3. It is therefore with inexpressible grief, that we have of late years seen measures adopted by the British Parliament subversive of that Constitution under which the good people of this Colony have always enjoyed the same rights and privileges so highly and deservedly prized by their fellow-subjects in Great Britain; a Constitution in its infancy, modelled after that of the parent state; in its growth more nearly assimilated to it, and tacitly implied, and undeniably recognised in the requisitions made by the Crown, with the consent and approbation of Parliament.

4. An exemption from Internal Taxation, and the exclusive right of providing for the support of our own Civil Government, and the administration of justice in this Colony, we esteem our undoubted and unalienable rights as Englishmen. But while we claim these essential rights, it is with equal pleasure and truth we can declare, that we ever have been, and ever will be, ready to bear our full proportion of aids to the Crown for the publick service, and to make provision for these necessary purposes, in as ample and adequate a manner as the circumstances of the Colony will admit. Actuated by these sentiments, while we address ourselves to a British House of Commons, which has ever been so sensible of the rights of the people, and so tenacious of preserving them from violation, can it be a matter of surprise, that we should feel the most distressing apprehensions from the Act of the British Parliament, declaring their right to bind the Colonies in all cases whatever, a principle which has been actually exercised by the Statutes made for the sole and express purpose of raising a Revenue in America, especially for the support of Government, and the other useful and ordinary services of the Colonies.

5. The trial by a Jury of the vicinage, in causes civil and criminal, arising within the Colony, we consider as essential to the security of our lives and liberties, and one of the main pillars of the Constitution; and therefore view with horrour the construction of the Statute of the thirty-fifth of Henry the Eighth, as held up by the joint Address of both Houses of Parliament, in 1769, advising his Majesty to send for persons guilty of Treasons and misprisons of Treason, in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, in order to be tried in England; and we are equally alarmed at the late Acts empowering his Majesty to send persons guilty of offences in one Colony, to be tried in another, or within the Realm of England.

6. When we consider that the cognizance of causes arising on the land, has, by the wisdom of the English Constitution, been appropriated to the Courts of Common Law, and the jurisdiction of the Admiralty confined to causes purely marine, we regard the great alterations that have been made in that wholesome system of laws, by extending the powers of the Courts of Admiralty; authorizing the Judges' certificates to indemnify the prosecutor from damages he might otherwise be liable to; giving them a concurrent jurisdiction with the Courts of Common Law, and by that means depriving the American subject of his trial by a JURY, as destructive to freedom, and injurious to our property.

7. We must also complain of the Act of the seventh of George the Third, chapter the fifty-ninth, requiring the Legislature of this Colony to make provision for the expense of supplying the Troops quartered amongst us with the necessaries prescribed by that law, and holding up by another Act of suspension of our Legislative powers, till we should have complied, as it would have included all the effects of a Tax, and implies a distrust of our readiness to contribute to the publick service.

8. Nor in claiming these essential RIGHTS, do we entertain the most distant desire of independence on the parent Kingdom. We acknowledge the Parliament of Great Britain necessarily entitled to a supreme direction and government over the whole Empire, for a wise, powerful, and lasting preservation of the great bond of union and safety among all the branches; their authority to regulate the trade of the Colonies, so as to make it subservient to the interest of the mother country, and to prevent its being injurious to the other parts of his Majesty's Dominions, has ever been fully recognised; but an exemption from Duties on all articles of Commerce which we import from Great Britain, Ireland, and the British Plantations, or on commodities which do not interfere with their products or manufactures, we can justly claim; and always expect that our Commerce will be charged with no other than a necessary regard to the trade and interest of Great Britain and her Colonies evidently demands. At the same time, we humbly conceive that the money arising from all DUTIES RAISED IN THIS COLONY, should be paid into the Colony Treasury, to be drawn by requisitions of the Crown to the General Assembly, for the security and defence of the whole Empire.

9. We cannot avoid mentioning among our grievances the Act for prohibiting the Legislature of this Colony from passing any law for the emission of a Paper Currency to be a legal tender in the Colony; our Commerce affords so small a return of specie, that, without a paper currency, supported on the credit of the Colony, our trade, and the change of property, must necessarily decrease. Without the expedient, we never should have been able to comply with the requisitions of the Crown during the last war, or to grant ready aids on any sudden emergencies. The credit of our Bills has ever been secured from depreciation by the short periods limited for their duration, and sinking them by taxes raised on the people; and the want of this power may, in future, prevent his Majesty's faithful subjects here from testifying their loyalty and affection to our gracious Sovereign, and from granting such aids as may be necessary for the general weal and safety of the British Empire; nor can we avoid remonstrating against this Act as an abridgment of the Royal prerogative, and a violation of our Legislative rights.

10. We must also complain of the Act of the last session of Parliament imposing Duties on certain articles imported into the Province of Quebec, and restricting the importation of them to the Ports of Quebec and St. John's on the river Sorel, by which the commerce formerly carried on by this Colony with the Indians, is in a great measure diverted into another channel, as by the extension of the bounds of that Province from Hudson's Bay to the Ohio, by a Statute of the same session, a great extent of country is cut off from this Colony, in which hitherto the most lucrative branches of the Indian trade were pursued; and by directing the Duties on the articles necessary for that commerce to be paid only at the above Ports, which are so very remote from this and other Colonies, that the importation of them by those places will be attended with such a heavy expense as to amount to a total prohibition. These Acts, in our opinion, bear with peculiar hardship on the people of this Colony, when we reflect on the vast sums of money which have been expended by our Legislature in conciliating the friendship of the Savages, and the essential services which were derived to the British arms during the last war, from our alliance with, and influence over them, founded on a free and unrestrained commerce. We are at a loss to account why articles imported from the Continental Colonies, and imported into the Province of Quebec, should be loaded with heavier Duties than those brought from the West India Islands, by which, while we are deprived of a most lucrative branch of commerce, we behold a discrimination made between us and the Sugar Colonies to our prejudice, equally injurious and unmerited.

11. Nor can we forbear mentioning the jealousies which have been excited in the Colonies by the extension of the limits of the Province of Quebec, in which the Roman Catholick religion has received such ample supports.

12. Interested, as we must consider ourselves, in what ever may affect our sister Colonies, we cannot help feeling for the distresses of our brethren in the Massachusetts Bay, from the operation of the several Acts of Parliament passed relative to that Province, and of earnestly remonstrating in their behalf; at the same time we also must express our disapprobation of the violent measures that have been pursued in some of the Colonies, which can only tend to increase our misfortunes, and to prevent our obtaining redress.

13. We claim but a restoration of those rights which we enjoyed by general consent before the close of the late war: we desire no more than a continuation of that ancient Government to which we are entitled by the principles of the British Constitution, and by which alone can be secured to us the rights of ENGLISHMEN. Attached by every tie of interest and regard to the British Nation, and accustomed to behold, with reverence and respect, its ex-