appeared to you; I do affure you I had not intereft to supplant you in your office, or to have fucceeded to it had you taken my friendly advice, and declined going abroad; neither am I vain enough to think I have fufficient abilities to prefide in a court of chancery, where the litigation of mens properties was to be finally determined by my voice. No, fir, I look upon that, and governing a colony to be too arduous an undertaking for either of us. I have hitherto addreffed the public at large upon this fubject, I think proper at present to apply myself immediately to you, as I have some questions to propofe, which you, and only you, can, or ought to anfwer; I beg you will not be alarmed, they fhall not be fo mathematical as to puzzle you: In the first place, fir, did you not find the people in the Ld I -ds happy, peaceable, and united? Did they not receive you with all the becoming honors which ought to be fhewn to the reprefentative of a gracious monarch? I would then ask in what fituation thefe very people now are? the evafive anfwer that they are turbulent and diffatisfied will not ferve; it is well known they were happy and contented under governor Ma- W and Sir G-e T s your immediate predeceffors, with neither of these gentlemen had they ever one political dif pute, but comparisons are odious; I will fave your blufhes and go no further with this paragraph; I will affert to the public that the inhabitants of the Ld Ids are loyal, fenfible, and brave, you shall relate in your turn how the reprefentatives of the PEOPLE of St. Cr's have been treated by your influence. Is it not a notorious truth that you are no more than a nominal g- rat An-a? Are not all the places of profit and the management of every public department at the difpofal and controul of Judge Bd? And although I allow this gentleman to be a man of parts, yet the people will not be fatisfied with being governed at fecond hand; but as you found, by experience, the adminiftration of government too weighty for your management, I would excufe your having put fuch a man as judge Bd over the people of Ana, but what in the name of common fenfe could induce you to appoint Syour deputy at St. Cr's? Could even you be vain enough to fuppofe the people would be governed by fuch a man? A man without property, a man who had worn his character to the ftumps in England, a man of whom every friend was heartily tired before he went abroad, a man who was not in the least known in this country, except by those on whom he was immediately dependent, yet you stood fo much in need of his fecond rate parts, as to fuffer him to make terms with you and to take the abfolute government out of your hands. In regard to your having deprived the members of council of their legal votes at elections, I fhall only observe, that I believe, you are the first officer of the crown that ever attempted to abridge his Majesty's prerogative against the determined fenfe of the peopic, merely to carry a little temporary point; I fancy your friend friend the D. of G. will not thank you for this, fhould he ever again be minister of this country, which God of his infinite mercy forbid. P Thus far have I afferted upon my own knowledge; the common report of your being faddled with 800 pounds a year to the virtuous and amiable Mifs N I hope is not true; though it is faid, a ftipulation of this fort was the price you paid for being appointed g -r. What price you paid I cannot fay, but it is plain by your being appointed at any rate, that the happiness of the people which were to be governed, was not at all confulted. I understand you are determined to leave the government and come to England; this will be prudent indeed, I had almoft faid it will be wife, but what a deal of trouble might you have faved yourself by taking my firft advice; I fhall continue from time to time to pay my refpects to you, and to lay the conduct of your administration before the public, as my materials from the Weft Indies fhall come to hand. And now fir, let me remark to you, that men of middling or inferior parts, may pafs uncenfured in a private life, as you would have done at White's or Almack's, but the moment they attempt to launch into confequence and to tread the confpicuous paths of life, they become fo very abfurd and ridiculous and their deficiencies fo notorious, that they cannot pass unnoticed. April 9, 1770. X. SIR, To the Printer of the Political Regifter. defire will lay before the public without lofs of time the following petition intended to have been delivered to the King in behalf of his Majefty's natural born subjects in the island of Grenada, and of the proteftant caufe in general; for which purpose it was tranfmitted home and delivered to Sir George Colebrooke who promised to prefent it; but after keeping it two months, to the great difappointment of the gentlemen who fent it to him, he has juft returned it to their friends, declaring, "That he cannot prefent it because it is incompatible with the language he has lately held to the ministry concerning the measure petitioned against." It is a great pity however that Sir George did not take this refolution at first, as there were other gentlemen who would have undertaken to prefent it, if the compliment had not been first paid to him. L12 R. S. GREN GRENADA. To the King's most excellent Majefty. The humble Petition of his Majesty's truly loyal, faithful and obedient W E your Majefty's natural born subjects the inhabitants of your ifland of Grenada and the Grenadines, zealously and faithfully attached from motives of the most inviolable loyalty and affection to your Majesty's facred perfon and illuftrious house, and deeply impreffed with your Majefty's paternal attention to every part of your extenfive dominions, with all humility beg leave to claim one of the privileges of our most excellent conftitution, in addreffing ourfelves to your Majefty, as the common father of your people, and in reprefenting to your Majefty in the moft dutiful and loyal manner, the unhappy, and diftracted ftate of this infant colony, occafioned folely (as your petitioners apprehend) by the various and fatal innovations made upon its conftitution, in favour of your Majefty's new adopted Roman catholic fubjects, in permitting them not only to vote at the election of the reprefenta tives of the people, but in admitting them into your Majefty's council and affembly, and even to feats in your courts of juftice. Your petitioners truly fenfible of the ineftimable bleffings of a British conftitution, which from their birth they had been accuftomed to enjoy in the other parts of your Majesty's dominion, would never have been tempted to run the leaft rifque of relinquifhing thofe invaluable privileges, had they not placed the greatest confidence in your Majefty's royal proclamation, and the publication of your commiffion and inftructions to your Majefty's chief governor for the continuance and full enjoyment of the fame rights and privileges in these your Majesty's new acquired iflands of Grenada and the Grenadines, and invited and encouraged thereto by your Majefty's faid proclamation and the commiflion and inftructions to your governor. Your petitioners reforted to your faid iflands and have fettled there, hazarding their lives and fortunes in the improvement and fettlement of the colony, fully and dutifully confiding that the exprefs power and directions given to your chief governor in fuch inftructions for completing the gracious purposes and affurances of your royal proclamation, in framing a legiflature on the happy model of a British conftitution, would have been carried into execution as foon as the ftate and circumftances of the colony would permit. That your petitioners humbly conceived that the rules, regu lations, and restrictions laid down and expreffed by your Majef ty's commiffion and inftructions to your faid governor for the ge neral good and fafety of the colony, and for the free and uninterrupted enjoyment of the liberties and privileges derived therefrom, were to be permanent and unalterable rules by which that conftitution your Majesty had moft graciously promised to your faid faid iflands, were to be governed and therefore became the magne charta of the colony. That notwithstanding no perfons profeffing the Roman catholic religion, although natural born fubjects in any part of your Majesty's realm or dominions, (as your petitioners are informed) exercise or enjoy the privilege of voting in the choice of the reprefentatives of the people. Yet your Majefty's new fubjects in these islands, though educated in the principles of and profeffing the Roman catholic religion, have been hitherto uninterruptedly admitted to the full enjoyment of this extensive privilege That though many of your Majefty's proteftant fubjects of great property in the ifland of Grenada confidering fuch a regulation in the most dangerous and alarming light to their rights and liberties by an humble petition to your Majefty's then governor and council, the legislature of the ifland being not then completed by the fummonning and calling an affembly) in the ftrongest manner remonftrated against the firft invafin of their original charter-Yet your Majesty's faid governor and council (as your petitioners apprehend) actuated by motives of too great tendernefs for your Majefty's new adopted fubjects, willing alfo to conciliate their minds to the bleflings of a British government under the best of princes, and by no means aware of the fatal confequences that have fince enfued by the adopting fuch a meafure, too precipitately admitted them to the enjoyment of a privilege which from principles of law and true policy, your petitioners apprehend ought never to have been thus extended. That on the completion of the legislature of these iflands, the three branches concurred in adopting the fame principles of miftaken tenderness and too refined policy towards your Majefty's new adopted fubjects, by an act of the island which at the fame time, that it wifely reftrained them from becoming members of the affembly, confirmed the privilege of voting only derived before from an ordinance of the governor and council. That by this means your Majefty's new adopted fubjects have folely engroffed the power of elections into their own hands, for though by no means poffeffing equal property in your faid iflands, yet being greatly fuperior in the number of electors to your Majefty's natural born fubjects, they ever have the influence of procuring a great majority in the affembly. Thus therefore are your Majefty's natural born protestant subjects, in a great measure excluded from this greatest of privileges, and your Majesty's new Roman catholic fubjects armed with a power that hitherto hath, and ever will, procure them a majority in the houfe of affembly-a power of a moft alarming nature and dangerous tendency to a colony fituated like this. That your Majesty's new fubjects not fatisfied with the power of election, did in the most prefumptuous and arrogant manner, afpire to a fhare in all legiflative and executive offices, in defiance of an act then in force in your Majefty's faid islands, which with great fubmiflion your petitioners conceive, had very properly excluded any but proteftants from becoming members of the houfe of affembly. That That the conduct of your Majefty's new fubjects, was on that occafion fo highly improper and indecent, that many of your Majefty's natural born fubjects both proteftant and Roman catholicks, were induced humbly to fubmit to the confideration of your Majefty's governor in chief, and your council by an humble memorial, the dangerous tendency of fuch warm and irregular proceedings, which memorial we apprehend, was tranfmitted to your Majefty's secretary of state, in order to be laid before your Majesty. That it was with pain your petitioners beheld this firft invafion of their charter, and your Majefty's new fubjects almost folely poffeffing the power of compofing an affembly of fuch men as they might think proper to chufe, yet not fatisfied with that conceffion in their favour, we beheld them employing their influence and induftry, not only to procure the repeal of an act in other refpects fo wife and judicious, but alfo a participation in the legislative, judicial and minifterial offices, and thus the abfolute controul of the whole colony. That your petitioners cannot but regret the fuccefs of your new fubjects in procuring the admiffion of a certain number to a fhare in the legislative and executive offices of government in thefe islands, without making and fubfcribing the declaration againft tranfubftantiation. That your petitioners moft humbly conceive that a regula tion of a nature fo obviously alarming to your Majefty's natural born fubjects, fo deftructive of their rights and privileges and fatal to the repofe and tranquility of thefe iflands, could have only been obtained from your Majefty, by artful mifreprefentations of the true and real state of this colony. Your petitioners apprehend that the admiffion of your Majefty's new fubjects (who were lately our declared enemies, and fill are frangers to our religion, our laws, our language and our manners) to a participation of legislative and executive offices in these islands, without any bill of naturalization, and without requiring them to make and fubfcribe the declaration against tranfubftantiation, is abfolutely contradictory, and inconfiftent with, and totally repugnant to that conftitution which your Majefty already had given us, for your Majefty had pofitively required and commanded, that all perfons holding or exercifing any of thefe offices in the faid iflands, fhould make and fubfcribe the faid declaration in like manner as the perfons holding thofe offices in your Majefty's other colonies. That the many inconveniences and great confufion that muft neceffarily arife in the different branches of our legislature and in our courts of juftice, the great delay and obftruction that must be given to the adminiftration of juftice by the admiffion of members and judges totally ignorant of our laws and language, (and only remedied by the use of interpreters) are of themselves fufficient circumstances to point out the manifeft impropriety of fuch a regulation-To behold legiflators making laws for the good government |