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By the KING.
Dublin Caftle, September 2.
PROCLAMATION, Lord Lieutenant went in
HIS day his Excellency the
ΤΗ

For diffolving this prefent Parlia-
ment, and declaring the calling of

another.

GEORGE R.

HEREAS we have thought fit, by and with the advice of our privy-council, to diffolve this prefent parliament, which now ftands prorogued to Thursday the 28th day of this inftant September: We do, for that end, publith this our royal proclamation; and do hereby diffolve the faid parliament accordingly and the lords fpiritual and temporal, and the knights, citizens, and burgeffes, and the commiffioners for fhires and burghs, of the house of commons, are difcharged from their meeting and attendance on Thurfday the faid 28th day of this inftant September. And we being defirous and refolved, as foon as may be, to meet our people, and to have their advice in parliament, do hereby make known, to all our loving fubjects, our royal will and plea fure to call a new parliament; and do hereby further declare, that, with the advice of our privycouncil, we have, this day, given order to our chancellor of Great

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ftate to the Houfe of Peers, with the ufual folemnity; and, the Commons being fent for, gave the royal affent to fuch bills as

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ready; after which his Excellency made the following moft gracious speech to both Houfes of Parlia

ment:

My Lords and Gentlemen, I am happy at length to congratulate you on the conclufion of this feffion of parliament, though the important measures under de liberation must have made your attendance lefs irkfome to you.

Britain to iffue out writs, in due
form, for calling a new parlia
ment; which writs are to bear
tefte on Saturday the 2d day of
this inftant September, and to be
returnable on Tuesday the 31ft
day of October following.
Given at our court at St. James's,
the ft day of September, 1780,
in the twentieth year of our
reign.

God fave the King.
VOL. XXIII.

If your long abfence from your feveral counties has been productive of any inconvenience, fuch inconvenience is fully compenfated by permanent and folid benefits, the fuccefsful confequences of your labours.

Gentlemen of the House
Commons,

of

name, for the liberal fupplies you I thank you, in his Majefty's have granted. Your cheerfulness in giving, and your attention to the cafe of the subject in the mode of raifing them, must be very acceptable to his Majefty; on my.. faithfully applied. part, I affure you they fhall be

My Lords and Gentlemen,

The fatisfaction with which the heart of every Irishman must exult at the scene of profperity now, opening to this country, may equal, it cannot exceed, the glow of my private feelings. And whilft you applaud the conduct of Great Britain in removing the reftrictions

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ftrictions upon the trade of this are lavished in vain. Cherish fuch

kingdom, you cannot but particularly acknowledge the unequivocal demonftrations of her fincere affection, in admitting you, upon the moft liberal plan, to an immediate, free, and equal intercourfe with her colonies.

The wife and falutary laws which you have framed naturally lead to the moft beneficial enjoyment of that intercourfe; and when I reflect on thofe objects, and on your meritorious attention to the trade, agriculture, and manufactures of this kingdom, fo confpicuously manifefted by the laws patfed for granting ample bounties on the export of your corn, your linen, and your failcloth; by the premiums for encouraging the growth of hemp and flax-feed, and by the judicious provifions for the better regulation of your manufactures, I feel a confcious fatisfaction, that the commerce of this kingdom has been established upon an extended, firm, and latting bafis; and that Ireland muft, in the courfe of her future profperity, look back to this æra, the labours of the prefent parliament, and the diffutive.

a fpirit of induftry; and convince them of the effectual advantages they derive from their free and excellent conftitution, the maintenance of every branch of which, in its juft vigour and authority, can alone fecure their liberties, and preferve their happiness.

After which the Lord Chancellor, by his Excellency's command, said,

My Lords and Gentlemen, It is his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant's pleafure, that this parliament be prorogued to Tuef day the 10th day of October next, to be then here held; and this parliament is accordingly prorogued to Tuesday the 10th day of October next.

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Sheweth,

НАТ this nation hath

indulgence of his Majefty, with T been engaged for feveral

the moft grateful veneration.

Your own difcreet judgment will naturally fuggeft the expediency, when you return to your feveral counties, of impreffing upon the minds of all ranks of men the various bleflings of their prefent fituation. Demonftrate to them, that every effectual fource of commercial wealth is now their own, and invites that induftry, without which the wifeft commercial regulations remain a dead letter, and the bounties of nature 4

years in a moft expensive and unfortunate war; that many of our valuable colonies, having actually declared themselves independent, have formed a ftrict confederacy with France and Spain, the dangerous and inveterate enemies of Great-Britain; that the confequence of thofe combined misfortunes hath been a large addition to the national debt, a heavy accumulation of taxes, a rapid decline of the trade, manu

factures,

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 notwithtanding 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 fill 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 conftitution of this realm the national purfe is intrusted in a peculiar manner to the cuftody of this honourable houfe; beg leave further to reprefent, that until effectual meafures be taken to redrefs the oppreffive grievances herein flated, the grant of any additional fum of 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 dig. nity of parliament.

Your petitioners therefore, appealing to the juftice of this ho nourable houfe, do moft carneftly, request, that, before any new burthens are laid upon this country, effectual meafures may be taken

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leave to lay before this honourable houfe feveral 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 con ceive, that the fafety of fuch a poffeffion as Jamaica ought not to have been left to chance. They reprefent, that the ifland 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 itself is, in reality, the wealth of Jamaica, which is fo intimately interwoven with the internal intereft of this kingdom, that it is not easy to diftinguith them; that a great part of the trade and navigation, a large proportion of the revenue, and yery much of the mercantile and the national credit, and the value of the landed interest, 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 so long been put under this profcription. If your petitioners had been active by factious clamours, or delufive reprefentations, by concealing true or fuggefting falle 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 West India planters and merchants did humbly ftate their apprehenfions to parliament, and deprecated the unhappy measures 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 ftate. The planters have feen, not only with ac. quiefcence but pleafure, 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, beyond any former example of liberality, and far beyond their abilities, laid deftructive impofitions on their eftates and properties within the island. Vaft 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, these 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 almoft exhaufted 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 Majefty'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 fuppreflion of no rebellion whatever can be a more near and urgent concern of any government than the pro

tection of its loyal and ufeful fubjects.

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 station, 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 house, 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 af fembly 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 anfwers, other than excufes, on account of the number of fhips employed on the American and home fervice, and cer. tain 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 ftation fhould be confiderably reinforced, have not been fulfilled.

Your petitioners most humbly requeft the attention of this houte to their past and prefent fituation, pledging themfelves to prove, be

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