| You are here: Home >> American Archives |
ADDRESS OF THE GENTLEMEN, ETC., OF THE COUNTY PALATINE OF LANCASTER. Address of the High Sheriff, Gentlemen, Clergy, and Freeholders of the County Palatine of Lancaster, presented to His Majesty by Sir Watts Horton, Bart., the High Sheriff, accompanied by the Right Honourable Lord Stanley, and Sir Thomas Egerton, Bart., the Representatives in Parliament of the said County. To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty. The humble Address of the High Sheriff, Gentlemen, Clergy, and Freeholders of the County Palatine of LANCASTER. Most Gracious Sovereign: We, your Majesty’s faithful and loyal subjects, the High Sheriff, Gentlemen, Clergy, and Freeholders of the County Palatine of Lancaster, humbly beg leave to approach the throne with all the sentiments of veneration and attachment due to the father of his people. Deeply impressed ourselves with a grateful sense of the blessings derived from your Majesty’s truly paternal Government, the spirit of which has been ever directed by the most sacred attention to the happiness and liberty of your people, we cannot, without astonishment and horror, behold a great part of our American fellow-subjects so regardless of these blessings, and ungrateful to the fountain from whence they flow, as to violate, in the most hostile and daring manner, every principle of legal authority and just subordination. From the whole tenor of your Majesty’s mild and auspicious reign, as well as the gracious assurances which have proceeded from the throne, we are fully convinced, that nothing on your Majesty’s part has been wanting to remedy these disorders, By methods consistent with the honour of this Country, and the felicity of its several members, That these deluded people still persist in their rebellious opposition to the constitutional authority of these Realms, must be imputed to the unwarrantable and criminal intentions of those who have usurped the rights and sovereignty amongst them; intentions which the most vigorous exertions may be required to defeat. To your Majesty, and the only rightful legislative body of these Dominions, we cheerfully confide the arduous task of restoring order and tranquillity, by every means which brave and loyal subjects can put into your hands; and we implore the Divine assistance on your counsels and exertions. For our parts, happy in expressing to your Majesty the duty, gratitude, and affection to your royal person and family, which animate this populous, commercial, and manufacturing County, we desire thus publickly to testify our determined resolution to support, by every assistance in our power, such measures as your Majesty and the Parliament shall think it necessary to adopt for the suppression of these daring and licentious attacks upon the peace of your Majesty’s Government, the vigour of the laws, and the dignity of the Constitution. ADDRESS OF THE GENTLEMEN, ETC, OF THE TOWN OF BOLTON. Address of the Gentlemen, Clergy, Tradesmen, and Manufacturers of the Town and neighbourhood of Bolton, in the Moors in the County Palatine of Lancaster, presented to His Majesty by the Right Honourable Lord Stanley, accompanied by Sir Thomas Egerton, Baronet, the Representatives in Parliament of the said County. To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty. The humble Address of the Gentlemen, Clergy, Tradesmen, and Manufacturers of the Town and neighbouhood of BOLTON, in the Moors in the County Palatine of LANCASTER. Most Gracious Sovereign: We, your Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Gentlemen, Clergy, Tradesmen, and Manufacturers of the Town and neighbourhood of Bolton, in the Moors, humbly beg leave to approach your royal presence, and, with hearts filled with gratitude, to express the just sense we have of your many kingly virtues, and of the numberless blessings we enjoy under your mild and auspicious Government. We consider as not the least of these the constant encouragement given by your Majesty to commerce, and, in consequence thereof, the greatly increased and flourishing state of the trade of this Town, the centre of the extensive cotton manufacture of this populous County. Thus bound by every tie of duty and affection, we should think ourselves highly criminal, were we backward in joining with the rest of your Majesty’s faithful subjects, in expressing our abhorrence of that groundless and unnatural rebellion now raging in many of your American Colonies. We have the greatest confidence that your Majesty, whose wisdom, clemency, and paternal goodness we have so long experienced, will employ the most effectual means to reduce to obedience our misguided fellow-subjects. Your Majesty may at all times rely upon our fidelity and firm attachment to your sacred person and family, and our utmost exertions in support of the legislative authority of these Realms. ADDRESS OF THE GENTLEMEN, ETC., OF THE TOWN OF BLACKBURN. Address of the Gentlemen, Clergy, Manufacturers, and principal Inhabitants of the Town of Blackburn, in the County Palatine of Lancaster, presented to His Majesty by Sir Thomas Egerton, Bart., accompanied by the Right Honourable Lord Stanley, the Representatives in Parliament of the said County. To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty. The humble Address of the Gentlemen, Clergy, Manufacturers, and principal Inhabitants of the Town and, neighbourhood of BLACKBURN, in the County Palatine of LANCASTER. Most Gracious Sovereign: We, your Majesty’s dutiful and loyal subjects, presume to approach the throne, to express our unfeigned gratitude for the blessings we have enjoyed under the paternal influence of your Government, and to testify our detestation of the unnatural and rebellious conduct of your American subjects, who, forgetful of the constant protection afforded them in all times of danger, at an immense expense, by their Parent Country, have, with unexampled ingratitude, set her at defiance, and most audaciously usurped the dominion of her Colonies. To the benignant care and affection which your Majesty hath shown to your people, in the protection of their liberties and the laws of the Constitution, and in the encouragement of trade and commerce, we attribute the great increase and extension of the manufactures carried on in this Town and neighbourhood, by which many thousands of your subjects are supported. And as reports have been industriously propagated, that the trade of this Kingdom is reduced to the most ruinous state, in consequence of the American rebellion, we think it our duty to contradict such assertions, so far as they respect the trade of this populous County. We rely, with the greatest confidence, on the wisdom of the Legislature, for the execution’of such measures as shall be thought most conducive to the suppression of this dangerous conspiracy, in which we beg leave to assure your Majesty of our utmost support. And when the Americans shall be sensible of their misconduct, and make a proper submission to that authority which they have so daringly opposed, we humbly presume to wish, that the protection of Government may be again extended to them, under such regulations as shall be thought necessary for the preservation of their future fidelity. GENERAL HOWE TO THE EARL OF DARTMOUTH. Boston, November 27, 1775. MY LORD: I have the honour to inform your Lordship, that the Whitby, transport, from Cork, with four Companies of the Seventeenth Regiment of Foot; two transports, having on board four Companies of the third Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, and two ships with ordnance stores, are safely arrived. The Brig Nancy, with ordnance stores, was spoke to by one of the King’s cruisers the 15th instant, and is the only ordnance store-ship missing, that sailed under convoy of the Phenix, man-of-war;
|