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[Hillsborough to Sharpe.]
Whitehall April 21. 1768.
Sir,
I have His Majesty's Commands to transmit to you the
inclosed Copy of a Letter from the Speaker of the House
of Representatives of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay,
addressed by Order of that House to the Speaker of the
Assembly of each Colony upon the Continent of North
America.
As His Majesty considers this Measure to be of a most
dangerous and factious Tendency, calculated to inflame the
Minds of His good Subjects in the Colonies, to promote an
unwarrantable Combination, and to excite and encourage an
open Opposition to and Denial of the Authority of Parliament,
and to subvert the true Principles of the Constitution ; it is
His Majesty's Pleasure that you. should immediately, upon the
Receipt hereof, exert your utmost Influence to defeat this
flagitious Attempt to disturb the public Peace, by prevailing
upon the Assembly of your Province to take no Notice of it,
which will be treating it with the Contempt it deserves.
The repeated Proofs, which have been given by the
Assembly of Maryland, of their Reverence and Respect for
the Laws, and of their faithful Attachment to the Constitution,
leave little Room in His Majesty's Breast to doubt of their
shewing a proper Resentment of this unjustifiable Attempt to
revive those Distractions, which have operated so fatally to
the Prejudice of this Kingdom & the Colonies, and accord-
ingly His Majesty has the fullest Confidence in their Affec-
tions ; but if, notwithstanding these Expectations and your
most earnest Endeavours, there should appear in the Assembly
of your Province a Disposition to receive or give any Counte-
nance to this seditious Paper, it will be your Duty to prevent
any Proceeding upon it by an immediate Prorogation or
Dissolution. I am, with great Truth and Regard
Sir,
Your most obedient
humble Servant
Dep. Governor of Maryland. Hillsborough
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