house, who was gone out, and upon the best inquiry found there was no certainty of his return, saving to dinner, about four, and no prospect of seeing his Grace before six, when attending again I found he had been gone down to the House a considerable time, and was told that upon his being informed of my having come to wait upon him, he said he was sorry he had not seen me before he went, and that he was going to his seat in the country the next morning. From thence I went down to the House, where I found he was speaking on your behalf. While there a noble Lord, with whom several years ago I had the honour of some acquaintance, coming out of the House, and passing through the room, hastily came up to me and taking me by the hand, said he had not seen me this age, and so passed on. This suddenly inclined me to think I might prevail with him to present my Petition, but after-wards considering that his Lordship holds one of the most important and valuable offices in the Kingdom, I laid aside the thoughts of applying to him. Admission into the House being impracticable I returned home. Early the next morning my servant was informed by the Duke's porter that his Gracious' carriage was ordered to be ready at nine; whereupon I soon attended. On seeing his Grace I found him extremely well disposed to serve you, and that he had used his best endeavours to do it in the course of the debate, which, he told me, lasted till ten o'clock. As to presenting my Petition, he said that was the proper business of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and after-wards favoured me with some farther advice. From him I went to Lord Stair, who, among other things, told me he spoke with Lord Dartmouth, touching the presentation of my Petition, and advised me directly to apply to him, in order to its being presented the next day, before the third reading of the Bill; whereupon going to Lord Dartmouth's he was gone out, and on going a second time found it very uncertain whether I could see him that day; where-fore in the evening I wrote to his Lordship, enclosed my Petition, with my authority from the Council, and prayed the favour of. his Lordship to present it in season. Attending the next morning, I met with such difficulty in seeing his Lordship as obliged me to urge the necessity of speaking a few words with him immediately, whereby gaining admittance, I mentioned the contents of my letter as the reason for my application; whereupon he seemed less inclined to the presentation than Lord Stair supposed, and objecting to the sufficience of my authority, said the Council was an "annual body, though the members chosen were generally the same, and that the Council's vote of last June, appointing persons to correspond with me as their Agent, was not a regular appointment of me for that purpose; to which I answered that in this case no set form of words was requisite, and that the Council's express declaration of my being their agent is reason sufficient as well for this purpose as any larger form of words; that the former vote manifested the nature of the trust reposed in me, and that the latter vote clearly shewed the continuance of it. He did not seem fully satisfied with my reasoning; however, having the Petition, with the two votes, in his hand, he did not refuse to present it, but said he was going to the King with a Petition of some natives of America to his Majesty, not to give his royal assent to the Bill; that it was uncertain how long he might wait before he should be admitted to see his Majesty, and how long he might be detained by him, so that it was uncertain whether he should be down at the House in time to present it. This reason, added to his Lordship's objection to the sufficience of my authority, made me readily take back my papers,

From him I went directly to Lord Stair, who seemed surprised at the difficulty I had met with; and having before settled my Petition to his mind, and now acquainted him with Lord Dartmouth's objection to my authority, after considering the matter, he undertook to present it, in such manner as clearly shewed he was determined to support it. Upon his presenting it a considerable debate ensued, wherein: Lord Camden gave the most sensible and spirited support to its admissibility. Other particulars cannot now" be mentioned; however at length the debate ceasing, as r suppose, an officer who came out of the House on some other occasion, said the matter was all over nevertheless when I was preparing to come away the proper officer came out of the House, and calling me by name introduced me. Upon my standing up at the bar the Lord Chancellor told me I had petitioned the House to be heard against the Bill depending, and that the Lords had agreed to hear me; and, after reminding me of the great dignity of the House of Peers, observed it was necessary for me to confine myself to the matter in question; to whom, having answered that T should endeavour to behave in the most proper manner, and that if I erred, I should with great pleasure stand corrected, I proceeded to set forth the great importance of the port of Boston, wherein as to the number of ships of late employed by the constant trade between it and Great Britain, I had not long since received useful knowledge from Mr. Temple, whom I described by his late offices without naming him; then mentioned the very great number of entries inwards and outwards, which appeared with certainty upon a trial, wherein I was many years ago concerned; adding that about thirty-five years ago Mr. Dinwiddie, who was a long time Surveyor General of the Customs for the South district, afterwards Governor of Virginia, told me that the annual value of the goods imported from Great Britain into the port of Boston, amounted to £600,000 sterling, which exceeded the value of the goods imported into any other American port, save that of Kingston, in Jamaica, where the amount of the imports were much increased for the sake of the Spanish trade.

I have not time to state all particulars, and if practicable I do not perceive any great benefit would thence arise. Below you have a note of some things taken in haste, as proper, with others, to be mentioned and explained; and it may not be amiss to take notice that on corning to the fishery, I observed to their Lordships that I was as well acquainted with the rise of the English and French navies as my poor abilities would permit; and after touching upon the agreeable nature of the present business to the French, I observed, that in my humble opinion, it would be a pleasure to them to see the English begin to lay difficulties in the way of carrying on their fishery. Upon coming to a short pause, when preparing, if I remember aright, to speak to the great hardships imposed by the Bill on the numerous Boston and British merchants and manufacturers, n noble Lord stood up and observed to this effect, that I had petitioned as Agent for the Council, but did not confine myself to their concerns; whereupon the noble Lord who, on coming out of the House the day before spoke to me kindly, and who, on my standing up at the bar, changing his seat, came and sat near me, cried out with others, go on, go on. After observing that the innocence of the merchants was a fact stated in my Petition, and that during the long time I had lived at Boston, the body of merchants never frequented the town meetings, but, like other merchants, Were a peaceable set of men, and that they considered themselves as a distinct order, of which I had the proper evidence, to wit, a letter from a committee of eight, written to me respecting the great difficulties attending their commerce since the late unhappy difference. A short time after my coming out of the House, the Bill passed to he enacted.

On the Friday preceding, an intelligent member of the lower House assured me it was a point determined by Government that the Bill should pass, and receive the Royal assent on Thursday. This account was not long after confirmed by a noble Lord, who nevertheless agreed with me that my business was to go on. I had not the least expectation of succeeding in my opposition to the Bill, but considered, first, that the establishment of the right of your being heard was beneficial; second, that the Lords having the supreme judicial authority of the Kingdom, together with the legislative, their admittance of the sufficience of my authority to be heard on the Council's behalf, may probably promote the like admittance into the Commons' House, in order to oppose two other disagreeable bills, which I am told Lord North intends to bring in, having had a constant view towards this point while speaking before the Lords, and was therefore particularly careful to avoid every occasion of censure; and upon inquiry was informed by a noble Lord that I had not given the least offence to any one member in the House.

During the former part of the proceedings in Parliament, subsequent to the King's message, I had considerable expectation that the honorable India merchants would assist