which have brought on the calamities of this Empire, will not be trusted while they" defend, as just, necessary, and even indulgent, all the Acts complained of as grievances, by the Americans; and must, therefore, on their own principles, be bound in future to govern the Colonies in the manner which has already produced such fatal effects; and we fear that the refusal of this House, so much as to receive previous to determination (which is the most offensive mode of rejection) Petitions from the unoffending natives of Great Britain and the West India Islands, affords us but a very discouraging prospect of our obtaining hereafter any petitions at all, from those whom we have declared actors in rebellion, or abetters of that crime.

Lastly, because the means of enforcing the authority of the British Legislature, is confined to persons of whose capacity, for that purpose, from abundant experience, we have reason, to doubt; and who having hitherto used no effectual means of conciliating or of reducing those who oppose that authority: this appears in the constant failure of all their projects, the insufficiency of all their information, and the disappointment of all the hopes, which they have for several years held out to the publick. Parliament has never refused any of their proposals, and yet our affairs have proceeded daily from bad to worse, until we have been brought, step by step, to that state of confusion, and even civil violence, which was the natural result of these desperate measures.

We therefore protest against an Address amounting to a declaration of war, which is founded on no proper Parliamentary information; which was introduced by refusing to suffer the presentation of Petitions against it, (although it be the undoubted right of the subject to present the same,) which followed the rejection of every mode of conciliation; which holds out no substantial offer of redress of grievances; and which promises support to those Ministers who have inflamed America, and grossly misconducted the affairs of Great Britain.

Ordered, That the words "Lords Spiritual and Temporal, arid" be inserted in the said Address.

Ordered, That the said Agreement be communicated to the Commons at a Conference.

Ordered, That the said Address be presented to his Majesty by the Whole House.

Ordered, That the Lords with White Staves do wait on his Majesty, humbly to know what time his Majesty would please to appoint to be attended with the said Address.

A Message was ordered to be sent to the House of Commons, by Mr. Browning and Mr. Leeds:

"To desire a Conference with that House this day, at three o'clock in the afternoon, in the Painted Chamber, upon the subject matter of the last Conference."

Ordered, That the Managers of the last Conference be the Managers of this.

Upon reading the Petition of the Merchants, Traders, and others, of the City of London, concerned in the American commerce, setting forth—

"That the Petitioners are essentially interested in the commerce, which, for many years, hath been carried on with the British Colonies in America, to the increase of the Manufactures, the improvement of the Revenues, the support of the Naval strength of Great Britain, and to the extension of the general trade of the whole Empire: And considering the happy effect of those laws which the British Legislature had, from time to time, enacted for the regulation of this commerce, the Petitioners were warranted in presuming that human wisdom could not have framed a more effectual institution for the attainment and security of these valuable objects. It is to the operation of laws incompatible with this institution, that the Petitioners can alone attribute the frequent interruptions which of late years have prevailed in this commerce; the total stagnation which at present subsists in the export trade with the greatest and most important part of North America; the certain ruin with which the whole of that valuable and extensive commerce, and thousands of industrious Manufacturers in these Kingdoms, are threatened; the large and fatal diminution which the national revenue must inevitably sustain, and the sensible decline of publick credit. Under these circumstances, the Petitioners are constrained, by a sense of that duty which they owe to themselves, their fellow-subjects, and their posterity, to appear before this right honourable House with these their respectful but just complaints. The Petitioners approach this right honourable House with the greater confidence, when they reflect, that the Peers of this Realm are he hereditary Counsellors of the Crown, and the constitutional guardians of those invaluable interests, by which the most distant subjects of the Empire are inseparably united. And relying on their justice for a fair construction of the motives which induced them to this necessary application, the Petitioners rest assured that they shall not be deemed to have brought under the consideration of this right honourable House, matters of trivial concern, when they humbly submit, that the fundamental policy of those laws of which they complain, and the propriety of enforcing, relaxing, or amending the same, are questions essentially connected with the commerce between Great Britain and America; and consequently, that the consideration of the one cannot be entered on without a full discussion of the other;" the Petitioners, therefore, most humbly pray this right honourable House, "That they will enter into an immediate examination of that excellent system of commercial regulation, on the faith of which the intercourse between Great Britain and her Colonies hath been founded and maintained to ah extent, and with a success, of which history affords no example. And weighing the true cause of that disorder by which this happy intercourse hath been disturbed, will apply such healing remedies as can alone restore and establish the same on a permanent foundation;" and therefore, praying their Lordships, "That no resolution may be taken by this right honourable House, respecting America, until they shall have been heard by themselves, their Agents, or Counsel, in support of this Petition."

It is ordered that the said Petition do lie on the table.

Upon reading the Petition of the Planters of his Majesty's Sugar Colonies residing in Great Britain, and of the Merchants of London trading to the said Colonies, whose names are thereunto subscribed, setting forth—

"That the Petitioners are exceedingly alarmed at an Agreement and Association entered into by the Congress held at the City of Philadelphia, in North America, on the 5th of September, 1774, whereby the Members thereof agreed and associated for themselves and the inhabitants of the several Provinces lying between Nova Scotia and Georgia, that from and after the first day of December, 1774, they would not import into British America any Molasses, Syrups, Paneles, Coffee, or Pimento, from the British Plantations; and that after the tenth day of September, 1775, if the Acts and the parts of Acts of the British Parliament therein mentioned, are not repealed, they would not directly or indirectly export any Merchandise or commodity whatsoever to the *East Indies. And the Petitioners do most humbly represent, that the British property or stock vested in the West India Islands, amounts to upwards of thirty millions sterling; that a farther property of many millions is employed in the commerce created by the said Islands, a commerce comprehending Africa, the *East Indies, and Europe; that the whole profits and produce of these capitals ultimately centre in Great Britain, and add to the national wealth, while the navigation necessary to all its branches establishes a strength which, wealth can neither purchase nor balance; that the Sugar Plantations in the West Indies are subject to a greater variety of contingencies than many other species of property, from their necessary dependence or external support; and that therefore, should any interruption happen in the general system of their commerce, the great national stock thus vested and employed, must become unprofitable and precarious; that the profits arising from the present

* It is thus in the Journal, but in the original Petition it is West.

* It is thus both in the Journal and in the original Petition.