The Connecticut courant and Hartford weekly intelligencer — Hartford, Conn., 1774-07-19 00:00:00, page 2

'"' 'Aorces by the las Wefels frbm Lon DON.
L ONDO N, May 5 .
ft V'" ,"'! et '. er ' r ° m Paris, received by yef
', f. a y' s mail, informs us, that when the poll
out it was universally reported there that a most
terrible earthquake had happened at Naples, by
which tne greatest part of that city was ruined, and
many thousand people perished.
from recent advices received by several mer
chants from France and Spain, it is their opinion
that we axedike to come to a rupture with these
kingdoms in less than fix months.
A correfpQndent remarks that the present fituati
• on of Gen. Gage, puts him in mind of the fable of
the lats and cat ; the former in Council, have all re
solved that hanging a bell about the latter's neck
was necessary for their common fafety ; but then the
great difficulty and danger lay in the putting it on.
Tl } e y w j ' e from Gibraltar, that the St.' Ildro, a
Spaniin frigate was bearded in the Mediterranean
by 3 cruizers belonging to the Emperor of Morocco,
who confined the crew under the hatches, and then
set the veflel on nre ; when the flames reaching the
powder room, the ship blew up, and all on board
perished.
The earl of Bute is preparing to set off from the
continent the latter end of this month, from which
people are led to conjecture that the parliament will
certainly be dissolved at the end of the present ses
sion, and that a general election will immediately
take place ; it having been long ago fettled as a po
litical fineffe that the Thane should be absent when
that circumstance took place.
A correspondent sincerely wishes that a correct
lift of the names of the principal incendiaries, who
are at present supporting American roguery and re
bellion was laid before the public, that it might
also be seen where the public indignation ought' to
be directed. [Thus injolently do tbeje impudent mtnij
terial scoundrels write and /peak of the Americans /]
The mask is at length thrown off; open your
eyes, and fee Popery established by in Canada,
and Bavery in Massachusetts-Bay. Heaven protest
us, and grant that our exporters may never become
the importers.
PR OTEST of the L ORD S.
Di^ Mircurij. fi Maij, 1774.
THE order of the day being read for the third
reading of the bill, intituled, “ An AC? for
better regulating the Government of the Province
of the Massachusetts-Bay, in New-England;" and
for the Lords to be summoned :
The said bill was accordingly read the third time.
Moved, That the bill, with the amendments, do
pass. Which being objected to, after a long de
bate, the question was put thereupon. It was re~
folveQ in the affirmative.
Not Contents 20 ) I Contents - - 69)
Proxies - - oj 2 °j Proxies - - 23 j 92
Difentient,
BECAUSE this bill, forming a principal part in
afyftem of punishment and regulation, has been
carried through the House without a due regard to
those indupenfible rules of public proceeding, with
the observance of which no regulation can be pru
dently made, and no punishment justly ipfii&d.
Before it.can be pretended, that those rights of the
colony of Maffachufetts-Bay,in the election bfCoun^
fellors, Magistrates, apd Judges, and in jhe return
of Jurors, which they derive from their charter,
could with propriety be taken away, the definite le
gal offence, by which a forfeiture of that charter is
incurred, ought to have been clearly Bated and ful
ly proved ; notice of this adverse proceeding ought
to have been given to the parties affefted ; and they
ought to have been heard in their own defence. Such
a principle of proceeding would have been-inviola
bly obferv^din the Courts below, it is not technic
cal formality, but fubßantial justice. When there
fore the magnitude of such a cause transfers it from
the cognizance of the inferior Courts, to the high
judicature of Parliament, the Lords are so far from
being authorifed to reject this equitable principle,
that we are bound to an extraordinary and religious
Bridacfs in the observance of it. The fubjett ought
to be indemnified by a more liberal and beneficial
justice in Parliament, for what he muff inevitably
fufter by being deprived of many of the forms which
are wifely established in the Courts of ordinary re
sort for his protection again!?; the dangerous promp
titude of arbitrary diferetion.
zdly. Because the neceffty alledged for this preci
pitate mode of judicial proceeding cannot exist. If
the numerous land and marine forces, which are or
dered to assemble in Massachusetts-Bay, are not fuf
ficient to keep that single colony in any tolerable
Bate of order, until the cause of its charter can be
fairly and equally tried, no regulation in this bill,
or in any of those hitherto brought into the house,
are fudinent for that purpose ; and we conceive that
tie mere celerity of a decision against the charter of
that province, will not reconcile the minds of the
people to that mode of government whicli is to be
vßablifhed on its ruins.
3dly. Because Lords are not in a situation to de
termine how far the regulations of which this bill is
composed, agree or disagree with those parts of the
constitution of the colony that are to be altered, with
the circumstances of the people, and with the whole
detail of their municipal institutions. Neither the
charter of the colony, ngr any account whatsoever of
its courts and judicial proceedings, their mode, or
the exercise of their prelent powers, have been pro
duced in the Houle. The flighted: evidence con
cerning any one of the many inconveniencies, Bated
in the preamble of the bill to have arisen from the
prelent constitution of the colony judicates, has not
been produced, or even attempted. On the fame
allegations of a declaratory preamble, any other
right, or all the rights of this or any other public
body, may be taken away, and any visionary scheme
of government substituted in their place.
4thly. Because we think, that the appointment
of all the members of the council, whicli by this
bill is veiled, in the crown, is not a proper provisi
on for preserving the colony constitution. The
power given to the crown of occasionally increasing
or leffeiiing the number of the council on the report
of governors, and at the pleasure of ministers, must
make these governors and ministers masters of every
question in that assembly ; and, by destroying its
freedom of deliberation, will wholly annihilate its
use.---The intention avowed in thi#bill, of bring
ing the council to the platform of other colonies, is
not likely to an.fwer its own end ; as the colonies,
where the council is named by the crown, are not
at all the better disposed to a submission to the prac
tice of taxing for supply without their consent than
this of Massachusetts-Bay And no pretence of
bringing it to the mode of the Engliffi constitution
can be Supported, as none of those American coun
cils have the least refemblauce to the House of Peers.
So that this new scheme of a council Bands upon no
fort of foundation, which the proposers of it think
proper to acknowledge.
gthly. Because the new constitution of judicature,
provided by this bill improper, and incongruous
with the plan of the administration of jußice in
Great-Britain. All the Judges are to be henceforth
nominated (not by the Crown) but by the Gover
nor ; and all (except the Judges of the Superior
Court), are to be removable at his pleasure, and ex
pressly without the con fentof that very Council which
has been nominated by the Crown.
The appointment of the Sheriff is by the will of
the Governor only, and without requiring in the
person appointed any local or other qualification ;
that Sheriff, a magistrate of great importance to the
whole administration and execution of all justice,,
civil and criminal, and who in England is not re
movable even by the royal authority, during the
continuance of his office,is by this bill made change
able by the Governor and Council, as often, and
for fu^h purpoles as they shall think expedient.
The Governor and Council, thus instituted with
powers, with whicli the British constitution has not
trusted his Majesty and his Privy-Council, have the
means of returning finch ajury in each particular
cause, as may belt suit with the gratification of their
passions, and interests. The lives, Liberties, and
properties of the fubjeft are put into their hands
without controul ; and the invaluable right of trial
by jury, is turned into a snare for the people, who
have hitherto looked upon it as their main security
against the licen ^ipufnefs of power.
6thly. Because we fee in this bill the fame scheme
of strengthening the authority of the officers and
Minißero of State, at the expense of the rights and li
berties of the fubjeA which was indicated by the inau
spicious ad for putting up the harbour of Boston.
By that ad, which is immediately connected with
this bill, the example was set of a large important
city, (containing vast multitudes of people, many
of whom must be innocent, and all of whom are un
heard) by an arbitrary sentence, deprived of the ad
vantage of that port upon which all their means of
livelihood did immediately depend.
This proscription is not made determinable on the
payment of a fine for an offence, or a compensation
for an injury ; but is to continue until the Ministers
of the Crown shall think fit to advise the King in
Council to revoke it.
The legal condition of the fubjed (Banding un
attained by convidion for treason or felony) ought
never to depend upon the arbitrary will of any per
son whatsoever.
This ad unexampled on the record of Parliament,
has been entered on the Journal of this House as
voted nemine diffentiente, and had been Bated in the
debate of this day,to have been sent to the colonies,
as passed without a division in either House, and
therefore as conveying the uncontroverted universal
sense of the nation.
The despair of making effectual opposition to an
unjust measure, has been conflitutedinto an appro
bation of it,
. An unfair advantage has been taken on the final
question for passing that penal bill, of the abfenee of
those Lords who had debated it for several hours,
and strongly dissented from it on the fccond reading ;
that pe iod on which it is most usual to debate the
principle of a bill.
If this proceeding were to pass without animg&
version, Lords might think themselves obliged" to
reiterate their debates, at every bill which they op
pose, and to make a formal division whenever they
debate.
ythly. Because this bill, and the other proceed
ings that accompany it, are intended for that unad
viled scheme of taxing the colonies, in a manner
new, and unsuitable to their situation and conftituri
ongl circumßance.
Parliament lias asserted the authority of the le
gißature of this kingdom, supreme and unlimited,
over all the Members of the Britifli empire.
But the legal extent of this authority furnifhes no
argument in favour of an unwarrantable use of it.
The sense of the nation bn therepeal of the ftamp
aft was, that in equity and fund policy,the taxation of the
colonies.for the ordinary purposes of Jupply,ought to be for
born ; and that this kingdom ought tb'latisfy itfelf
with the advantages to be derived from a flourifhing.
and increasing trade, and with the free grants of the
American afiemblies ; as being far more beneficial,
far more easily obtained, lets opprellive, and more
likely to be lading than any revenue to be acquired
by parliamentary taxes,accompanied by a total alie-'
nation of the affe&ions of those who were to pay.
them. The principle of repeal was nothing more
than a return to the ancient Banding policy of this
empire. The unha, .py departure from it, has led
to that course of fhifting & contradictory measures,
which have lince given rile to such continued dif
traffions ; by which unadviled plan, new duties
have been imposed in the very year after the former
had been repealed ; these new duties afterwards in
part repealed, and in part continued, in contradi&i-~
on to the principles upon which those repealed were
given up; all which with many weak, injudicious,
and precipitate Bepst aken to enforce a compliance,'
have kept up that jedloufy, which on the repeal of
the ftamp-aa was fubiiding: revived dangerous
questions, and gradually eßranged the affections of
the colonies from the mother country, without any
object ofadvantage to either. If the force proposed
should have its full effefy that effea we greatly,
apprehend may not continue longer than whilst the
fwdrd is held up. To render the colonies perma
nently advantageous,they must be fatisfied with their
condition. That fatisfadion we fee no chance of
restoring, whatever measures may be pursued, ex
cept by recurring in the whole, to the wife and salu
tary principles on which the Bamp-a& was repeal
ed.
RICHMOND,. ROCKINGHAM,
Portland, Abergavenny,
ABINGDON,. LEINSTER,
KING, CRAVEN,
EFFINGHAM, FITZWILLIAM.
PONSONBY,
^BILL, entitled An ACT for the better regulating th&
Government ofthe ProvinceoftheM^ffachufetts-Bay,
in North-America.
WHEREA S by letters patent under the great
seal of England, made in the third year of
their late Majesties King William and Queen Mary,
for uniting, citding, and incorporating, the several
colonies., ~n tcries, and tracts of land therein men
tioned, ^ cne real province, by the name of their
Majeft 7 province of the Massachusetts-Bay, in
New-E gland : whereby it was, amongst other
thing , erdained and established, That the Gover
nor >f the said province should, from thenceforth,
be appointed and commiffionated by their Majesties,
their heirs and successors : It was however granted
and ordained, that, from the expiration of the term,
for and during which the eight and twenty persons
named in the laid letters patent were appointed to
be the firft Councilors, or Assistants, to the Gover
nor for the said province, for the time being, the a
forefaid number of eight and twenty Counfellors, or
Assistants should yearly, once in every year, for ever
thereafter, be, by the General Court or Assembly,
newly chosen.
And whereas the said method of electing such
Coufellors or Assistants to be veiled with the several
powers^ authorties, and privileges therein mention
ed, although conformable to the practice theretofore
in use in such of the colonies therebyunited,in which
the appointment of the refpeftive Governors had
been veiled in the General Courts or Assemblies of
the said colonies, hath, by repeated experience, beeq
found to be extremely ill adapted to the plan of go
vernment, established in the province of the Massa
chusetts-Bay, by the said letters patent herein-be
fore mentioned, and.hath been so far from contri;
buting to the attainment of the good ends and pur
poses thereby intended, and to the promoting of the
internal welfare, peace, and good government of
the said province, or to the maintenance of the juß
subordination to and conformity with the laws of
Great-Britain ; that the manner of exercising the;
powers, authorities, and privileges aforefaid, by the
persons so annually elected,hath, for some time pad,,
been such as had the most manifeft tendency to ob
ftruQ, and in great measure defeat, the execution of
the laws, to weaken the attachment of his Majeßy's
goverment, and to encourage the ill-disposed among