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transaction in his Majesty's Province of Massachusetts Bay. "To express our sincere satisfaction in the measures which his Majesty's has pursued for supporting the Constitution, and inducing a due obedience to the authority of the Legislature. And a Message was sent to the House of Commons, to carry down the said Resolutions and Address, and desire their concurrence thereto. On the 20th January, 1769, Lord Harwich, (by his Majesty's command,) laid before the House more copies of letters relating to America, which wele ordered to lie on the table. On the 9th of February, the Resolutions and Address, sent to the Commons on the 15th of December last, for their concurrence, were returned agreed to, with some amendments, which were read and agreed to, and notice thereof sent to the Commons; and the said Address was ordered to be presented to his Majesty by both Houses. On the 14th of February, the Lord Chancellor reported his Majesty's Answer to the said Address, as follows: "My Lords and Gentlemen: The sincere satisfaction you express in the measures which I have already taken, and the strong assurances you give of supporting me in those which may be still necessary, to maintain the just legislative authority, and the due execution of the laws, in my Province of Massachusetts Bay, give me great pleasure. Which Address and Answer were ordered to be printed. It doth not appear to the Committee that the censure of the proceedings in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and of the conduct of the Council and other Civil Magistrates, expressed by both Houses of Parliament, in their Resolutions, and their approbation of the measure of sending troops thither to support and protect the Magistrates, and the Officer of the Revenue, produced the good effect that might reasonably have been hoped for. A disposition to deny the authority, and resist the laws of the supreme Legislature, continued still to prevail, not only in flagitious publications in the daily newspapers, but also in a variety of violent and unwarrantable resolutions and proceedings of those merchants and others, who had subscribed to the agreements for. non-importation of goods from Great Britain. Meetings of the Associators were represented to have been held, in as regular a manner as any other meeting authorized the Constitution. Committees were appointed to examine the cargoes of all vessels arriving from Great Britain; and regular votes and resolutions of censure were passed in these meetings upon all such as refused to concur in those unlawful Associations; their names were published in the public newspapers as enemies to their country; and the mandates and decrees of those Committees (Sic) meet with a respect and obedience denied to the constitutional authority of Government. In some cases goods imported from Great Britain were locked up in ware-houses, under the care of these Committees, in order to prevent their being sold; and, in one or two instances, they were re-shipped to Great Britain. On the 31st of May, 1769, the General Court met at the court house at Boston, pursuant to his Majesty's writs, and the first step the Assembly took, before they proceeded on any other business, was to send a Message to the Governor, asserting that the having ships in the harbor, and troops in the town of Boston, was inconsistent with their dignity and freedom; and, therefore, that they had a right to expect that he would give orders for the removal of the forces, by sea and land, from that port, and from the gates of the city, during the session of the Assembly; and, at the same time, the House came to several resolutions to the same effect as the declarations contained in their Message to the Governor. The Governor having in reply to their Message, acquainted them "That he had no authority over his Majesty's "ships in that port, or his troops in that town, nor could "give any orders for the removal of them," they then proceeded to the election of Counsellors, in which election not only the Lieutenant Governor, and other officers of Government were excluded, but also several other gentlemen who had been of the former Council, and who (the Governor represents) shewed a disposition to support the King's Government, to acknowledge the authority of Parliament, and to preserve the People from a Democratic despotism, and were otherwise distinguished by their integrity and ability. It appears by a vote of the Assembly, on the 8th of July, that they have declared that all trials for treason, misprison of treason, or for any felony or crime whatever, committed or done in that Colony, ought of right to be had and conducted within the courts of the Colony; and that the seizing any person or person's, residing in that Colony, suspected of any crime whatsoever, committed therein, and sending such person or persons to places beyond the sea to be tried, is highly derogatory of the rights of British subjects, as thereby the inestimable privilege of being tried by a Jury from the vicinage, as well as the liberty of summoning and producing witnesses on such trials, will be taken away from the party accused. On the 6th of April, 1770, a Bill was brought up from the House of Commons, to your Lord ships, intituled, "An Act to repeal so much of an Act, made in the seventh year of his present Majesty's reign, intituled, 'An Act for granting certain Duties in the British Colonies and Plantations in America; for allowing a drawback of the duties of customs upon the exportation from this Kingdom, of coffee and cocoanuts, of the produce of the said Colonies or Plantations; for discontinuing the drawbacks payable on china earthen
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