wards the officers of the Navy, I will entreat them to pay-some regard to the safety of the Fleet, and a little attention to the situation of this country. Then, I hope, sir, that both humanity and interest will dictate to them not to sport with the lives of the few seamen now employed.

Mr. Cosmo Gordon was against any compromise or lenient measures with America, until she entirely submitted.

Mr. Burke, who was this day much indisposed, laid forth the numerous ill consequences that must inevitably follow; called the present moment the true crisis of Britain's fate; painted the dreadful abyss into which the Nation was going to be plunged; called upon the commercial part of the House to rouse themselves at the open declaration of their approaching ruin, and pathetically described to the landed interest the fatal effects that must inevitably reach them.

The Solicitor General defended the measure. He gave every allowance for, and paid all deference to, the interests of Commerce and Manufactures; but contended that in the present case interests were concerned of yet greater consequence; that all the world must acknowledge, that when the clearest rights of the Legislative power of a country were invaded and denied, and when in consequence, the people so denying were in actual and open rebellion, that then there were points of greater importance to be settled and decided, than those of Commerce and Manufacture; An enemy in the bowels of a Kingdom was surely to be resisted, opposed, and conquered, notwithstanding the trade that might suffer, and the fabricks that might be ruined. That descriptions of the immense consequence of our American trade were arguments rather against the opposing Members than for them; for the greater the consequence of the Commerce, the greater the care ought to be, and the firmer the policy that was to preserve it; that the question was not now the importance of the American Colonies, but the possession of the Colonies at all.

The question being put on the amendment moved by Mr. Fox, the Committee divided: Yeas, 105; Noes, 304.

So it passed in the Negative.

The question then being put, on Lord North's motion for an Address, the Committee divided; Yeas, 296; Noes, 106.

So it passed in the Affirmative.

Mr. Speaker then resumed the Chair.

Sir Charles Whitworth reported from the Committee, that they had made a further progress in the matters to them referred, and had come to a Resolution, which they had directed him to report, when the House will please to receive the same.

Ordered, That the Report be received upon Monday morning next.

Sir Charles Whitworth also acquainted the House that he was directed by the Committee to move that they may have leave to sit again.

Resolved, That this House will, upon Monday morning next, resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole House, to consider further of the said Papers.

FRIDAY, February 3, 1775.

Ordered, That there be laid before this House an Account of the quantities of Sugar imported into Great Britain from the British Colonies and Plantations, from Christmas, 1762, as far as the same can be made up; distinguishing each Colony and each year.

Ordered, That there be laid before this House an Account of the quantities of Muscovado Sugar, and of refined Sugar, exported from Great Britain, from Christmas, 1762, as far as the same can be made up; distinguishing each year; and the quantities exported to North America.

Ordered, That there be laid before this House an account of the amount and value of the Imports from the British Sugar Colonies into Great Britain, from Christmas, 1762, as far as the same can be made up; distinguishing each Colony and each year.

Mr. Tomkyns, one of the Commissioners of the Customs, presented to the House, pursuant to their orders,

An Account of the amount of the Drawbacks paid out of the produce of the Customs in England, for the three years ending at Christmas, 1773; distinguishing each year; and also,

An Account of all British Plantation Tobacco imported into that part of Great Britain called England, from the year 1760, to the 5th of January, 1774; and the quantity exported from England in the same period; distinguishing the Exports and Imports in each particular year, which is as far as the same can be made up; and also,

An Account of the value of the Exports and Imports to and from North America and England, from Christmas, 1762, to Christmas, 1773, which is as far as the same can be made up; distinguishing each Colony and each year; and also,

An Account of the value of the Exports and Imports to and from the West Indies and England, from Christmas, 1762, to Christmas, 1773, which is as far as the same can be made up; distinguishing each Island and each year.

The Order of the Day being read,

Resolved, That this House will, upon Wednesday morning next, resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole House, to consider further of the Petition of the Merchants, Traders, and others, of the City of London, concerned in the commerce of North America, and of the several Petitions referred to the consideration of the said Committee.

MONDAY, February 6, 1775.

Ordered, That there be laid before this House an account of all the Corn, Flour, and Bread, imported from North America into that part of Great Britain called England, from January, 1767, as far as the same can be made up; distinguishing each kind of Grain, and the quantity imported in each year.

Sir Charles Whitworth, according to order, reported from the Committee of the Whole House, to whom it was referred to consider further of the several Papers which were presented to the House by the Lord North, upon the 19th and 31st days of January last, and the first day of this instant, February, by his Majesty's command, the Resolution which the Committee had directed him to report to the House; which he read in his place, and afterwards delivered in at the Clerk's table, where the same was read, and is as followeth, viz:

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Committee that an humble Address be presented to his Majesty, to return his Majesty our most humble thanks for having been graciously pleased to communicate to this House the several Papers relating to the present state of the British Colonies in America, which by his Majesty's commands, have been laid before this House, and from which, after taking them into our most serious consideration, we find that a part of his Majesty's subjects in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, have proceeded so far to resist the authority of the supreme Legislature, that a rebellion at this time actually exists within the said Province; and we see with the utmost concern, that they have been countenanced and encouraged by unlawful combinations and engagements entered into by his Majesty's subjects in several of the other Colonies, to the injury and oppression of many of their innocent fellow-subjects resident within the Kingdom of Great Britain and the rest of his Majesty's Dominions. This conduct on their part appears to us the more inexcusable, when we consider with how much temper his Majesty and the two Houses of Parliament have acted in support of the Laws and Constitution of Great Britain; to declare that we can never so far desert the trust reposed in us, as to relinquish any part of the sovereign authority over all his Majesty's Dominions, which by law is vested in his Majesty and the two Houses of Parliament; and that the conduct of many persons in several of the Colonies, during the late disturbances, is alone sufficient to convince us how necessary this power is for the protection of the lives and fortunes of all his Majesty's subjects; that we ever have been, and always shall be ready to pay attention and regard to any real grievances of any of his Majesty's subjects, which shall in a dutiful and constitutional manner be laid before us; and whenever any of the Colonies shall make a proper application to us, we shall be ready to afford them every just and reasonable indulgence; but that, at the same time, we consider it as our indispensable duty humbly to beseech his Majesty, that his Majesty will take the most essential measures to enforce due obedience to the laws and authority of the supreme Legislature; and that we beg leave, in the most solemn manner, to assure his Majesty, that it is our fixed