the Committee an Address drawn up by them as follows, (videlicet:)
Most Gracious Sovereign:
We, your Majesty' s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Lords spiritual and temporal, in Parliament assembled, beg leave to return your Majesty our humble thanks for your most gracious Speech from the throne.
We think it our indispensable duty to declare, on this occasion, our abhorrence and detestation of the daring spirit of resistance, and disobedience to the laws, which so strongly prevails in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, and of the unwarrantable attempts in that and other of your Majesty' s Provinces in America, to obstruct by unlawful combinations the trade of this Kingdom.
We thankfully acknowledge, at the same time, the communication it has pleased your Majesty to make to us of your having taken such measures and given such orders as your Majesty judged the most proper and effectual for the protection and security of the commerce of your Majesty' s subjects, and for the carrying into execution the laws which were passed in the last session of the late Parliament relative to the Province of the Massachusetts Bay; and in the utmost reliance on your Majesty' s firm and steadfast resolution to continue to support the supreme authority of the Legislature over all the Dominions of your crown, your Majesty may be assured that we will cheerfully co-operate in all such measures as shall be necessary to maintain the dignity, the safety, and the welfare of the British Empire.
As this Nation cannot be unconcerned in the common interests of Europe, it is with the greatest satisfaction we are acquainted with the conclusion of the peace between Russia and the Porte. We have the fullest confidence in your Majesty' s endeavours to prevent, as far as possible, the breaking out of fresh disturbances; and, from the assurances given to your Majesty by other Powers, we have the pleasing expectation that nothing is likely to happen that may interrupt the present happy tranquillity in Europe.
We beg leave humbly to assure your Majesty that it will be no less our duty than our inclination to proceed with temper and unanimity in our deliberations and resolutions,
Which Address being read by the Clerk,
It was moved "To agree with the Committee in the said Address;"
Which being objected to,
The question was put thereupon;
It was resolved in the Affirmative.
Ordered, That the said Address he presented to his Majesty by the whole House.
Ordered, That the Lords with the. White Staves do wait on his Majesty, humbly to know what time his Majesty will please appoint to be attended therewith.
Address Reported and Agreed
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and to inculcate, by our example, a due reverence for the laws, and a just sense of the excellency of our Constitution. Impressed with these sentiments, and with the deepest gratitude for the many blessings we have enjoyed during the course of your Majesty' s reign, it will be our principal care to testily, with unaffected zeal at this conjuncture, our inviolable fidelity to your Majesty, and our serious attention to the publick welfare.