ssachusetts Bay; said the inhabitants knew not for a
moment under what Government they lived.

A long discussion ensued. On the side of absolute prerogative, and of
subduing the colonies to it by military force, spoke Mr. Grenville,
Captain Harvey, Sir William Mayne, Mr. Stanley, Mr. Adam, Mr. Scott, the
Solicitor-General (Wedderburn, who grossly insulted Dr. Franklin before
the Privy Council), Mr. Mackworth, and Mr. Sawbridge. For the
recommitting the address, and in favour of a conciliatory policy towards
the colonies, spoke, besides Lord John Cavendish, the mover, Mr. Lumley,
the Lord Mayor of London, Rt. Hon. T. Townshend, Mr. Jolyffe, Lord
Truham, Governor Johnstone, Mr. Burke, and Colonel Barre.

A conference was held between the Lords and Commons, and the address was
made the joint address of both Houses of Parliament and presented to the
King the 9th of February; to which the King replied as follows:

"My Lords and Gentlemen,--I thank you for this very dutiful address, and
for the affectionate and solemn assurances you give me of your support
in maintaining the just rights of my crown and of the two Houses of
Parliament; and you may depend on my taking the most speedy and
effectual measures for enforcing due obedience to the laws and authority
of the Supreme Legislature. When any of my colonies shall make a proper
and dutiful application, I shall be ready to concur with you in
affording them every just and reasonable indulgence; and it is my ardent
wish that this disposition on our part may have a happy effect on the
temper and conduct of my subjects in America."

The "disposition" of "indulgence," shown by Parliament was simply the
enforcement of its declaratory Act of absolute power to bind the
colonies in all cases whatsoever, and "the proper and dutiful
application of any colony" was simply a renunciation of all they had
claimed as their constitutional rights--a penitent prayer of forgiveness
for having avowed and maintained those rights, and of submitting all
their rights and interests to the absolute and merciful consideration of
the King and his Parliament, and that in the presence of the
parliamentary enactments and royal institutions of the previous ten
years. During those years, the Parliament, with royal consent, had
passed acts to tax the colonies without representation, ignoring their
own representative Legislatures; had imposed duties on goods imported to
be enforced by Courts which deprived the