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ion, that a Council, that should consist of a greater number of members than that which has hitherto subsisted in the Province, and that should be composed partly of his Majesty's old subjects, and partly of his new ones, would be a much fitter instrument of Government for the Province inks present state.
We have reason to hope, from the paternal care which his Majesty has hitherto shewn for our welfare, that the powers of this Council will be restrained by his Majesty within proper bounds, and that they will be made to approach, as near as possible, to the mildness and moderation which form the basis of the British Government.
We hope the rather that his Majesty will indulge us in the above requests, because we possess more than ten out of twelve of all the seigniories in the Province, and almost all the lands of the other tenure, which are holden by rent-service.
FR. SIMONNET, &c., &c.
PETITION FROM THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC, DELIVERED TO THE EARL OF DARTMOUTH, ON THE 18TH OF JANUARY, 1775, TO BE BY HIM PRESENTED TO THE KING.
To the King's Most Excellent Majesty:
The Petition of your Majesty's most loyal and dutiful, your ancient subjects settled in the Province of QUEBEC, most humbly Sheweth:
That we, upon the faith of your sacred Majesty's Royal Proclamation, bearing date the seventh day of October, which was in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-three, did come and settle ourselves in the said Province, purchasing Houses and Lands, and carrying on extensive Trade, Commerce, and Agriculture, whereby the value of the Land, and wealth of its inhabitants, are more than doubled; during all which time, we humbly crave leave to say, that we have paid a ready and dutiful obedience to Government, and have lived in peace and amity with your Majesty's new subjects. Nevertheless, we find, and, with unutterable grief, presume to say, that, by a late Act of Parliament, entitled "An Act for the making more effectual provision for the government of the Province of Quebec, in North America," we are deprived of the franchises granted by your Majesty's royal predecessors, and by us inherited from our forefathers; that we have lost the protection of the English Laws, so universally admired for their wisdom and lenity, and which we have ever held in the highest veneration, and in their stead the Laws of Canada are to be introduced, to which we are utter strangers, disgraceful to us as Britons, and, in their consequences, ruinous to our properties, as we thereby lose the invaluable privilege of Trials by Juries. That, in matters of a criminal nature, the Habeas Corpus Act is dissolved, and we are subjected to arbitrary fines and imprisonment, at the will of the Governour and Council, who may, at pleasure, render the certainty of the Criminal Laws of no effect, by the great power that is granted to them, of making alterations in the same.
We, therefore, most humbly implore your Majesty to take our unhappy state into your royal consideration, and grant us such relief as your Majesty, in your royal wisdom, shall think meet. And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
Quebec, November 12, 1774.
| Zach. Macaulty, | Quebec Committee | Thomas
Walker, | Montreal Committee |
| John Aitkin, | James Price, |
| John Paterson, | John Blake, |
| Randle Meredith, | Isaac Todd, |
| John Lees, | Alex. Paterson, |
| John Welles | John Porteous, |
| S. Fargues | |
| John M'Cord, | Thomas M'Murray, | G. Young, |
| Charles Grant, | Allen Paterson, | William Ashby, |
| Robert Woolsey, | James Symington, | Gavin Lourie, |
| Nicholas Bayard, | Abram Holmes, | Phil. Brickman, |
| C. Le Marchant, | JohnNeagle, | Benj. Holborn, |
| John Painter, | Peter Arnoldi, | Joseph Borrel, |
| Thomas M'Cord, | Daniel Robertson, | John Conolly, |
| Henry Grebassa, | Alexander Milmine, | John Durocher, |
| Robert Willcocks, | Thomas Fraser, | B. Janis, |
| John Renaud, | A. Porteous, | J. Joran, |
| hristy Cramer, | Joseph Ingo, | Jacob Maurer, |
| George Gregory, | Adam Scott, | Simon Levy, |
| Lewis Chaperon, | James Finlay, | Edward Chinn, |
| Frederick Petry, | Pat. M'Clement, | Richard M'Neall, |
| JamgsCuming, | WilliamPantree, | R. Cruickshanks, |
| William Laing, | Jacob Bittez, | John Comfort, |
| George Jenkins, | Leach Smith, | Adam Wentsel, |
| Francis Smith, | John Saul, | Allan M'Farlain, |
| Alex. Wallace, | Francis Anderson, | J. Vander Heyden, |
| Richard Dobie, | Simon Fraser, | Hinrick Gonnerman, |
| George Meusam | John Ross, | John Hare, Jun., |
| Samuel Jacobs, | John M'Cluer, | George W. Knowlee, |
| Nicholas Brown, | James Woods, | Benjamin Frobisher, |
| Michael Morin, | John Lees, | William Murray |
| William Kay, | Lemuel Bowles, | James Anderson |
| John Lilly, | Thomas Davidson | John Trotter, |
| John Sunderland, | Patrick O'Donnell, | Christopher Chron, |
| J. Grant, | Archibald Lawford, | William England, |
| James Morrison, | Simon Fraser, Jun., | Meeshach Leeng, |
| James Sinclair, | Richard Vincent, | Thomas Boyd, |
| John Chisholm, | Daniel Cameron, | John Mittleberger, |
| James Jeffry, | James Galbraith | Sol. Mittleberger, |
| Robert M'Fie, | Roderick M'Leod | Isaac Judah, |
| Fancis Atkinson, | John White Swift, | Peter M'Farlane, |
| David Shoolbred, | John Bondfield, | James May, |
| Jonas C. Minot, | William Callander, | Jacob Schieffelin, |
| Godfrey King, | David Geedes, | Benaiah Gibb, |
| John Land, | Samuel Morrison, | John George Walk, |
| Caleb Thorne, | John Thompson, | Michael Philips, |
| John Lees, Jun., | Alexander Hay, | C. Dumoulin, |
| Robert Jackson, | James Doig, | Francois Dumoulin, |
| Hugh Ritchie, | Joseph Bindon, | Duncan Cumming, |
| Alex.Lawson, | Andrew Hays, | William Haywood, |
| Charles Daily, | George Singleton, | Robert M'Cay, |
| Edw. Manwaring, | John Stonhouse, | James Robinson, |
| Michael Flanagan, | John Kay, | Jean Bernard, |
| J. Melvin, | D. Salesby Franks, | Lazarus David, |
| George Munro, | J. Richardson, Jun., | P. Bouthillier, |
| James Hanna, | James Loach, | Richard Walker, |
| Joseph Torrey, | Ezekiel Solomons, | Josiah Bleakley, |
| T. Walker, Jun., | James Perry, | Aaron Hart, |
| James D. White, | J. Beek, | Levy Solomons, |
| John Bell, | Law. Ermatinger, | Alexander Fraser, |
| Andrew M'Gill, | Simon M'Tavish, | Malcolm Fraser, |
| Samuel Holmes, | J. Pullman, | John M'Cord, Jun., |
| James Blake, | James Frazer, | Henry Dunn. |
| James Noel, |
PETITION PRESENTED TO THE 'KING, BY MESSRS. SIOLLESON, AND BRIDGEN, FROM THE COMMITTEE OF MERCHANTS, MARCH 23, 1775.*
To the King's Most Excellent Majesty:
The humble. Address and Petition of the Merchants, Traders, and others, of the City of LONDON, concerned in the Commerce of NORTH AMERICA:
We, your Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, the Merchants, Traders, and others, concerned in the Commerce of North America, beg leave to approach, and humbly lay before, your Majesty, those grievances, from the weight of which we are obliged to seek refuge in your royal wisdom and justice. An application of this extraordinary nature, we hope, will not be attributed to any design on our part to disturb your Majesty's Government, but to our present uncommon sufferings, the severity of which is aggravated by the prospect of future calamities.
We are constrained, with very deep concern, to observe, that the Ministers of your Majesty have, for some years past, adopted a new mode of Government, with regard to the Colonies; a mode which has created great disquietude in the minds of your Majesty's American subjects, and has been productive of repeated interruptions of the valuable Commerce carried on between this country and America. An evil of such magnitude awakes us from that silence which we have hitherto observed, in confidence that your Majes-
* While the Americans are preparing for opposition, the British Ministry are no less active in pursuing measures to counteract their endeavours; to increase their distresses; and to incite the Parliament to enact such laws, as either to render them desperate, and force them to resistance, or, by a tame acquiescence, to resign their boasted privileges of free English subjects. With this view to all the other Acts complained of by them as unconstitutional, an Act has passed, not only to restrain the Trade, but to cut off the subsistence of nearly one-sixth part of the inhabitants of the Provinces of Massachusetts Bay and New-Hampshire, the Colonies of Connecticut and Rhode-Island, and Providence Plantation, by prohibiting them from carrying on any fishery on the banks of Newfoundland, the toast of Labrador, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, on the coast of Cape Breton or Nova-Scotia, or any other part of North America,
without a certificate from a Governour or Commander-in-Chief of one of the British Colonies afore-said; which certificate depends entirely on the will of the Governour, and may be granted or withheld just as he shall please to direct.
Against this Act, so grievous in itself, so destructive to the commercial interests of this country, and so ruinous to individuals, the American Merchants petitioned both Houses of Parliament; but their Petition made no impression on either House. They, therefore, as their last resource, in all humility, determined to approach the Throne, and to seek that redress from the clemency of the King, which they had been denied by the unfeeling insensibility of his Ministers and their adherents. Accordingly a Petition was presented by a committee of this body, on the 23d of March.
This Address and Petition was soon after followed by another, which was presented at St. James's, by four of the principal people, called Quakers. To these Petitions it does not appear, by the papers, that any answer was given. —Gent. Mag.
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