We can very sincerely assure you, Sir, that we have ever considered your appointment to the chief command of this Province as a distinguishing mark of His Majesty’s paternal disposition towards us; and that the full effect of so wise and benevolent a designation we most earnestly hoped in those undisturbed operations of law and settled Government, which are so essential to real liberty.

Your attention to the true interest of this unhappy Town was, in our opinion, very early manifested, and your compassionate desire that some steps might be taken that should put it in your power to rescue us from impending ruin in our trade and navigation, we shall with gratitude for ever remember.

We cannot forbear to express our sentiments, that could a restoration to quiet and good order have been effected in this Province, by the influence of personal character, a gentleman of your Excellency’s established reputation for candour and justice, for moderation, and an obliging disposition, invested, at the same time, with the supreme military authority, could not have failed to have procured it.

Unhappily for this Country, the general sentiments were too strong, and too far heightened, for the efficacy of your humane exertions. It must, however, be evident, we think, to all the world, that to allay the ferment in this Province, without the effusion of human blood, has been your Excellency’s first object; and the pursuit will be your fame.

We have imagined, Sir, with great pleasure, your truly laudable intention and most noble ambition, of being viewed as the happy instrument in the appeasing all animosities, and in the reviving that mutual affection, as well as sense of united interest, which was once the strength and glory of Great Britain and her Colonies.

We need not wish your Excellency a higher enjoyment than what must arise from your own reflections on your constant sincere endeavours for the safety and happiness of the people under your Government, and from that countenance of approbation which we anticipate for you in the King.

Boston, October 6, 1775.

His Excellency’s Answer.

To the Gentlemen and Principal Inhabitants of the Town of BOSTON.

GENTLEMEN: I sincerely lament the miseries brought upon this once happy Country, through the deep designs and dark contrivances of ambitious men, to raise themselves from obscurity to power and emoluments; nor can I reflect without pain upon the infatuation of the multitude who enjoyed perfect liberty, who felt no oppression; but, deceived and betrayed, have flown to arms to avert evils that only existed in imagination; and in lieu of liberty, have madly erected a tyranny upon the ruins of the most free, happy, and lenient Government.

I thank you, gentlemen, for your address, and depart the Province in the firm hope that the people will recover from their delusion, and discover, before it is too late, that the Government they want to subvert is the surest guardian of their lives, property, and freedom.

THOMAS GAGE.

The Address of His Majesty’s Council.

To his Excellency General GAGE, Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty’s Forces in AMERICA, Captain General and Governour in and over His Majesty’s Province of the MASSACHUSETTS-BAY, &c.,&c.

May it please your Excellency:

We, His Majesty’s Council of the Massachusetts-Bay, having been honoured with your Excellency’s message, informing us of His Majesty’s orders, “that you should repair to England, to lay before him the state of affairs in this Colony,” beg leave to assure your Excellency, that from a sense of the many virtues which distinguish and adorn your character, we feel the most sincere regret at the necessary occasions which call you from us.

The critical situation of affairs in America, during your administration in the Province, has afforded an opportunity for the severest trial of those virtues; and we should betray a great degree of insensibility, or be wanting in common justice to your character, were we to suffer them to pass unnoticed. We reflect with gratitude upon that care and attention, by which we have been secured from many of the calamities and miseries with which we have been threatened.

Your concern for the evils we have unavoidably suffered has exceedingly endeared your Excellency to us; and we shall ever entertain a profound respect for the prudence, benevolence, and candour, which have been so conspicuous in your civil department, as well as the great steadiness, vigilance, and humanity, which have marked your military character.

We have seen with pleasure the many efforts you have made to avert this unhappy rebellion. We lament that the success has not been equal to your endeavours. But the undisturbed constancy and firmness with which you have pursued this principle, opposed to every abuse which wickedness, delusion, or enthusiasm could devise, has been as much the object of admiration to the loyal, as the subject of disappointment to the disaffected people of this Province. The difficulties you have had to encounter, during your administration, are known but to a few. Your patience and secrecy have kept them from the publick eye. To lay them open to the world, would be a subject offensive to your delicacy, as well as too large to come within the compass of our address.

We flatter ourselves, that our loyalty to the best of Kings will recommend us to the care and protection of your Excellency’s successors in command; whose characters, in their important stations, promise every encouragement we can wish. And we hope your Excellency will be pleased to recommend us to our gracious Sovereign; to assure him we are unalienably attached to his sacred person and Government; that hoping for his approbation, and relying on the benignity of his royal mind, we support ourselves with all possible patience, under the difficulties we are obliged to encounter.

We wish your Excellency a safe arrival at the Court of Great Britain, where we doubt not you will meet the gracious approbation of our royal master.

His Excellency’s Answer.

Gentlemen of the Council:

While I thank you for your kind address on my departure from the Province, you will permit me to testify the sense I have of your unshaken loyalty to the King and zeal for his Government.

You have stood forth in support of both, at a time when an unnatural and unprovoked rebellion has been wantonly raised to subvert our glorious Constitution, and have despised the menaces of open and concealed attempts upon your lives: nor has the seizure of your properties by the lawless hands of Rebels deterred you from a steadfast pursuit of that duty which every Briton owes to his King and Country.

Such a conduct cannot fail to recommend you highly to