ADDRESS OF THE GENTLEMEN, CLERGY, ETC., OF THE TOWN OF NOTTINGHAM.

Address of the Gentlemen, Clergy, Manufacturers, and principal Inhabitants of the Town of Nottingham, transmitted to the Earl of Rochford, one of His Majesty’s principal Secretaries of State, and presented to His Majesty.

To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty.

The humble Address of the Gentlemen, Clergy, Manufacturers, and principal Inhabitants of the Town of NOTTINGHAM.

Most Gracious Sovereign:

Truly sensible of the many blessings we enjoy under your Majesty’s Government, we humbly beg leave to approach the throne, to express our abhorrence of that spirit of faction and rebellion which has broken out, and still exists, in some of the Colonies in America. However their behaviour may be cloaked under the specious pretence of liberty, yet it is not difficult to discover that the term is only prostituted to the vilest and most unwarrantable purposes, The daring insults shown to your Majesty’s person and Government, we have seen with a mixture of indignation and contempt, and could not help lamenting the licentiousness of the times, and the too fashionable mode, now adopted by many, of reproaching the most sacred characters. We feel the necessity your Majesty was under, in taking the part you did in this crisis of affairs in America, as it was impossible for your Majesty not to foresee, that unless Government be supported with firmness and fortitude, confusion and disorder must inevitably ensue.

Though we are sorry to give the most distant hint that any of the subjects in this Kingdom can have been disaffected to your Majesty, yet we cannot so far disguise our opinion as not to say that we believe, had not the flames of sedition been blown up by turbulent and dissatisfied minds, the disputes now subsisting between the Mother Country and her Colonies had long since been accommodated.

The association forming in the Metropolis is a confirmation of our opinion; but we have the satisfaction to hope that your Majesty’s loyal subjects will convince these few mistaken men that, their attempts to sow the seeds of discord amongst us will prove as impotent as they are wicked, and that their design will be too glaring to escape the notice, and their aim too detestable not to excite the honest indignation of the publick. In this situation, whom have we to look up unto but your Majesty, who is at once the guardian of the rights and the avenger of the injuries of our Country? It becomes, therefore, our duty to implore your Majesty’s protection, and to offer you every assistance in our power.

As clemency and mercy are the criterion of a noble mind, it will be impossible for your Majesty not to exercise them, whenever proper concessions may be made from America; but till then, relying on the wisdom of your Majesty and your Council, we trust you will take such measures as may effectually bring back the Colonists to a sense of their duty, and at the same time convince them, that when the honour and dignity of the crown demand obedience, your Majesty will not bear the sword in vain.

October 20, 1775.

ADDRESS OF THE TOWN OF NOTTINGHAM.

Address of the Mayor and Burgesses of the Town of Nottingham, presented by Lord Howe and Lord Edward Bentinck.

The humble Address of the Mayor and Burgesses of the Town of NOTTINGHAM, in Common Council assembled.

To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty:

We, your Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Mayor and Burgesses of the Town of Nottingham, in Common Council assembled, beg leave to approach your royal presence with that submissive and grateful affection which is due to the illustrious descendant of the House of Hanover, and, with all humility, to supplicate the intervention of your Majesty’s wisdom and power for averting those unusual calamities which hang over our Country, and which affect us with the deepest concern. In the present critical situation of these Kingdoms, it becomes Britons to drop every consideration but that of love to their Sovereign and their Country, and to unite as one man in their endeavours, by all lawful means, to stay those evils which threaten to involve the whole British community in one general distress. Impressed with this sentiment, permit us, Sire, to express our dread of the consequences of those Addresses, which, making a show of peculiar loyalty to your Majesty, and of distinguished zeal for the rights of the British Legislature, recommend an unyielding pursuit of measures, which, whether constitutional or not, if we may judge from present appearances, are perhaps as impracticable as they are ruinous. We would yield to none in a faithful attachment to your Majesty’s sacred person and Government, or in a zealous concern for the permanence and dignity of our well-tempered Constitution. By these principles your Majesty’s Corporation of Nottingham has ever been distinguished, and these principles would we transmit, as the most valuable inheritance, to posterity. We would meet the best subjects of your Majesty in all their loyalty and zeal, but at the same time check, if possible, that intemperate passion, which, for the sake of uncertain and ideal advantages, would hazard the dismembering of the British Empire, and the loss of those Provinces, to which the dignity of your Majesty’s crown, and the prosperity, wealth, and power of these Kingdoms, have been so largely indebted, and on which the preservation from the ambitious attempts of rival nations may hereafter principally depend. We wish to see one presiding spirit actuate the whole British Empire. We wish to see a due subordination maintained through the whole to the authority of the British Legislature, nor would we be thought to countenance any claims that lead to independence; but we fear the hand of force will never answer the wishes of any friend to this Country. We dread even victory itself— every victory but that over the wills and affections of our American fellow-subjects, which arms and violence are but ill-fitted to produce, as any other victory can be but temporary and delusive, since the disunion of affections with America would rob us of the most valuable advantages of conquest, and no armed force which this Nation can spare, is, we apprehend, equal to the unwilling subjection of so wide a Dominion.

Permit us, gracious Sovereign, with all humility, to express our concern at seeing our gallant officers and soldiers, in whom the generous sense of duty and honour declines no danger, exposed in this unfortunate and unequal contest, and our regret that their courage is not reserved for a field in which, against the natural enemies of Britain, they might win honour to themselves and advantage to their Country; in particular we grieve to find absent, on such an errand, a descendant of that noble family, which, in every walk of glory, has equalled the Roman name, to whom we had intrusted our representation in Parliament, where, by his services to his Country and to America, he might have perpetuated that grateful remembrance which his brother had so gloriously acquired.

From this melancholy view, Sire, we would willingly turn our own eyes, nor presume to introduce to your Majesty, if we did not hope that so awful a scene might draw your royal attention, and induce to that relief which it is in your Majesty’s power to bestow. Actuated no less by unfeigned affection to your royal person and Government, and to the true dignity and happiness of the Throne, than zeal for the welfare of our Country and of posterity, we have ventured to represent these truths in the serious and affecting light in which we view them. May our Address appear to your Majesty in its honest simplicity and integrity; may it contribute, with the requests of other your Majesty’s faithful subjects, to call forth your paternal regard for your afflicted people.

The first object of our desires and wishes is the return of peace and cordial union with our American fellow-subjects; and to this end, most gracious Sovereign, we make it our humble and earnest request that your Majesty would suspend those hostilities, which, we fear, can have no other than a fatal issue, and, in your great wisdom and goodness, restore that better system of interchangeable interests and affections, of whose blessing no just calculation can be formed, and which a long experience has proved to be an ample foundation for every desirable advantage to this Country.