Humble Address, Remonstrance and Petition of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Livery of London to the King

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At a meeting of the Livery of London, in Common-Hall assembled, on Saturday, the 24th of June, 1775:

A motion being made and question put, that an humble Address, Remonstrance, and Petition be presented to His Majesty, from the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Livery of the City of London, in Common-Hall assembled, on this important crisis of American affairs; the same was resolved in the affirmative.

And an Address, Remonstrance, and Petition to the King being produced, a motion was made that the same be read; and the question being put by Mr˙ Recorder, it was resolved in the affirmative; whereupon, the same was read, as follows:

Most Gracious Sovereign:

We, your Majesty' s most faithful subjects, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Livery, &c˙, of London, in Common-Hall assembled, are compelled again to disturb your Majesty' s repose with our complaints.

We have already expressed to your Majesty our abhorrence of the tyrannical measures pursued against our fellow-subjects in America, as well as of the men who secretly advise, and of the Ministers who execute these measures.

We desire to repeat again, that the power contended for over the Colonies, under the specious name of dignity, is, to all intents and purposes, despotism; and that the exercise of despotick power in any part of the Empire, is inconsistent with the character and safety of this Country.

As we would not suffer any man or body of men to establish arbitrary power over us, we cannot acquiesce in any attempt to force it upon any part of our fellow-subjects. We are persuaded, that by the sacred unalterable rights of human nature, as well as by every principle of the Constitution, the Americans ought to enjoy peace, liberty, and safety; that whatever power invades these rights ought to be resisted. We hold such resistance in vindication of their constitutional rights, to be their indispensable duty to God, from whom those rights are derived to themselves, who cannot be safe and happy without them; to their posterity, who have a right to claim this inheritance at their hands, unviolated and unimpaired.

We have already remonstrated to your Majesty, that these measures were big with all the consequences which could alarm a free and commercial people; a deep, and perhaps fatal, wound to commerce; the ruin of manufactures; the diminution of the revenue, and consequent increase of taxes; the alienation of the Colonies, and the blood of your Majesty' s subjects.

Unhappily, Sire, the worst of these apprehensions is now realized in all its horrour. We have seen, with equal dread and concern, a civil war commenced in America by your Majesty' s Commander-in-Chief. Will your Majesty be pleased to consider what must be the situation of your people here, who have nothing now to expect from America but Gazettes of blood, and mutual lists of their slaughtered fellow-subjects.

Every moment' s prosecution of this fatal war may loosen irreparably the bonds of that connection on which the glory and safety of the British Empire depend.

If any thing could add to the alarm of these events, it is your Majesty' s having declared your confidence in the wisdom of men, a majority of whom are notoriously bribed to betray their constituents and their Country. It is the

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In such a situation your petitioners are hound to declare to your Majesty, that they cannot and will not sit unconcerned; that they will exert themselves, at every hazard, to bring those who have advised these ruinous measures, to the justice of this Country, and of the much injured Colonies.

We have already signified our persuasion, that these evils originate in the secret advice of those who are equally enemies to your Majesty' s title, and to the rights of your People. Your petitioners are now compelled to say, that your Throne is surrounded by men avowedly inimical to those principles on which your Majesty possesses the Crown, and this people their liberties. At a time of such difficulty and danger, publick confidence is essential to your Majesty' s repose, and to the preservation of your People. Such confidence cannot be obtained by Ministers and advisers who want wisdom, and hold principles incompatible with freedom; nor can any hope of relief be expected from a Parliament chosen under a national delusion insidiously raised, by misrepresentations touching the true state of America, and artfully embraced by a precipitate dissolution.

Your petitioners, therefore, again pray and beseech your Majesty to dismiss your present Ministers, and advisers from your person and councils forever; to dissolve a Parliament who, by various acts of cruelty and injustice, have manifested a spirit of persecution against our brethren in America, and given their sanction to Popery and arbitrary power; to put your future confidence in Ministers whose known and unshaken attachment to the Constitution, joined to your wisdom and integrity, may enable your Majesty to settle this alarming dispute upon the sure, honourable, and lasting foundations of general liberty.

And a motion being made, and question put, to agree to the said Address, Remonstrance, and Petition, the same was resolved in the affirmative.

Signed by order: RIX.