factures, and land - rents of the kingdom. Alarmed at the diminished refources and growing burthens of this country, and convinced that rigid frugality is now indifpenfably neceffary in every department of the ftate, your petitioners obferve with grief, that notwithftanding the calamitous and impoverished condition of the nation, much public money has been improvidently fquandered, and that many individuals enjoy finecure places, efficient places with exorbitant emoluments, and penfions unmerited by public fervice, to a large and ftill increafing amount; whence the crown has acquired a great and unconftitutional influence, which, if not checked, may foon prove fatal to the liberties of this country. Your petitioners conceiving that the true end of every legitimate government is not the emolument of any individual, but the welfare of the community; and confidering that by the conflitution of this realm the national purfe is intrufted in a peculiar manner to the custody of this honourable houfe; beg leave further to reprefent, that until effectual mea. fures be taken to redrefs the oppreffive grievances herein ftated, the additional fum of grant of any public money, beyond the produce of the prefent taxes, will be injurious to the rights and property of the people, and derogatory from the honour and dignity of parliament. Your petitioners therefore, appealing to the juftice of this honourable houfe, do moft earnestly request, that, before any new burthens are laid upon this country, effectual measures may be taken leave to lay before this honourable house several circumftances which they prefume it is important for the house to know, and to which they are certain it is of the utmost importance to them that a due attention fhould be paid. Your petitioners reprefent to this honourable houfe, that the ifland of Jamaica has not been protected. They reprefent, that the temporary fafety which it has enjoyed has been owing to the direction of the enemy's force towards other objects, and not to any intrinfic means of defence provided for that ifland by his Majefty's minifters. They conceive, that the fafety of fuch a poffeffion as Jamaica ought not to have been left to chance. They reprefent, that the island of Jamaica is inferior in value to none of the dependencies of Great Britain; that great part even of what appears to be the interior wealth of Great Britain itfelf is, in reality, the wealth of Jamaica, which is fo intimately interwoven with the internal intereft of this kingdom, that it is not eafy to diftinguish them; that a great part of the trade and navigation, a large proportion of the revenue, and very much of the mercantile and the national credit, and the value of the landed intereft, depend immediately on its prefervation; that its defence is therefore an object as important to Great Britain as any part of Great-Britain itself; and that it is an object to be provided for with ftill greater care and forefight, because its natural means of home defence are infinitely lefs confiderable. They folemnly declare, that, confcious of their invariable loy alty to the crown of Great - Britain, and their unbounded attachment to the profperity of the whole empire, they are not able to conjecture for what offence, real or pretended, they have fo long been put under this profcription. If your petitioners had been active by factious clamours, or delufive representations, by concealing true or fuggefting falfe information, in betraying their fovereign and their country into war, they might have the lefs reafon to complain of the neglect by which they have fuffered fo many diftreffes, and have been expofed to fo many dangers. It is in the recollection of this honourable houfe, that, at an early period of the prefent unhappy troubles, the body of the Weft-India planters and merchants did humbly ftate their apprehenfions to parliament, and deprecated the unhappy meafures which were then taken. It is the misfortune of the public, as well as theirs, that no attention was paid to their humble prayers, and that their most dutiful and faithful reprefentations were totally neglected. They affirm, that they have not deferved to be thus abandoned, from a want of having purchased for a valuable confideration the protection of the state. The planters have feen, not only with acquiefcence but pleasure, their trade almoft wholly confined to the mother country, the place of refidence of the greater part, and the object of the tendereft affection to all of them. Both planters and merchants have had the produce of their eftates as largely taxed in Great-Britain, to the common fupport, as any others. The affembly of the ifland of Jamaica has, has, beyond any former example of liberality, and far beyond their abilities, laid deftructive impofitions on their eftates and properties within the island. Vai perfonal fervices, burthenfome in the extreme, and nearly ruinous to the prefent value of all they poffefs, have been chearfully given. They have borne patiently the heavy loffes and burthens, the fatal though not unforeseen confequences of their feparation from North America. After all thefe impofitions and taxes in England, thefe taxes and perfonal fervices in Jamaica, and after fufferings of every kind in this war, on fuggeftion from friends of government, they have had refort in their individual characters to their almost exhausted purfes, and made a large private fubfcription for their own defence. They reprefent, that they have been credibly informed, that at the time when adminiftration declined to provide the neceffary forces, either by fea or land, for their defence, that his Majesty's fecretary at war publicly declared, that his Majefty did then command more numerous forces, by fea and land, than the moft formidable monarch of the world had under his orders, when his power alarmed all Europe; and they are informed, that large additions to his Majefty's forces were made fome time after. They now also feel, that they are amongst those who are taxed for the maintenance of an army of upwards of feventy thousand men employed in North America; and they prefume, that the fuppreffion of no rebellion whatever can be a more near and urgent concern of any government than the pro tection of its loyal and usefu fubjects. 1 They reprefent, that they have not been wanting to themselves, by every reprefentation in their power, and every folicitation, to call upon his Majefty's minifters for the neceffary protection. For though, from the duty of their ftation, and their high truft, his Majefty's minifters ought to have fhewn an anxious and provident care of all his Majefty's dominions, even if individuals, through ignorance, or want of forefight, had neglected their own private intereft in them; yet they humbly inform the houfe, that many ftrong remonftrances were made on this fubject to his Majefty's minifters by your petitioners, beginning fo early as 1773, and continued to the 8th of December, 1779; and that addreffes on the fame were made to his Majefty by the affembly of Jamaica, as alfo a reprefentation of the want of men, fhips, ftores, arms, ammunition, and of every other means for their defence; yet they never did, at any time, receive from the faid minifters any answers, other than excuses, on account of the number of fhips employed on the American and home fervice, and certain loofe general affurances, from which they received little comfort, and have reaped no advantage; and that even the pofitive affurances of the governor to the affembly of the island, of his Majefty's gracious intention that the fquadron on that station fhould be confiderably reinforced, have not been fulfilled. Your petitioners most humbly requeft the attention of this house to their paft and prefent fituation, pledging themfelves to prove, be [7] 3 yond of public tranquillity, and the prefervation of that just equilibrium which has been fo often troubled by the ambitious policy of the Houfe of Bourbon. was When the Court of Verfailles, in direct violation of public faith, and the common right of all fovereigns, broke the peace by a league made with his Majesty's rebellious fubjects, which avowed and formally declared by the Marquis de Noailles, when France, by immenfe preparations, manifefted a defign to annihilate the maritime power of England, the king thought your High yond a doubt, the truth of their allegations. In the mean time, your petitioners acquaint this honourable houfe, that, unlefs a ftrong regular force be permanently eftablished in Jamaica during the war, and a confiderable fleet ftationed there, they cannot think that ifland in a ftate of fecurity. This they conceive them felves as Englishmen bound to lay before the reprefentatives of the people of Great-Britain, humbly claiming protection as their undoubted right; and looking back with horror at the dangers from which (by the fole difpofition of the Divine Provi-Mightineffes too fenfible not to dence) they have efcaped, whilft fundry of their fellow-fubjects are now obliged to proftrate them felves at the foot of the throne of the French king, to implore the mercy of that monarch, inftead of the protection of their natural fovereign. fee that the welfare of the Republic was fo clofely connected with that of Great-Britain, as to induce you to haften to its fuccour. One of his Majesty's first cares was to inform your High Mightineffes of all the circumftances of that unjust war, and in the critical fituation in which the king found himself he did not forget the interefts of his ancient allies, but, on the contrary, fhewed the fincereft defire to favour the trade and free navigation of the Republic as, much as the welfare of his people would permit; he even refrained a long time to reclaim the fuccours ftipulated by treaty, and though he fulfilled his own engagements, did not require the fame from your High Mighti neffes; the reclamation in queftion was not made till the united forces of France and Spain were ready to fall upon England at once, and attempt a landing, with the affiftance of a formidable fleet. Although they were fruftrated in that enterprize, the king's ene mies are ftill meditating the fame projects; and it is by the exprefs order order of his Majefty, that the underwritten again renews, in the most formal manner, the demand of the fuccours ftipulated by different treaties, and particularly that of 1716. Hitherto your High Mightineffes have been filent upon this effential article, whilst you infifted upon a forced interpretation of the treaty of commerce of the year 1674, against the abuse of which Great-Britain at all times protefted. This interpretation cannot be reconciled with the clear and particular ftipulation of the fecret article of the treaty of peace of the fame year. An article of a treaty of commerce cannot annul fo effential an article of a treaty of peace, and both are exprefsly comprehended in the principal treaty of alliance of 1678, by which your High Mightineffes are obliged to furnish his Majefty with the required fuccours, You are too wife and too juft not to feel that all the engagements between powers ought to be mutually and reciprocally obferved, and although they were agreed upon at different periods, do alike bind the contracting parties. This inconteftable principle is the more applicable here, as the treaty of 1716 renews all the anterior engagements between the Crown of England and the Republic, and in a manner includes them in one. The underwritten had further orders to declare to your High Mightineffes, that he was ready to enter into conference with you to regulate, in an amicable manner, all that was neceflary to prevent a misunderstanding, and every other difagreeable event, by con was certing meafures which fhould be both equitable and advantageous to the fubjects of both countries; but this amicable overture refufed in a manner as unexpected and extraordinary as unufual between two friendly powers: and without paying any attention either to the repeated public and private reprefentations relative to convoys, your High Mightineffes not only granted thefe convoys to different forts of naval ftores, but more particularly ordered that a certain number of men, of war should be ready for the future to convoy naval ammunition of all forts to the ports of France, and that at a time when the fubjects of the republic enjoyed by treaty a liberty and extent of commerce far beyond what the right of na❤ tions grants to neutral powers. This refolution, and the orders given to Rear-admiral Count Byland, to oppose by force the searching of the merchant-fhips brought on an incident which the friendfhip of the king defired much to prevent; be it is notorious, that that admiral, in confequence of his inftructions, fired firft at the boats under Ength colours, which were fent to examine the fhips in the manner prefcribed by the treaty of 1674. This then is a manifeft aggreffion, a direct violation of that fame treaty which your High Mightineffes feem to look upon as the most facred of all. His Majefty had before-hand made reiterated reprefentations upon the neceffity and juftice of the exa mination, which had taken place in all analogous circumftances, and is fully authorized by the treaty. They were apprized in London, [1] 4 that |