10 CONTEST AGAINST 



rupture with our best customers and most natural 

 allies, the free and English people of America. While, 

 therefore, I dissuade you from any further attempts to 

 seek redress at the foot of the throne as unavailing 

 under the present circumstances, and while I most 

 earnestly deprecate all proceedings that may either in 

 themselves or in their consequences interfere with the 

 public tranquillity, I would urge you with the same 

 anxiety to come before Parliament; and I conceive 

 that the earlier you do so, and with the greater 

 unanimity, and the more extensive co-operation from 

 other counties in similar circumstances, the better 

 your chance will be, both of preventing the appre- 

 hended hostilities abroad, and of maintaining peace 

 and good order in the bosom of our country. 



" In the same spirit, I venture to express my hopes 

 that at any meetings which may be held for the pur- 

 pose of petitioning the Legislature, the greatest care 

 will be taken to avoid all introduction of poHtical 

 topics unconnected with the serious matters which im- 

 mediately press upon you. If any exception could be 

 permitted to this remark, it might perhaps be found 

 in the consideration which so naturally suggests itself, 

 that those great and populous cities, among the first 

 in the empire, which now labour under such unpre- 

 cedented distresses from the measures of Government, 

 and are about to seek relief from the House of Com- 

 mons, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield, 

 are unfortunately left without any representatives in 

 that branch of the Legislature. But this reflection, 

 however material at any other time, ought, together 

 with everything of a political nature, to be kept 

 separate from your present objects. And 1 am con- 

 fident that the worthy members who represent the 



