ADDRESS OF THE TOWN COUNCIL OF PAISLEY.

Address of the Magistrates and Town Council of Paisley, presented to His Majesty by John Craufurd Esq., Representative in Parliament for the County of Renfrew.

To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty.

The humble Address of the Magistrates and Town Council of PAISLEY, in Council assembled.

Most Gracious Sovereign:

We should be unworthy of the blessings which we enjoy as British subjects, did we fail, at this time, to express our attachment to that Government which conveys and secures them.

With much concern and abhorrence, we behold the unnatural and daring attempt of your Majesty’s American subjects to throw off their subjection to legal authority, and to subvert those very laws under which they have risen to power and opulence.

Enjoying true peace and liberty, we wish to see them restored to our fellow-subjects; and are convinced that this great end will be most effectually promoted by the steady exertion of those powers which the Constitution has vested in your Majesty; fully persuaded that they will ever be wisely employed by a Monarch who, while able to chastise rebellious subjects, declares from the throne that he is ready to receive the misled with tenderness and mercy. Animated with these sentiments, it is our steady purpose to support the rights of your Majesty, as Sovereign of all your Dominions, and the supreme authority of the British Legislature over the whole Empire.

We beg leave to assure your Majesty, that although this be among the first manufacturing Towns in North-Britain, and, by its situation, most likely to be affected by the unconstitutional proceedings of the Colonies, our trade, in most of its branches, in no degree has suffered from their ungrateful conduct. Our manufactures daily increase, and afford employment for thousands of loyal subjects; and we are persuaded that to enforce submission to the laws of Great Britain, is absolutely necessary to secure a lasting commerce with America.

For every advantage which we derive from your Majesty’s care and attention to the good of your people, we humbly beg leave to present to your Majesty our most sincere acknowledgments. That your Majesty may long reign over a happy and united people, is the earnest prayer of your Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Magistrates and Town Council of Paisley.

Signed in our name, and by our appointment, by our First Magistrate; and we have ordered the common seal of the Town to be hereto affixed.

JOHN STORIE.

Paisley, November 7, 1775.

ADDRESS OF THE GENTLEMEN, ETC., OF THE COUNTY OF RENFREW.

Address of the Gentlemen, Freeholders, Justices of the Peace, and Commissioners of the Land Tax of the County of Renfrew, presented to His Majesty by John Craufurd, Esq., their Representative in Parliament.

To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty.

The humble Address of the Gentlemen, Freeholders, Justices of the Peace, and Commissioners of the Land Tax of the County of RENFREW.

Most Gracious Sovereign:

We, your Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Gentlemen, Freeholders, Justices of the Peace, and Commissioners of the Land Tax of the County of Renfrew, humbly beg leave to approach your throne, with hearts full of zeal and affection for your Majesty’s person and Government.

Deeply impressed with a sense of gratitude and fidelity to your Majesty, happy under the influence of your mild and beneficent administration, rejoicing in the contemplation of your virtues, we beheld, with pity and with indignation, the daring attempts of your Colonies to disturb the tranquillity, and to interrupt the felicity of your reign.

We commiserate the errours, we detest the guilt of those deluded people, who, seduced by the wicked arts of designing men, and actuated by prejudice and passion, abuse the venerable name of liberty, and employ it as a cover for their treasonable purpose of withdrawing their allegiance from your Majesty, of renouncing their subordination to Great Britain, and of arrogating independence to themselves.

We assert the principle, that in the Constitution of every State there must be one supreme, uncontrollable power, whose dictates all must obey. We wish for no liberty to ourselves, and can admit of none to others, beyond what we all are entitled to by the laws of our Country. We disclaim those timid, interested, or factious suggestions in favour of lenity and concessions to subjects in rebellion, while they have arms in their hands. Upon their first return to duty and submission, none can doubt your Majesty’s gracious declaration that you will be ready to receive the misled with tenderness and mercy.

Though an occasional increase or diminution of trade must appear of less importance when the contest is for national honour and the preservation of great national rights, yet we cannot help observing, with satisfaction, that our commercial interests have not suffered by the defection of the American Provinces, and that their malignant combinations to distress and alarm this Country, by a total prohibition of trade, have happily been hitherto disappointed. The valuable and extensive manufactures of the Town pf Paisley, and other parts of this industrious and populous County, have at no period had a greater produce, or a more ready demand. Every hand is full of employment, and every heart full of confidence, relying on your Majesty’s wisdom and fortitude to put a speedy end to those disorders, and to restore the blessings of peace and concord to all your Dominions.

Permit us to assure your Majesty, that, animated by the united sentiments of loyalty, love of our Country, regard for our own interests, and those of our posterity, we are determined to exert our utmost efforts in support of your Majesty’s authority, the supreme power of the Legislature, and the constitutional dependance of every part of the British Empire.

Signed in our presence, and by our appointment.

WILLIAM MURE, Prases.

Paisley, November 7, 1775.

ADDRESS OF THE BOROUGH OF ANDEVOR.

Address of the Bailiff, Steward, Approved-Men, and Burgesses of the Borough of Andevor, in Common Council assembled, presented to His Majesty by Sir John Griffin Griffin, Knight of the Bath, and Benjamin Letheulliere, Esq., their Representatives in Parliament.

To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty.

The humble Address of the Bailiff, Steward, Approved-Men, and Burgesses of the Borough of ANDEVOR, in Common Council assembled.

Most Gracious Sovereign:

We, your Majesty’s most dutiful subjects, the Bailiff, Steward, Approved-Men, and Burgesses of your ancient Borough of Andevor, beg leave to approach your royal person, to testify the abhorrence we have of the rebellious revolt of many of your American subjects, under the false pretence of asserting rights they never had, but, in reality, with a design of casting off their allegiance to your Majesty, and their dependance on the British Empire, of which they are an undoubted part.

We have too much reason to fear that the spirit of disobedience, now raging in this distant part of your Majesty’s Dominions, with all the madness of arbitrary riot and cruelty, hath been worked up to its present alarming crisis by the artful insinuations of some designing leaders, who have themselves other pursuits in view than what their deluded followers may, perhaps, as yet suspect. We trust, and do most sincerely hope, this will eventually turn out to be the case, and that these unhappy and misguided men will soon see the fatal tendency of their rash proceedings, and return to their duty. And we are the rather inclined to hope this, as we cannot conceive that any number of men here, or in America, who have felt the blessings of your Majesty’s mild and gentle sway, can, when they come coolly to consider the consequences, wish to exchange it for any other.

It is to your Majesty, and to the illustrious Princes of

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