Address of the Merchants and Traders of the City of London

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The following gentlemen, viz: Isaac Hughes, Esquire, Chairman, the Rt˙ Hon˙ Thomas Harley, Zachary Philip Fonnereau, John Cornwall, John Rily, Samuel Smith, George Stainforth, Peter Cazalet, Richard Willis, John William Anderson, Benjamin Winthrop, Edward Forster, James Bogle French, Bignall Potter, and Peter Hodgson, Esquires, having been deputed to attend His Majesty with an Address of a very numerous body of the Merchants and Traders of the City of London, they did all (except Mr˙ Cornwall and Mr˙ Rily, who were prevented by illness) wait on His Majesty with the following Address.

Most Gracious Sovereign:

We, your Majesty' s faithful and loyal subjects, Merchants and Traders of the City of London, filled with the deepest concern at the unjustifiable proceedings of some of your Majesty' s Colonies in America, beg leave to approach your royal throne, to testify our entire disapprobation and abhorrence of them, with the most solemn assurances that we will support your Majesty with our lives and fortunes in maintaining the authority of the Legislature of this Country, which, we conceive, does and ought to extend over and pervade every part of the British Dominions.

With regret and indignation we see Colonies, which owe their existence, and every blessing that attended their late prosperous situation, to this their Parent Country, unnaturally regardless of the fostering hand that raised and supported them, and affecting distinctions in their dependance not founded in law or in the Constitution of Great Britain.

We are convinced, by the experienced clemency of your Majesty' s Government, that no endeavours will be wanting to induce our deluded fellow-subjects to return to their obedience to that Constitution which our ancestors bled to establish, and which has flourished, pure and uninterrupted, under the mild Government of the House of Hanover.

May that Being who governs the universe so direct your Majesty' s counsels and measures, that from the present confusion order may arise and peace again be restored.

That your Majesty may long reign over a happy and united people, is the earnest prayer of, may it please your Majesty, your Majesty' s most faithful and loyal subjects.