APPENDIX: The MESSAGE of the Town of BOSTON to the GOVERNOUR. May it please your Excellency, THE freeholders and other inhabitants of the town of Bofton, legally assembled in Faneuil-Hall, beg leave to acquaint your Excellency, that a report has prevailed, which they have reafon to apprehend is well-grounded, that ftipends are affixed to the offices of the Judges of the fuperior Court of Judicature, &c. of this province, whereby they are become independent of the grants of the General Affembly for their fupport; contrary to ancient and invariable ufage. This report has fpread an alarm among all confiderate perfons who have heard of it in town and country; being viewed, as tending rapidly to complete the system of their flavery; which originated in the House of Commons of Great-Britain, affuming a power and authority, to give and grant the monies of the colonifts without their confent, and against their repeated remonftrances. And, as the judges hold their places during pleasure, this establishment appears big with fatal evils, fo obvious that it is needlefs to trefpafs on your Excellency's time in mentioning them. It is therefore the humble and earneft requeft of the town, that your Excellency would be pleafed to inform them, Whether you have received have received any fuch advice, relating to a matter fo deeply interefting to the inhabitants of this province, which gives you aflurance that fuch an eftablishment has been, or is likely, to be made. (No. II.) The GOVERNOUR'S ANSWER to the foregoing MESSAGE. GENTLEMEN, It is by no means proper for me to lay before the inhabitants of any town whatsoever, in confequence of their votes and and proceedings in a Town-Meeting, any part of my correfpondence as Governour of the Province, or to acquaint them whether I have, or have not, received any advices relating to the public affairs of the Government. This reafon alone, if your addrefs to me had been in other respects unexceptionable, would have been fufficient to restrain me from complying with your defire. I fhall always be ready to gratify the inhabitants of the town of Boston, upon every regular application to me on bufinefs of public concernment to the town, as far as I fhall have it in my power confiftent with fidelity to the truft which his Majefty has reposed in me. Province-Houfe, 30 Oct. 1772. To the inhabitants of the town of Bofton in Town-Meeting affembled at Faneuil Hall. (No. III.) T. HUTCHINSON. The PETITION of the Town to the GOVERNOUR. The PETITION of the Freeholders and other inhabitants of the town of Boston, legally affembled by adjournment in Faneuil-Hall, on Friday October 30, 1772, Humbly sheweth, THAT your petitioners are fill greatly alarmed at the report which has been prevalent of late, viz. That stipends are affixed to the offices of the Judges of the fuperior Court of Judicature of this Province, by order of the Crown, for their fupport. Such an establishment is contrary, not only to the plain and obvious fense of the charter of this province, but also to fome of the fundamental principles of the common law; to the benefit of which, all British fubjects, wherever dif perfed throughout the British Empire are indubitably intitled. Such Such a jealousy have the fubjects of England for their rights, liberties and privileges, and fo tender a regard has been shown to them by his Majefty, that notwithstanding the provision made at the revolution, that the judges of the King's fuperior courts of law there, fhould hold their commiffions, not at pleasure, but during good behaviour, and fince that time for their fupport, his Majefty among other the first acts of his reign, was graciously pleased to recommend it to Parliament, and an act paffed, that their commiffions fhould not ceafe at the demife of the King; whereby every thing poffible in human wifdom feems to have been done, to establish an impartiality in their decifions, not only between fubject and fubject, but between the crown and the fubject.Of how much greater importance muft it be to preserve from the least fuppofeable biass, the Judges of a Court invested by the laws of this province, (which have been approved-of by Majefty,) with powers as full and ample to all intents and purposes whatsoever, as the courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas and Exchequer, within his Majefty's kingdom of England, have, or ought to have? Your Excellency will allow your petitioners, with due fubmiffion, to repeat, that this Eftablishment appears to them pregnant with fuch fatal evils, as that the moft diftant thought of its taking effect, fills their minds with Dread and Horror. Thefe, Sir, are the fentiments and apprehenfions of this metropolis: expreffed, however, with due deference to the fentiments of the province, with which your Petitioners are anxiously folicitous of being made acquainted. It is therefore their earneft and humble request, that your Excellency would be pleafed to allow the General Affembly to meet at the time to which it now ftands prorogued; in order that in that Conftitutional body, with whom it is to inquire inquire into Grievances and redress them, the joint wisdom of the province may be employed, in deliberating and determining on a matter fo important and alarming. (No. IV.) The GOVERNOUR'S ANSWER to the foregoing PETITION, GENTLEMEN, THE royal charter referves to the Governour full power and authority, from time to time, as he fhall judge neceffary, to adjourn, prorogue, and diffolve the General Affembly. In the exercife of this power, both as to time and place, I have always been governed by a regard to his Majesty's fervice and to the intereft of the province, It did not appear to me neceffary for thofe purposes that the Affembly should meet at the time to which it now stands prorogued; and, before I was informed of your address, I had determined to prorogue it for a further time. The reafons which you have advanced have not altered my opinion. If, notwithstanding, in compliance with your petition, I fhould alter my determination and meet the Affembly, contrary to my own judgement, at fuch time as you judge neceffary, I fhould, in effect, yield to you the exercife of that part of the prerogative, and fhould be unable to justify my conduct to the King. There would, moreover, be danger of encouraging the inhabitants of the other towns in the province to affemble, from time to time, in order to confider of the neceffity or expediency of a feffion of the General Affembly, or to des bate and tranfact other matters which the law that autho rizes rizes towns to affemble does not make the pufinefs of a town meeting. T. HUTCHINSON. Province-Houfe, Nov. 2. 1772. To the inhabitants of the town of Boston in Town-Meeting affembled at Faneuil-Hall. This reply having been read several times and duly confidered; it was moved, and the queftion accordingly put― Whether the fame be fatisfactory to the town, which paffed in the Negative, Nem. Con. And thereupon RESOLVED, as the opinion of the inhabitants of this town, that they have, ever had, and ought to have, a right to petition the King or his reprefentative for the redrefs of fuch grievances as they feel, or for preventing of fuch as they have reafon to apprehend; and to communicate their fentiments to other Towns. Atteft, WILLIAM COOPER, Town-Clerk.* I have here reprinted this Account of the Proceedings of the TownMeeting of Boston, because it appears to me to contain the fullest and most able statement of the grievances and the claims of the Bitish Colonies in North-America, before the unhappy war which ended in the separation of them from the Mother-Country, that I have ever seen. As to the arguments that were used for and against those claims in the years immediately preceeding that war, by the writers on both sides of the question, the reader may see them fully and fairly stated and examined in the first volume of the Canadian Freeholder. And a true history of the passing of the stamp-act in March, 1765, during the ministry of Mr. George Grenville, and of the repeal of it in the following spring of 1766, in the ministry of the Marquis of Rockingham, Mr. Dowdeswell, and General Conway, with a full and clear exhibition of the strong reasons of prudence and equity upon which that repeal was grounded, may be seen in the printed copy of an excellent speech of the late Mr. Edmund Burke, delivered in the House of Commons on the 19th of April, 1774, which has been lately republished with his other works. It is a master-piece of truth and eloquence. F. M. |