Americans, who were now struggling for a free and unlimited trade, independent of their mother country, and for powers inconsistent with:, and derogatory to the honour and dignity of the Imperial Crown of England; that if Government should now, in the least degree, recede, ail would be over, and America, instead of being subject to Great Britain, would soon give laws to it.

Lord Shelburne spoke next, then Lord Talbot; after him,

Lord Camden expatiated largely on the inexpediency of coercive measures at this time. He said such measures might be very properly exercised in the infancy of Colonies, but that when they had acquired power by commerce, and strength by the increase of numbers, it was wholly impoliticly if not dangerous, to compel them to submit to laws which tended to lay the least burthen or restraint on that trade by which alone they existed.

Lord Dartmouth replied to Lord Camden, and his speech closed the debate; when the question was put,

"Whether these words shall be inserted in the said motion?"

It was resolved in the Negative. Contents, 13; Non-Contents, 63.*

Upon which, the following Protest was entered:

Dissentient,

Because we cannot agree to commit ourselves with the careless facility of a common address of compliment, in expressions which may lead to measures in the event fatal to the lives, properties, and liberties of a very great part of our fellow-subjects. We conceive that an Address upon such objects as are before us, and at such a time as this, must necessarily have a considerable influence upon our future proceedings, and must impress the publick with an idea of the general spirit of the measures which we mean to support. Whatever methods we shall think it advisable to pursue, either in support of the mere authority of Parliament, which seems to be the sole consideration with some, or for reconciling that authority with the peace and satisfaction of the whole Empire, which has ever been our constant and invariable object, it will certainly add to the weight and efficacy of our proceedings, if they appear the result of full information, mature deliberation, and temperate inquiry. No materials for such an inquiry have been laid before us; nor have any such been so much as promised in the Speech from the Throne, or even in any verbal assurance from, Ministers. In this situation we are called upon to make an Address, arbitrarily imposing qualities and descriptions upon acts done in the Colonies, of the true nature and just extent of which we are as yet in a great measure unapprized; a procedure which appears to us by no means consonant to that purity which we ought ever to preserve in our judicial, and to that caution which ought to guide us in our deliberate capacity.

2. Because this Address does, in effect, imply an approbation of the system adopted with regard to the Colonies in the last Parliament. This unfortunate system, conceived with so little prudence, and pursued with so little temper, consitency, or foresight, we were in hopes would be at length abandoned, from an experience of the mischiefs which it has produced, in proportion to the time in which it was continued, and the diligence with which it has been pursued; a system which has created the utmost confusion in the Colonies, without any rational hope of advantage to the Revenue, and with certain detriment to the Commerce of the mother country. And it affords us a melancholy prospect of the disposition of Lords in the present Parliament, when we see the House, under the pressure of so severe and uniform an experience, again ready, without any inquiry, to countenance, if not to adopt, the spirit of the former fatal proceedings.

But whatever may be the mischievous designs, or the inconsiderate temerity, which leads others to this desperate course, we wish to be known as persons who have ever disapproved measures so pernicious in their past effects, and their future tendency, and who are not in haste, without inquiry or information, to commit ourselves in declarations which may precipitate our country into all the calamities of a civil war.

Then it was moved "To agree to the said motion for an Address as at first proposed;"

Which being objected to,

The question was put thereupon,

It was resolved in the Affirmative: Contents, 46; Non-Contents, 9.

Then the Lords following were appointed a Committee to prepare art Address, pursuant to the said motion, (videlicet:)

The Lord President; (Earl Gower.)

Lord of the Privy Seal; (Duke of Grafton.)

Dukes of Marlborough, Ancaster, Chandos, and Bridge-water;

The Lord Steward; (Earl Talbot.)

The Lord Chamberlain; (Earl of Hertford.)

Earls Suffolk, Denbigh, Peterborough, Winchilsea, Sandwich, Carlisle Rochford, Jersey, Dartmouth, Abercorn, Marchmont, Bristol, Waldegrave, Bucks, Hardwicke, Northington, and Hillsborough;

Viscounts Say and Sele, Townshend, Weymouth, Bolingbroke, Falmouth, Wentworth, and Dudley and Ward;

Lord Archbishop of Canterbury;

Lord Bishops of London. Durham, Norwich, Landaff, Peterborough, Chester, St. David's, and Rochester; and

Lords Le Despencer, Cathcart, Trevor, Edgecombe, Bruce, Hyde, Mansfield, Lyttelton, and Sundridge.

Their Lordships, or any five of them, to meet immediately in the Prince's Lodgings, near the House of Peers, and to adjourn as they please.

The House was adjourned during pleasure, and the Committee withdrew to prepare the Address.

After some time the House was resumed; and the Earl of Hillsborough reported from the Committee an Address drawn up by them as follows, (videlicet:)

Most Gracious Sovereign:

We, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Lords spiritual and temporal, in Parliament assembled, beg leave to return your Majesty our humble thanks for your most gracious Speech from the throne.

We think it our indispensable duty to declare, on this occasion, our abhorrence and detestation of, the daring spirit of resistance, and disobedience to the laws, which so strongly prevails in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, and of the unwarrantable attempts in that and other of your Majesty's Provinces in America, to obstruct by unlawful combinations the trade of this Kingdom.

We thankfully acknowledge, at the same time, the communication it has pleased your Majesty to make to us of your having taken such measures and given such orders as your Majesty judged the most proper and effectual for the protection and security of the commerce of your Majesty's subjects, and for the carrying into execution the laws which were passed in the last session of the late Parliament relative to the Province of the Massachusetts Bay; and in the utmost reliance on your Majesty's firm and steadfast resolution to continue to support the supreme authority of the Legislature over all the Dominions of your crown, your Majesty may be assured that we will cheerfully co-operate in all such measures as shall be necessary to maintain the dignity, the safety, and the welfare of the British Empire.

As this Nation cannot be unconcerned, in the common interests of Europe, it is with the greatest satisfaction we are acquainted with the conclusion of the peace between Russia and the Porte. We have the fullest confidence in your Majesty's endeavours to prevent, as far as possible, the breaking out of fresh disturbances; and, from the assurances given to your Majesty by other Powers, we have the pleasing expectation that nothing is likely to happen that may interrupt the present happy tranquillity in Europe.

We beg leave humbly to assure your Majesty that it will be no less our duty than our inclination to proceed with temper and unanimity in our deliberations and resolutions,

* The Address from the Lords was not less warmly debated than that from the House of Commons. The debate was long and vehement, though the minority was but thirteen to sixty three on the division. It was rendered more memorable by the circumstance of having produced a Protest the first we remember to have heard of upon an Ad-dross, and that too very strong and pointed.—Ann. Regis.