wantonly provoked, the royal mercy will be displayed in the pardon of a people who have forfeited their lives and fortunes to the justice of the State; and that the protection of the British Legislature, under such form and restrictions, as the wisdom of Parliament shall think fit to prescribe, will again be extended to the Colonies, when they shall have learned to revere it.

Given at our house of Convocation, this twenty-sixth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five.

ADDRESS OF THE BOROUGH OF BRIDGEWATER.

Address of the Mayor, Aldermen, Capital Burgesses, and Inhabitants of the Borough of Bridgewater, in the County of Somerset, presented to His Majesty by the Honourable Anne Poulett, and Benjamin Allen, Esq., their Representative in Parliament.

To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty.

The humble Address of the Mayor, Aldermen, Capital Burgesses, and Inhabitants of the Borough of BRIDGE-WATER, in the County of SOMERSET.

Must Gracious Sovereign:

We, your Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Mayor, Aldermen, Capital Burgesses, and Inhabitants of the Borough of Bridgewater, beg leave to approach your Majesty with our unfeigned assurances of the most inviolable attachment to your Majesty’s person and Government.

Anxious for the glory of your Majesty’s reign, and for the prosperity of every part of this widely extended Empire, we observe, with the deepest concern and apprehension, the progress of the present dangerous and alarming troubles in America.

We therefore most humbly implore your Majesty graciously to permit us to express our most fervent hopes, that the wisdom of your Majesty’s counsels may point out and effect some happy plan of conciliation, which may restore peace and confidence in your Majesty’s Government, to your misguided American subjects, and which, without impairing the supreme legislative authority of this Country over any part of the British Empire, may continue and perpetuate to your Majesty’s Colonies in America, on a proper and constitutional basis, the enjoyment of the rights and privileges of a free people.

That your Majesty’s reign may be long and glorious, over a loyal and united people, is our constant and most earnest prayer.

ADDRESS OF THE OFFICERS OF THE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE MILITIA.

Address of the Officers of the Northamptonshire Militia, 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 Officers of the NORTHAMPTONSHIRE Militia.

May it please your Majesty:

We, the Officers of the Militia now assembled for the County of Northampton, humbly beg leave to give your Majesty this assurance of our readiness to defend your royal person against all foreign and domestick enemies, and to support the legal authority of the Crown in preserving entire the matchless fabrick of the British Constitution.

Northampton, October 26, 1775.

ADDRESS OF THE GENTLEMEN, ETC., OF THE TOWN OF DUNDEE.

Address of the Gentlemen, Clergy, Merchants, Manufacturers, Incorporated Trades, and principal Inhabitants of the Town of Dundee, transmitted to the Earl of Suffolk, one of His Majesty’s principal Secretaries of State, and presented to His Majesty.

To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty.

Most Gracious Sovereign:

We, your Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Gentlemen, Clergy, Merchants, Manufacturers, Incorporated Trades, and principal Inhabitants of the Town of Dundee, highly sensible of the happiness of our situation under your mild and most gracious Government, beg leave, in the most respectful manner, to address your Majesty with the utmost gratitude for the many blessings we enjoy. Zealous for the preservation of our most excellent Constitution, it is with pleasure and admiration we review the wisdom of your Councils, ever since your Majesty’s accession to the throne.

Sensible that your Majesty’s goodness reached the remotest corner of this extended Empire, it raised our indignation and surprise when first we heard of the ungrateful conduct of many of our American subjects; we never could have thought that they so soon would have forgot the hand that saved them; or that they, so lately at the expense of much blood and treasure, freed from the insults of a foreign power, and blessed with British freedom, would have dared to raise the standard of rebellion against your Government.

We would still fondly hope that they would yet return to their duty, and spare the further effusion of blood. But should they still continue in their obstinacy, we hope more vigorous methods will be adopted and continued, until they shall appear sensible of their crimes, content with their just rights, and atone for their offences by their submission to the laws of this Kingdom.

While we disapprove of the rebellious conduct of your Majesty’s subjects in America, we are sorry to think, that even some of our own countrymen, by their practices, rather appear the aiders and abetters of their treason. These, notwithstanding their specious pretences, we consider as the enemies of their Country, and view their endeavours to raise disturbances amongst us with abhorrence.

It is with pleasure we can assure your Majesty, that our trade hath as yet suffered nothing by the American ports being shut against us.

We are happy under your Majesty’s reign, and will most cheerfully, to the utmost of our power, exert ourselves, upon all occasions, to support the dignity of the crown and the true interest of Great Britain.

VIRGINIA COMMITTEE OF SAFETY.

Whereas Lord Dunmore, not contented with having involved the affairs of this Colony in extreme confusion, by withdrawing himself unnecessarily from the administration of Government, and exciting an insurrection of our slaves, hath lately, in conjunction with the officers of the Navy, proceeded to commence hostilities against His Majesty’s peaceable subjects in the Town and neighbourhood of Norfolk, captivated many, and seized the property of others, particularly slaves, who are detained from the owners; stopped all intercourse between the inhabitants of that Borough and the other parts of the Colony, except by such as are inimical to the rights of America, by means of whom provisions are supplied to the Troops, and intelligence conveyed to his Lordship of every material transaction, whilst none of his pernicious designs can transpire in the country until they are manifested by the execution of them.

The Committee of Safety, in order to counteract, as far as they can, so unjustifiable partiality, have unanimously resolved that no person whatsoever shall be allowed to pass to or from the Borough of Norfolk, or Town of Portsmouth, without a permit from the said Committee, or the Committee of the County or Corporation wherein such person resides, or from the commanding officer of one of the Regiments, or of a detachment therefrom, or from the commanding officer of a Company or detachment of Minute-Men or Militia, in actual service at the time of such permit; and all Committees, and all officers, civil and military, and all other persons, friends to America, are desired to attend to this Resolution.

By order of the Committee of Safety:

JOHN PENDLETON, JUN., Clerk.

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