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THE CHRONICLE. 
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jefty, therefore, to difmifs them 
from your prefence and councils 
for ever. 
Th the King’s Moft Excellent Majefty. 
The humble Petition of the underfigned 
Freeholders of the county of Down. 
May it pleafe your Majefty, 
W. EF, your Majefty’s moft duti- 
ful and loyal! fubjects, take 
rw _, this opportunity | of exprefling our 
* loyalty and attachment to your Ma- 
jefty’s perfon and family, and thofe 
principles which placed them on 
the throne of thefe realms; and at 
the fame time of declaring, that, in 
fuch a period as the prefent, we 
fhould think it little fhortdf trea- 
fon te be filent on the ftate of this 
your Majefty’s kingdom of Ireland. 
It is not merely of a long, difatt- 
rous, unjuit, and unneceflary war, 
which has deftreyed public credit, 
commerce, and manufactures, we 
complain: your Majefty, in your 
' wifdom, muft have perceived the 
evil confequences of that war 
through every part of your domi- 
nions:—It is not the melancholy 
wafte of blood and treafure of 
which we complain; becaufe thofe 
calamities cannot now be remedied; 
—but we beg leave to approach 
your throne with a plain unexagge- 
yated ftate of our prefent diftreff- 
ing grievances. Ever fince the ad- 
miniftration of the great Lord Cha- 
tham, aloft all good and wife men 
have concurred in the abfolute ne- 
ceflity of a parliamentary reform, 
as weil for the fecurity of the throne 
as the people. Your Majefty’s 
refent minifter has given leffons 
to the empire on that head which 
can never be forgotien; and the 
ruin which has accompanied his de- 
89 
viation from that principle has de- 
monftrated the necefhty of that 
meafure. The dutiful and loyal 
petitions of your people have not 
been atiended to: the moft confti- 
tutional and loyal means of fecking 
redrefs have been oppoied by the 
moft unconftitutional and illegal 
coercions: every right for the efta- 
blifhment of which our forefathers 
fhed their blood, and for the pro- 
tection of which your Majefty’s an- 
ceftors were called to the throne, 
has been fucceflively taken away by 
the undue influence of your Majef- 
ty’s prefent minifters; the right of 
petitioning greatly invaded by the 
Convention-bill; the trial by jury, 
by fummary convictions, under the 
moft unconftitutional laws; the h- 
berty of the prefs, and the freedom 
of fpeech, by the fhameful encou-. 
ragement of {pies and informers ; 
the right of habeas corfus has been 
fufpended; and the great right, 
which is the fecurity of all other 
rights, the right of bearing arms, 
has been groffly violated, not 
only bya feries of laws repugnant 
to the written and acknowledged 
compaét between the ‘crown and 
the people, expreffed unequivocally 
in the Bill of Rights, but, in a late 
inftance, by an aét of ftate avowed- 
ly illegal. We, therefore, humbly 
entreat your Majefty to difmifs 
from your councils and prefence 
your prefent minifters, as the firft 
ftep towards reftoring peace, prof- 
perity, and happinefs to this dif- 
tracted country, and thereby firm- 
ly fecuring the interefts of the 
crown and people, which are both 
at prefent in the moft alarming 
danger. And we further entreat 
your Majefty immediately to call 
fuch men to your councils as may 
afift your people in obtaining a 
reform 
