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establishment of my Naval Forces. I cannot, sufficiently, thank you for the cheerfulness and publick spirit with which you have granted the Supplies for the several Services of the current year.
My Lords and Gentlemen:
I have nothing to desire of you, but to use your best endeavours to preserve and to cultivate, in your several Counties, the same regard for publick order, and the same discernment of their true interests, which have, in these times, distinguished the character of my faithful and beloved people; and the continuance of which cannot fail to render them happy at home, and respected abroad.
After which the Lord Chancellor, by his Majesty's command, said:
My Lords and Gentlemen:
It is his Majesty's royal will and pleasure, that this Parliament be prorogued to Thursday, the 27th day of July next, to be then here held; and this Parliament is, accordingly, prorogued to Thursday, the 27th day of July next.
PETITION FROM THE FREEHOLDERS, ETC., OR QUEBEC
To the King's Most Excellent Majesty:
The most humble Petition of the subscribers, your Majesty's ancient and loyal subjects, Freeholders, Merchants, and Planters, in the Province of QUEBEC, in NORTH AMERICA, Sheweth:
That, whereas, your Majesty, by your Royal Proclamation, bearing date at St. James's, the seventh day of October, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-three, was most graciously pleased to publish and declare, "That out of your Majesty's paternal care for the security of the liberty and properties of those who then were, or should thereafter become, inhabitants of the four several Governments, therein mentioned, (of which this your Majesty's Province was denominated to be one) your Majesty had, in the Letters Patent, by which the said Governments were constituted, given express power and direction to your Governours, that so soon as the state and circumstances of those Governments would admit of it, they should, with the advice of your Majesty's Councils, summon and call General Assemblies, within the said Governments, respectively, in such manner and form as is used and directed in those Colonies and Provinces, in America, which are under your Majesty's immediate government. And, also, that your Majesty had been graciously pleased to give power to your said Governours, with the consent of your Majesty's said Councils, and the Representatives of the people, so to be summoned as aforesaid, to make, constitute, and ordain Laws, Statutes, and Ordinances, for the publick peace, welfare, and good government of your Majesty's said Colonies, and of the people and inhabitants thereof, as near as might be agreeable to the laws of England, and under such regulations and restrictions as are used in other Colonies." And, whereas, it has graciously pleased your Majesty, in the Letters Patent of Commission to your Captain-General and Governour-in-Chief, and in case of his death, or during his absence, in the Letters Patent of Commission to your Majesty's Lieutenant Governour of this Province, to give and grant unto him full power and authority, with the advice and consent of your Majesty's Council, so soon as the situation and circumstances of this Province would admit of it, and when, and as often as need should require, to summon and call General Assemblies of the Freeholders and Planters within this Government, in such manner as he, in his discretion, should judge most proper. And whereas your Petitioners, whose properties, real and personal, in this Province are become very considerable, having well considered its present state and circumstances, and humbly conceiving them to be such as to admit the summoning and calling a General Assembly of the Free-holders and Planters, did, on the third day of December, last past, present their humble Petition to the Honourable Hector Theophilus Cramahé, Esquire, your Majesty's Lieutenant Governour, and now Commander-in-Chief, stating as above, and humbly praying that he would be pleased, with the advice and consent of your Majesty's Council, to summon and call a General Assembly of the Freeholders and Planters within this Government, in such manner as he, in his discretion, should judge most proper. And your Majesty's said Lieutenant Governour, on the eleventh day of December, last past, after having taken the said Petition into his consideration, was pleased to inform your Petitioners that the subject of the said Petition was a matter of too much importance for your Majesty's Council here to advise, or for him, your said Lieutenant Governour, to determine upon, at a time that, from the best information, the affairs of this Province were likely to become an object of publick regulation; but that he would transmit the said Petition, by the first opportunity, to your Majesty's Secretary of State.
Your Majesty's Petitioners being fully convinced, from their residence in the Province, and their experience in the affairs of it, that a General Assembly would, very much, contribute to encourage and promote Industry, Agriculture, and Commerce, and (as they hope) to create harmony and good understanding between your Majesty's new and old subjects, most humbly supplicate your Majesty to take the premises into your royal consideration, and to direct your Majesty's Governour, or Commander-in-Chief, to call a General Assembly, in such manner, and of such constitution and form, as to your Majesty, in your royal wisdom, shall seem best adapted to secure its peace, welfare, and good government. And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, shall ever pray, &c.
Montreal, January 10, 1774.
| Jenkin Williams, | Zachary Smith, | Ezekiel Solomons, |
| John Welles, | John Lynd, | Levy Solomons, |
| Randle Meredith, | James Hanna, | James Doig, |
| Alexander Davison, | John White Swift, | James Finlay, |
| John Loes, Jun., | R. Gray, John | Gregory, |
| K. Byard, | Robert M'Fie, | Benj. Frobisher, |
| P. Mills, | Alexander Lawson, | Joseph Bindon, |
| John Halsted, | Frederick Petry, | James M'Gill, |
| James Tod, | Francis Anderson, | John Stenhouse, |
| Arthur Davidson, | Hugh Ritchie, | Alexander Henry, |
| JohnMajer. | George Hipps, | Solomon Milleberges, |
| J. Melvin, | Daniel Robertson, | William Slurray, |
| Simon Fraser, Jun., | John Wharton, | Alexander Henry, |
| Duncan Munro, | Dumas, | James Price, |
| W. Lindsay, | Samuel Morrison, | William Heywood, |
| D. Lynd, | George Singleton, | Jean El Wadery, |
| William Laing, | Alexander Paterson, | Hugh Farries, |
| William Keith, | Charles Paterson, | John Sunderland, |
| Charles Hay, | Peter Arnold, | Samuel Edge, |
| Daniel Morrison, | Edward Antill, | Abraham Holmes, |
| Charles Grant, | John Lilly, | Samuel Holmes, |
| William Grant, | John Porteous, | Richard Livingston, |
| Zachary Macaulay, | John Thomson, | John Richardson, |
| John M'Cord, | Edward Chinn, | John Jones, |
| Adam Lymburner, | G. Christio, | Robert Simpsell, |
| John Renaud, | Chabrand de Lisle, | James Fraser, |
| Alexander Fraser, | Minister, | James Noel, |
| Jonas Clarke Minot, | Pierre du Calvet, | J. Pullman, |
| Murdoch Stuart, | J. Grant, | Robert Cruckshank, |
| Michael Cornud, | Alexander Hay, | John Neagle, |
| Robert Woolsey, | Edward Win. Gray, | Peter Forbes, |
| D. Gallway, | Richard Huntley, | Allan M'Farlin, |
| Thomas M'Cord, | John Blake, | John Trotter, |
| John Ross, | James Blake, | Nicholas Brown, |
| John Burke, | George Measam, | Philip Brichmerr, |
| Francis Smith, | Richard Dobie, | Edward Cox, |
| Rod. Macleod, | Thomas Walker, | Roger M'Cormick, |
| Godfrey King, | Thomas Walker, Jr., | Philip Loch, |
| John Saul, | Richard Walker, | John Marteilhe, |
| George Jenkins, | William Weir, | James S. Godard, |
| Malcolm Fraser, | John Kay, | Peter M'Farland, |
| John Lees, | William M'Carty, | Andrew Porteous, |
| Alexander Martin, | Law. Ermatinger, | C. Dumoulin, |
| Simon Fraser, | James D. White, | G. Young, |
| Henry Boone, | Thomas M'Murray, | Thomas Duggan, |
| Charles Lemarchant, | James Morrison, | J. Duggan, |
| John De Mercier, | Jean Bernard, | William Aird, |
| Jacob Row, | Richard M'Neall, | John Migad, Major, |
| James Sinclair, | Joseph Howard, | Daniel M'Killip. |
| George King, | J. Vander Heyden. |
To the Right Honourable the Earl of DARTMOUTH, one of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State.
The Memorial of the Freeholders, Merchants, Planters, and others, his Majesty's ancient and loyal subjects, now in the Province of QUEBEC, Sheweth:
That your Lordship's Memorialists, encouraged by the capitulation of Canada, confirmed by the Definitive Treaty of Peace, and his Majesty's Royal Proclamation of the 7th October, 1763, did purchase Lands, Plant, Settle, and carry
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