plied with, were unconstitutional, and tended to destroy that confidence which we had always reposed in the mother country.

11. That the imposition of Duties upon articles of Commerce, imported from Great Britain, is oppressive and impolitick, as it gives the greatest encouragement to illicit trade, and operates as a prohibition on our commerce with the mother country, which, for the mutual advantage of both, we conceive, ought to be free and unrestrained.

12. That the Act passed in the fourteenth year of your Majesty's reign, imposing Duties upon certain articles imported into the Province of Quebec, (the limits whereof by an Act of the same year are so extended, as to comprehend all the Indian country from Hudson's Bay to the mouth of the Ohio River,) and restricting the importation of those dutied articles to the Port of St. John, on the River Sorel, is injurious to this Colony, as it almost entirely destroys our important Indian trade; that Port being so very remote from this and the other Colonies, that the conveyance of Goods thither for the prosecution of the traffick, must unavoidably be attended with so enormous an expense, as well nigh amounts to a total prohibition; the unmerited discrimination made by the first above-mentioned Act in favour of the Sugar Colonies, by subjecting the Continental Colonies to a larger Duty on particular articles, is so detrimental to the interest of this Colony, that we can not avoid complaining of it to your Majesty as a grievance.

13. We likewise think the Act prohibiting the Legislature of this Colony from passing any law for the emission of Paper Currency, to be a legal tender therein, is disadvantageous to the growth and commerce thereof; an abridgment of your Majesty's prerogative, (in the preservation of which we are deeply interested,) and a violation of our legislative rights; and may hereafter disable your Majesty's subjects, upon proper requisition, and upon certain emergencies, from granting such aids as may be necessary for the general safety of the Empire.

14. The Act for the regulation of the Government of Quebec, we must beg leave to mention also to your Majesty, as the extension of that Province, and the indulgence granted to it by Roman Catholicks, have given great uneasiness to the minds of many of your Majesty's American subjects.

15. The late Acts for shutting up the Port of Boston, and altering the Charter of the Massachusetts Bay, we presume not to mention to your Majesty, without first assuring you that we, in many instances, disapprove of the conduct of that Province, and beseeching your gracious interposition in their favour. We cannot, however, help observing, that those Acts establish a dangerous precedent, by inflicting punishment without the formality of a trial.

16. With the highest satisfaction, most gracious Sovereign, we reflect on your royal declaration from the throne at your happy accession, that it was essential to the impartial administration of justice, and one of the best securities to the rights and liberties of your subjects, that your Judges should hold their commissions during good behaviour; permit us then to pray, that you will be graciously pleased to remove the distinction between your subjects in England and those in America, by commissioning your Judges here to hold their offices on the same tenure: in which case, we beg leave to assure your Majesty that we stand ready to give such adequate and permanent salaries as will render them independent of the people.

17. We have now, most gracious Sovereign, stated our grievances to your Majesty; we have done it, we trust, with all the respect due to the best of Kings, and with that decent freedom becoming the Representatives of a faithful, ancient, and loyal Colony; and we have not the least doubt but that, by your merciful mediation and interposition, we shall obtain the desired redress, and have such a system of government confirmed to us by your Majesty, and your two Houses of Parliament, as will sufficiently ascertain and limit the authority claimed by the British Legislature over this Colony, and secure to us those just and invaluable RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES which all your Majesty's subjects are entitled to. This, most gracious Sovereign, is the sum of our wishes, and the end of our desires; and we beg leave to assure your Majesty, that we are convinced this will be the only effectual method of quieting the minds of your Majesty's faithful American subjects, and of restoring that harmony and cordial union between the mother country and us, which is so essential to the welfare and prosperity of both. We beseech your Majesty to believe, that our earnest prayer to Heaven is that your Majesty may continue long the happy and beloved Monarch of a brave, a free, a virtuous, and united people, and that your children after you may continue to fill the British Throne to the latest generations.

By order of the General Assembly,

JOHN CRUGER, Speaker.

Assembly Chamber, City of New-York, the 25th day of March, 1775.

The engrossed Memorial to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, in Parliament assembled, was read. On the, question, whether the House agree to the same? It passed in the affirmative.

Ordered, That Mr. Speaker sign the said Memorial in behalf of this House.

To the Bight Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of GREAT BRITAIN, in Parliament assembled.

The Memorial of his Majesty's faithful subjects the Representatives of the Colony of NEW-YORK, in General Assembly convened.

May it please your Lordships:

1. We, his Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Representatives of the Colony of New-York, in General Assembly convened, are conscious when we address your Lordships, that we are applying to a body who have ever been distinguished for the firmest attachment to the principles of liberty, and that happiest result of them, he British Constitution.

2. We acknowledge ourselves and the people we represent, strictly bound by the ties of faith and allegiance to our most gracious Sovereign; that we justly owe the same faith and allegiance as are due to him from his subjects in Great Britain; that we regard him with the utmost veneration, and that we shall ever be ready to contribute to his service, and to support the dignity of his Crown and Government.

3. We esteem ourselves happy in our connection with the PARENT STATE, whose true interests are inseparably united with our own; and we are fully sensible that none but the enemies of both countries could ever wish to disjoin them.

4. Impressed with these sentiments, we consider ourselves as parts of one great Empire, in which it is necessary there should be some supreme regulating power. But though we acknowledge the existence of such power, yet we conceive it by no means comprehends a right of binding us in all cases whatsoever; because a power of so unbounded an extent, would totally deprive us of security, and reduce us to a state of the most abject servitude.

5. The Colonies, as your Lordships know, were not in contemplation when the forms of the British Constitution were established; it followed, therefore, from its principles, when colonization took place, that the Colonists carried with them all the rights they were entitled to in the country from which they emigrated; but as from their local circumstances they were precluded from sharing in the representation in that Legislature in which they had been represented, they of right claimed and enjoyed a Legislature of their own, always acknowledging the King, or his representative, as one branch thereof. This right they have pointedly, repeatedly, and zealously asserted, as what only could afford them that security which their fellow-subjects in Great Britain enjoy, under a Constitution at once the envy and admiration of surrounding Nations; because no money can be raised upon the subject in Great Britain, nor any law made that is binding on him, without the concurrence of those who have been elected by the PEOPLE to represent them.

6. For what happiness can the Colonists expect, if their lives and properties are at the absolute disposal of others, and that power which when restrained within its just bounds, would dispense light and heat to the whole Empire, may be employed like a devouring flame, to consume and destroy them.

7. Your Lordships will excuse, nay, we doubt not, will commend us for speaking at this important juncture, with the freedom becoming the Representatives of a free peo-