86 
Jated the rights of the livery, has 
fuffered his political attachments to 
warp his official conduét, and prov- 
ed himfelf to be utterly undeferving 
of the confidence of his conftitu- 
ents. RIX. 
To the, King’s Moft Excellent Mayefty. 
The humble Petition of the Nobility, 
Gentry, Clergy, Yeomanry, Frecholders 
of the county of Middlefex. 
We beg leave to approach 
your Majefty with the moft 
dutiful affurances of the fame una- 
bated attachment to your Majefty’s 
royal perfon, for which this county 
has been at ail times diftinguifhed. 
We humbly reprefent to your.Ma- 
jefty that we are driven, by the 
pernicious councils and palpable 
incapacity of your Majefty’s pre- 
fent minifters, to appeal dire€tly to 
your Majefty’s perfonal benevo- 
ence and wifdom, to fave us, if it 
be poffible, from the fatal confe- 
quences of their mal-adminiitra- 
tion; that the burdens and diftreffes 
of every fort with which we are op- 
prefled, are principally owing to 
the prefent war, and that it cannot 
be continued without ruin to your 
people: That, in order to plunge 
- the country into this deftructive 
war, all manner of falfe pretences 
have been fuccefiively fet up and 
abandoned by your Majefty’s mi- 
nifters: That the objects of it were 
never exprefily ftated by them ; and 
that, in the condué of it, no dif- 
tinct policy or fyftem of action has 
beenadhered to, At firft they faid it 
was a caufe of general concern, in 
which your Majefty had reafon to 
hope for the cordial co-operation 
of the other powers of Europe. 
The greater part of thofe powers 
APP EN DIX. Fo 
neverthelefs either did not join, or 
very foon deferted the common . 
caufe; fome of them have turned 
againft us, and all of them have 
left it, in effeét, to your Majefty 
and your people, to bear the bur- 
den of the conteft. That your Ma- 
jefty’s minifters have perpetually 
deluded parliament and the nation 
with fanguine expedtations of fuc- 
cefs, derived from the ruined ftate 
of the finances of France, concern- 
ing the refult of which, their loofe 
fpeculations and daily prediétions 
have invariably proved falfe; but 
that their own perfeverance, fup- 
ported by fuchdelufions, have really, 
plunged this kingdom into difficul- 
ties which threaten us with univer- 
fal bankruptcy, beggary, and ruin : 
That the expences of the war have 
been, and continue to be, enor- 
mous and infupportable, and are 
not to be_compenfated even by 
victory and fuccefs: That, by ill- 
concerted fchemes of conqueft in 
peftilential climates, the flower of 
your Majefty’s armies has perifhed 
without action or glory: ‘That, 
while parliament has provided, and 
the nation has paid, for the fupport 
of a naval force more than adequate 
to the protection of every part of 
the Britith empire, your Majefty’s 
kingdom of Ireland has been le 
defencelefs; and that even the 
brilliant actions which do honour 
to the perfonal fkill and bravery of 
your Majefty’s naval officers and 
feamen, are a reproach to the mi- 
nifters, who have expofed your Ma- 
jefty’s ficets to contefts againft fu- 
perior numbers, in which they had 
no right to expect fuccefs: That, 
by an illegal and arbitrary act of 
your Majeity’s Privy Council, a- 
dopted on the reprefentation of the 
prefent -Chancellor of the Exche- 
~quer, 
