office, can answer no other purpose. We confider that to be an indemnity which renders trial, and confequently punishment impracticable. And trial is impracticable when the very governor, under whose authority acts of violence may be committed, is impowered to fend the inftruments of that violence to three thousand miles distance from the scene of their offence, the reach of their profecutor, and the local evidence which may tend to their conviction. The authority given by this bill to compel the tranfpor tation from America to Great-Britain, of any number of witneffes at the pleasure of the parties profecuting and profecuted, without any regard to their age, fex, health, circumftances, bufinefs or duties, feems to us fo extravagant in its principle, and fo impracticable in its execution, as to confirm further in our opinion of the fpirit which animates the whole fyftem of the prefent American regulations.

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proclamation; and do hereby dif folve the faid parliament accordingly and the Lords fpiritual and temporal, and the knights, citizens, and burgeffes, and the commiffioners for fhires and burghs, of the houfe of commons, are discharged from their meeting and attendance, on Tuesday the faid 15th day of November next. And we being defirous and refolved, as foon as may be, to meet our people, and to have their advice in parliament, do hereby make known, to all our loving fubjects, our royal will and pleasure to call a new parliament: and do hereby further declare that, with the advice of our privy council we have, this day, given order to our chancellor of Great Britain to iffue out writs, in due form, for calling a new parliament; which writs are to be attefted on Saturday the ift day of October next, and to be returnable on Tuesday the 29th day of November following.

Given at our court at St. James's the 30th day of September, 1774, in the 14th year of our reign..

attempts in that and other provinces of America, to obftruct, by unlawful combinations, the trade of this kingdom.

To return his majefty our humble thanks for having been pleafed to communicate to us, that he has taken fuch meafures, and given fuch orders, as his majefty hath judged most proper and effectual for the protection and fecurity of the commerce of his majesty's fubjects, and for carrying into execution the laws, which were paffed in the laft feffion of the late parliament, relative to the province of the Maffachufett's Bay.

To express our entire fatisfaction in his majesty's firm and stedfast refolution to continue to fupport the fupreme authority of the legiflature over all the dominions of his crown, and to give his majesty the ftrongest affurances that we will chearfully co-operate in all fuch meafures as fhall be neceffary to maintain the dignity, fafety, and welfare of the British empire.

That as this nation cannot be unconcerned in the common intereft of Europe, we have the greateft fatisfaction in being acquainted with the conclufion of the peace between Ruffia and the Porte that we confide in his majesty's endeavours to prevent, as far as poffible, the breaking out of fresh difturbances; and from the affurances given to his majefty by other powers, we have the pleafing expectation that nothing is likely to intervene that may interrupt the prefent happy tranquillity in Eu

rope.

That it is no lefs our duty than our inclination to proceed with temper and unanimity in our deliberations and refolutions, and to

inculcate, by our example, a due reverence for the laws, and a just fenfe of the excellency of our conftitution; and, impreffed with the deepest gratitude for the many bleffings we have enjoyed during the courfe of his majesty's reign, to testify with unaffected zeal at this conjuncture our inviolable fidelity to his majesty, and our ferious attention to the public welfare.

Then an amendment was propofed to be made to the faid motion, by inferting, after the word throne, at the end of the first paragraph, these words :

To defire his majefty would be graciously pleased to give direction for an early communication of the accounts which have been received concerning the ftate of the colonies, that we may not proceed to the confideration of this moft critical and important matter, but upon the fulleft information; and when we are thus informed, we fhall, without delay, apply ourselves with the most earnest and ferious zeal to fuch measures as fhall tend to fecure the honour of his majefty's crown, the true dignity of the mother country, and the harmony and happiness of all his majesty's dominions.

Which being objected to,
After long debate,

The question was put, whether these words fhall be inferted in the faid motion?

It was refolved in the negative.
Contents

Not contents

DISSENTIENT.

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Because we cannot agree to commit ourselves with the careless facility of a common addrefs of compliment, in expreffions, which may lead to measures in the event fatal

to

to the lives, properties, and liberties of a very great part of our fellow-fubjects.

We conceive that an addrefs upon fuch objects as are before us, and at fuch a time as this, muft neceffarily have a confiderable influence upon our future proceedings; and muft imprefs the public with an idea of the general fpirit of the measures which we mean to fupport.

Whatever methods we shall think it adviseable to purfue, either in fapport of the mere authority of parliament, which feems to be the fole confideration with fome, or for reconciling that authority with the peace and fatisfaction of the whole empire, which has ever been our conftant and invariable object, it will certainly add to the weight and efficacy of our proceedings, if they appear the refult of full information, mature deliberation, and temperate enquiry.

No materials for fuch an enquiry have been laid before us; nor have any fuch been fo much as promised in the fpeech from the throne, or even in any verbal affurance from minifters.

In this fituation we are called upon to make an addrefs, arbitrarily impofing qualities and defcriptions upon acts done in the colonies, of the true nature and just extent of which we are as yet in a great meafure unapprized; a procedure which appears to us by no means confonant to that purity which we ought ever to preserve in our judicial, and to that caution which ought to guide us in our deliberate capacity.

2. Because this addrefs does, in effect, imply an approbation of the fyftem adopted with regard to the

This unfortunate fyftem, conceived with fo little prudence, and purfued with fo little temper, confiftency, or forefight, we were in hopes, would be at length abandon. ed, from an experience of the mifchiefs which it has produced, in proportion to the time in which it was continued, and the diligence with which it has been purfued; a fyftem which has created the utmost confufion in the colonies, without any rational hope of advantage to the revenue, and with certain detriment to the commerce of the mother country. And it affords us a melancholy prospect of the dif pofition of lords in the prefent par. liament, when we fee the house, under the preffure of fo fevere and uniform an experience, again ready, without any enquiry, to countenance, if not to adopt, the spirit of the former fatal proceedings.

But whatever may be the mif. chievous defigns, or the inconfiderate temerity, which leads others to this defperate courfe, we wish to be known as perfons who have ever difapproved of measures fo pernicious in their past effects, and their future tendency, and who are not in hafte, without inquiry or information, to commit ourselves in declarations which may precipitate our country into all the calamities of a civil war.

THEREAS at the adjustment of the peace with the

King of Morocco, the renewal and fixing the boundaries of the territory, which is annexed to my forts on the coafts of that kingdom, were fettled, as alfo the reftitution of deferters, and various other conditions, which all teftify the faid prince's recognition of the inconteftible right in my crown to those places, fituate in countries which had been part of the Spanish monarchy; and although by the very act of the King of Morocco himfelf having complied with thefe ftipulations, it appears, that living in peace with chriftians who occupied thofe places in Africa, was not in. confiftent with the fect which he profeffes; notwithstanding all this, he, doubtless not attending to all the advantages which he receives from peace and commerce with my dominions, has written me a letter, in which, founding himself upon maxims and principles of his own fect and policy, ftrange and new ones entirely, compared with thofe received among European nations, he tells me, that he will make war against thefe ports, and pretends, at the fame time, that fuch a ftep is not to interrupt the friendship, the intercourfe, and commerce betwixt our refpective ftates, &c. as appears from the tenor of the faid letter; which, being tranflated from the Arabic, is literally as follows:

"In the name of the merciful God, and there is no help but in the great God. "Mahomed Ben Abdalla, (L.S.) The 15th of the month of Rageb, in the year 1188.

"To the King of Spain. "Health to him who follows the law, and perfifts therein. Know ye, that we are in peace with you

according to the treaties of peace made between us and you: but the Mahometans of our dominions, and of Algiers, have agreed, faying: That they will not fuffer any Christian whatever to be on the coafts of Mahometan countries from

Ceuta to Oran, and they will recover to themselves the poffefsion › of them; for which reafon they have requested us to attend ferioufly to this affair, faying, "Thou haft no excufe for remaining quiet, or confenting that Mahometan countries fhould remain in the power of Chriftians, at a time when God hath given thee forces and warlike inftruments, fuch as no one else hath." It was not poffible for us not to attend to their inftances, or affift them upon this fubject: and now we are defirous of taking the matter into confideration. If the Algerines undertake the war together with us, as they have defired to do, it is well; but if they withdraw themfelves, and oppofe what they themselves have defired; we will confider them as enemies, and fight in perfon, till God fhall decide between us and them. And this bufinefs is not against the peace which fubfifts betwixt us and you: your traders and their fhips will remain as before, and will take their provifions and other things from any of our ports, as they pleafe, conforming to the customs now obferved in them, agreeable to the marine treaty between our respective caravels, and your fhips fhall receive no damage, fo that your fubjects will trade in all our dominions, and will travel by land and by fea, with all fecurity, and nobody will hurt them, because we have eftablished peace with you, which we will not break, if you, on your part, do not :-In

which cafe you will be allowed four months, that every body may know it; and what we have faid concerning our going to the faid countries, is, because we are obliged to it, and have no method of excufing ourselves from it. But with refpect to peace at fea, we will do according to our own will. And now we give you an account of the truth of this bufinefs, that you may be advised thereof, and confider what fuits you; and we have figned this letter with our own illuftrious hand, that you may be affured of its certainty. Greeting, the 15th day of the month of Rageb, in the year 1188." (19th Sept. 1774.)

And judging it unbecoming my fovereignty to liften to, much lefs to admit fuch propofitions; and being befides informed that the perfon who was charged by the King of Morocco to deliver this letter to the governor of Ceuta for me, had declared, that, in proof of the peace being at an end, the Moors in the camp would fire against the fort with balls as foon as he had left it; which they actually did; and being informed that the faid Moors have fince continued to fire against certain fishermen's boats, which were near them as ufual, by which hoftilities the Moors have broken the peace; I have refolved, upon account of these acts, and from the time they were committed, to declare, That it is to be understood, that the friendship and good harmony with the King of Morocco is interrupt. ed, all communication is to ceafe between my fubjects and his, and things to return to the ftate of war, by fea and land, in which they were before the treaty was fettled, keeping up only the 17th article of it, in which it was ftipulated,

that, in cafe of a rupture, fix months fhould be allowed to the individuals of both nations to retire freely to their respective countries with their goods and effects, which I order fhall be kept and obferved punctually with the Morocco fubjects; being perfuaded, that that prince will obferve the fame with refpect to mine. And whereas lately, the King of Morocco having fent me fome Spanish captives, which he had obtained from the regency of Algiers, I did order the alcaide who brought them, that not only all the Morocco Moors, who, by having been taken on board Algerine veffels, were prifoners in Carthagena, fhould be de livered up, but alfo all the wounded and old Algerines who were there; am defirous that thefe unhappy people fhould effectually have their liberty, and be conyeyed to the kingdon of Morocco, as was intended, notwithstanding the new ftate of affairs which has arifen, being moved thereto by the pity with which I confider their fate, and be caufe they fhould not be prejudiced by an event in which they have no concern. Wherefore, and in confequence of all that has been stated, I order, That the peace between thofe dominions and these shall be held to be broken, and the war be renewed, and that the fubjects of the King of Morocco fhall not be disturbed in their free return to their country, with their goods and effects, for which I grant the term of fix months, counting from the publication of this cedula, for fuch is my will. Dated at San Lorenzo el Real. October 23, 1774.

I THE KING,
Geronimo de Grimaldi.

CHARAC