Britain on the matters in dispute, and therefore I conceive can answer no purpose but that of throwing the Province into confusion; and I tremble at the apprehension of what may be the resolution and declaration of the new Parliament relative to the conduct of the people in some parts of America.

You may be advocates for liberty, so am I, but in a constitutional and legal way. You, gentlemen, are Legislators, and let me entreat you to take care how you give a sanction to trample on Law and Government; and be assured it is an indisputable truth, that where there is no law there can be no liberty. It is the due course of law and support of Government which only can insure to you the enjoyment of your lives, your liberty, and your estates; and do not catch at the shadow and lose the substance. I exhort you not to suffer yourselves to be drawn in to involve this Province in the distresses of those who may have offended; we are in a very different situation, and on a very different footing from the other Colonies. Do not consider me as speaking to you merely as the King's Governour of this Province. As such, gentlemen, it is certainly my duty to support his Majesty's just right and authority, and to preserve peace and good order "within my Government, and to contribute as much as possible towards the prosperity and happiness of the Province and people. Believe me when I tell you I am at this time actuated by further motives than a show only of discharging my duty as the King's Governour. I have lived amongst and presided over you upwards of fourteen years, and have other feelings. I have a real and affectionate regard for the people, and it grieves me to think that a Province which I have been so long in, and which I have seen nurtured by the Crown, at a vast expense to the mother country, and grow up from mere infancy—from next to nothing, to a considerable degree of maturity and opulence, should, by the imprudence and rashness of some inconsiderate people, be plunged into a state of distress and ruin. We have been most happy in, I hope, avoiding Scylla, and let me in the strongest terms conjure you to steer clear of Charybdis.

It is a most melancholy and disagreeable subject, and therefore. I shall avoid making any observations on the Resolutions adopted by the other Colonies; but hope that, through your prudence and regard for the welfare and happiness of this Province, of yourselves, and your posterity, none will be entered into here. The strongest reasons operate against it, and as they must occur to every considerate person, I shall not mention any.

Gentlemen of the Assembly:

The very dangerous and critical situation of our affairs with the Creek Indians last Spring, prevented your going on the necessary business of the Province at that time. I therefore hope and depend that, agreeable to your Address to roe of the 12th of March, 1774, you will now take the several matters formerly recommended to you into consideration, and proceed thereupon with that serious attention they require, and to which I shall only add, that in order to preserve and continue to us peace and quietness with the Indians, it seems absolutely necessary that, a law should be framed to regulate some matters relative to the Indian trade and transactions in the Indian country, to prevent encroachments and trespasses on the lands and hunting grounds of the Indians, and other irregularities and abuses being committed by hunters and other disorderly people, both within and without the settlements, and therefore most earnestly recommend a revisal of a Bill relative to Indian affairs, which was before the House of Assembly in the year 1769, in which I am persuaded you will find some clauses that may be most useful and salutary to the Province.

I have ordered the Treasurer to lay all the Publick Accounts before you, and will very soon send you an estimate of the usual and necessary supplies since the last Tax.

JAMES WEIGHT.

IN THE UPPER HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY, JANUARY 18, 1775.

A Message to the Commons House of Assembly. Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen:

This House having taken into serious consideration those matters mentioned by his Excellency in his Speech to both Houses, respecting the present alarming state of the unhappy-disputes between Great Britain and the Colonies; and conceiving the subject to be of the highest importance to the welfare and safety of both, is therefore desirous of having a free conference with your House thereon, in hopes of being able to fix on such a plan of conduct as may reasonably be expected will prove conducive to the obtaining the great point which every true friend to America hath or ought to have only in view, to wit: that of securing to its inhabitants, on a clear, solid, and permanent footing, all the rights and privileges to which, as British subjects, they are entitled, on the principles of the Constitution.

For however warmly this House may and doth condemn the violent and ill-judged measures pursued by some of the other Provinces, which they conceive have an evident tendency to widen the breach between Great Britain and the Colonies, and may involve all America in a scene of the utmost distress and misery; yet it is the sincere wish of this House, as far as in their power, to see every obstacle removed which may interrupt a cordial and lasting; union with the mother country, or obstruct or prevent his Majesty's American subjects from enjoying all the constitutional rights of British subjects, and will therefore cheerfully join in pursuing such measures as will at once testify loyalty to our most gracious Sovereign, a firm attachment to the British Constitution, and a warm and proper regard to the rights and liberties of America.

On Friday, the 20th of January, the following Addresses were presented to his Excellency, viz:

To his Excellency Sir JAMES WRIGHT, Baronet, Captain-General, Governour and Commander-in-Chief in and over his Majesty's Province of GEORGIA, Chancellor and Vice Admiral of the same.

The humble Address of the Upper House of Assembly.

May it please your Excellency:

We his Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Council of Georgia, in General Assembly met, beg leave to return your Excellency our most cordial thanks, for your truly affectionate Speech to both Houses of Assembly, at the opening of this session.

We receive with pleasure and gratitude the information you have been pleased to give us of the favourable reception the Petitions from both Houses met with from our most gracious Sovereign, and that his Majesty had been pleased to order Troops for our protection, in case we had been unhappily engaged in an Indian war.

After having had the experience of your Excellency's prudent and equitable administration for upwards of fourteen years, we can have no doubt of your real and friendly concern for the true interests of this Province. The language of your Excellency's Speech, upon a subject of the highest importance to the people of Georgia, is so truly paternal, that every unprejudiced person must be convinced of its being dictated by a heart warm with love and affection for the people over whom yon preside; and we hope it will meet with that return of gratitude and attention, which the affectionate spirit it breathes and the great importance of the subject merit.

It is with the deepest concern we see the alarming lengths to which the present unhappy disputes between the mother country and the Colonies are carried; lengths that threaten a dissolution of all good order and Government, and of that union on which the happiness and prosperity of both countries ultimately depend.

But whilst we lament these unhappy divisions, and disapprove of all violent and intemperate measures, and at the same time declare it to be our pride and glory to be constitutionally connected with Great Britain, by the closest and most endearing ties, and that we dread nothing more than a dissolution of those ties; yet, anxious for the present welfare of our country, and the interests of our posterity, our ardent wish is, that his Majesty's American subjects may enjoy all the rights and privileges of British subjects, as fully and effectually, in all respects, as the inhabitants of Great Britain do; and to that end, it now appears highly necessary that the constitutional rights of his American subjects may be clearly defined and firmly established, that so they may hold those inestimable bless-