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on it. Only a day’s notice was given in one of our newspapers on Tuesday last. The advertisement was artfully penned, and the several country gentlemen, of story character, had been apprized of the meeting some time before; they therefore arrived on Wednesday, the 6th instant, to assist their friends in deceiving Government and injuring the whole community. You may depend upon it that the Address is signed by very few, excepting high churchmen, and men of jacobite principles. I believe one person who has signed it was in the last rebellion; but what is more discreditable than even these circumstances, it contains at least one notorious falsehood, in asserting the flourishing state of trade. You may take my word for it, trade is in a very languishing condition, and that the ensuing winter presents a most dismal prospect. A great part of our weavers are likely to be without work, and many thousands connected with them unemployed. It is probable, also, that provisions will be dear; add to these, that our manufacturing Towns will be as much injured as ourselves; and, further, that one-half of the sailors, those honest brave fellows, throughout the kingdom, will be deprived of the means of supporting themselves and families, owing to the number of ships laid up. Whoever considers such a situation of things must be alarmed with the apprehension of consequences. But as my assertions of the badness of trade will have most weight when supported by proofs, I shall set down a few facts; facts are stubborn tilings, and not to be whistled away. Mr. T. T . . . . and Mr. C. F. . . . . are well known to be two of our most considerable manufacturers. Now, I affirm that the first of these gentlemen has at present only one warper, and the latter no more than two. These particulars, Sir, are clear proofs of a reduced trade, as I doubt not they have often employed half a dozen warpers each for himself. I also affirm that their warehouses contain each an immense stock of goods, which they know not how to dispose of. I write from knowledge. How these men came to sign the address is surprising indeed. Sir Thomas Egerton, one of our County members, is in my opinion a worthy man. I respect him, though he knows little of me. How he came engaged in this dirty business I will not say. I would rather throw over him the veil of charity. It was indeed observed that he was very much agitated. He was so much fluttered that every one present at the meeting was sorry for him; and his appearance was that of a man conscious of being ill-employed. I believe something in the form of a Protest will be set about by the friends of liberty and commerce. I am, Sir, yours, &c. ADDRESS OF THE GENTLEMEN, ETC., OF MANCHESTER. Address of the Gentlemen, Clergy, Merchants, Manufacturers, and principal Inhabitants of the Town and neighbourhood of Manchester,* in the County Palatine of Lancaster, (unanimously adopted on the 6th of September, 1775,) presented to His Majesty by Sir Thomas Egerton, Bart., one of the Representatives in Parliament for the said County, attended by Mr. Clowes, Mr. Birch, Mr. Wright, Mr. Houghton, Mr. Ford, and Mr. Lever. To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty. The humble Address of the Gentlemen, Clergy, Merchants, Manufacturers, and principal Inhabitants of the Town and neighbourhood of MANCHESTER, in the County Palatine of LANCASTER. Most Gracious Sovereign: Actuated by an affectionate and dutiful regard for your many royal virtues, and firmly attached to that constitution which secures to us the enjoyment of liberties known only to British subjects, we presume, in the most loyal and respectful manner, to offer our tribute of gratitude to your Majesty, for the many blessings we have enjoyed under the benign influence of your government. Since your Majesty’s accession to the throne, commerce, the great source of wealth, hath been not only successfully encouraged, but firmly established in this island, and, under the auspices of peace, hath been carried to an extent unknown to your royal predecessors. Manufactures flourish in every part of your Majesty’s dominions, and particularly in this Town and neighbourhood, where they are daily advancing towards perfection, and where the lowest of your subjects are fully employed, and are blessed with the peaceable enjoyment of the fruits of their industry. Thus happy under your Majesty’s government, we look with horrour upon every attempt to disturb its tranquillity; and it is with inexpressible concern we behold the standard of rebellion erected in some of the American Provinces, and our fellow-subjects involved in an unnatural war against their lawful sovereign. We observe, with regret, that the lenity shown by your Majesty towards the insurgents hath been of no avail, but, instead of reclaiming, hath seemed rather to irritate and urge them on to more daring acts of violence; and as force is become necessary to bring them to a sense of their allegiance, we think ourselves bound in duty to assist your Majesty in the execution of the legislative authority. We are not intimidated at the prohibition laid by the Americans on the importation and exportation of goods to and from the British dominions. Our extensive trade happily flows in so many different channels, that the obstruction of one can but little distress, much less deter us from our duty to our King and Country. But whatever check our manufactures may receive by a necessary war, we shall cheerfully submit to a temporary inconvenience, rather than continue subject to lawless depredations from a deluded and unhappy people, as we are fully persuaded that trade with America can never be established, on its true basis, until the Colonies are reduced to a proper submission to the Government and laws of Great Britain. As Englishmen, we are led by inclination, as well as impelled by interest, to preserve the authority of the British Legislature, and to protect the dignity and prerogative of the Crown (as founded on the principles of the Constitution) sacred and inviolate. And we beg leave to assure your Majesty that we are ready to support, with our lives and fortunes, such measures as your Majesty shall think necessary for the punishment of rebellion in any part of your dominions, being convinced that the sword of justice will be directed by the hand of mercy towards such of your subjects as have been deluded by the artful designs of a discontented faction.
*This Town is infamously remarkable for being the only one in England where the Pretender found any number of friends. He entered it on the twentieth of November, 1745. After being proclaimed King, he beat up for volunteers, and so great was the zeal of the place that he soon raised a Regiment, the command of which he gave to a townsman of the name of Townly, whose head was afterwards fixed upon Temple Bar, where the remains of it are still to be seen; one Cappock, a Clergyman in the Town, also joined the Pretender, and was honoured with the title of Bishop of Carlisle. On the nineteenth of December following, when the rebels again passed through the Town, upon their retreat from Darby, the inhabitants spontaneously raised two thousand five hundred Pounds for the assistance of the Chevalier and friends to the good old cause, and they now subscribe six hundred thousand Pounds to enable Government to harass the Americans; confident they have no chance in an open attempt to expel the present family, they have recourse to intrigue, in hopes of rendering it so odious as to prevent all future confidence and reconciliation.—London, September 8, 1775.
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