state of the colonies, humbly approach the throne, to assure your Majesty of our most dutiful regard to your royal person and family, and our attachment to, and reliance on, our fellow-subjects in Great Britain, founded on the most solid and durable basis, the continued enjoyment of our personal rights, and the security of our properties. "That, weak and feeble as this colony is, from its very small number of white inhabitants, and its peculiar situation, from the incumbrance of more than 200,000 slaves, it cannot be supposed that we now intend, or ever could have intended, resistance to Great Britain. "That this colony has never, by riots or other violent measures, opposed, or permitted an act of resistance against any law imposed on us by Great Britain, though always truly sensible of our just rights, and of the pernicious consequences both to the parent and infant state, with which some of them must be attended; always relying, with the most implicit confidence, on the justice and paternal tenderness of your Majesty, even to the most distant of your subjects; and depending, that when your Majesty and your Parliament should have maturely considered and deliberated on the claims of Great Britain and her colonies, every cause of dissatisfaction would be removed. "That, justly alarmed with the approaching horrors of an unnatural contest between Great Britain and her colonies, in which the most dreadful calamities to this island, and the inevitable destruction of the small sugar colonies, are involved; and excited by these ap prehensions, as well as by our af fection for our fellow-subjects, both in Great Britain and the colonies, we implore your Majesty's favourable reception of this our humble petition and memorial, as well on behalf of ourselves and our constituents, the good people of this island, as on behalf of all other your Majesty's subjects, the colonists of America, but especially those who labour at present under the heavy weight of your Majesty's displeasure, for whom we entreat to be admitted as humble suitors, that we may not, at so important a crisis, be wanting to contribute our sincere and well-meant (however sinall) endeavours, to heal those disorders which may otherwise terminate in the destruction of the empire. "That, as we conceive it necessary for this purpose, to enter into the different claims of Great Britain and her colonies, we beg leave to place it in the royal mind, as the first established principle of the constitution, that the people of England have a right to partake and do partake of the legislation of their country; and that no laws can affect them but such as receive their assent, given by themselves or their representatives; and it follows, therefore, that no one part of your Majesty's English subjects either can, or ever could, legislate for any other part. "That the settlers of the first colonies, but especially those of the elder colonies of North America, as well as the conquerors of this island, were a part of the English people, in every respect equal to them, and possessed of every right and privilege at the time of their emigration, which the people of England were pos sessed sessed of; and irrefragably to that great right of consenting to the laws, which should bind them in all cases whatsoever; and who emigrating at first in small numbers, when they might have been oppressed, such rights and privileges were constantly guaranteed by the Crown to the emigrants and conquerors, to be held and enjoyed by them, in the places to which they emigrated, and were confirmed by many repeated solemn engagements, made public by proclamations, under the faith of which they did actually emigrate and conquer; that therefore the people of England had no rights, power, or privilege, to give to the emigrants, as these were at the time of their emigration possessed of all such rights, equally with themselves. "That the Peers of England were possessed of very eminent and distinguished privileges in their own rights, as a branch of legislature; a court of justice in the dernier ressort, for all appeals from the people; and, in the first instance, for all causes instituted by the representatives of the people; but that it does not appear that they ever considered themselves as acting in such capacities for the colonies; the Peers having never, to this day, heard or determined the causes of the colonists in appeal, in which it ever was, and is, their duty to serve the subjects within the realm. "That, from what has been said, it appears that the emigrants could receive nothing from either the Peers or the people; the former being unable to communicate their privileges, and the latter on no more than an equal footing with themselves: but that with the King it was far otherwise; the Royal prerogative, as now annexed to and belonging to the Crown, being totally independent of the people, who cannot invade, add to, or diminish it, nor restrain or invalidate those legal grants which the prerogative hath a just right to give, and hath very liberally given, for the encouragement of colonization: to some colonies it granted almost all the royal powers of Government, which they hold and enjoy at this day; but to none of them did it grant less than to the first conquerors of this island, in whose favour it is declared, by a royal proclamation, that they shall have the same privileges, to all intents and purposes, as the free-born subjects of England,' "That, to use the name or authority of the people of the parent state, to take away or render ineffectual the legal grants of the Crown to the colonists, is delusive, and destroys that confidence which the people have ever had, and ought to have, of the most solemn royal grants in their favour, and renders unstable and insecure those very rights and privileges which prompted their emigration. "That your colonists and your petitioners, having the most implicit confidence in the royal faith, pledged, to them in the most solemn manner by your predecessors, rested satisfied with their different portions of the royal grants; and having been bred, from their infancy, to venerate the name of parliament,-a word still dear to the heart of every Briton, and consi dered as the palladium of liberty, and the great source from whence their own is derived,-received the several acts of Parliament of England and Great Britain, for the regulation gulation of the trade of the colonies, as the salutary precautions of a prudent father for the prosperity of a wide-extended family; and that in this light we received them, without a thought of questioning the right, the whole tenor of our conduct will demonstrate, for above 100 years; that though we received those regulations of trade from our fellow-subjects of England and Great Britain, so advantageous to us, as colonists, as Englishmen and Britons, we did not thereby confer on them a power of legislating for us, far less that of destroying us and our children by divesting us of all rights and property. "That, with reluctance, we have been drawn from the prosecution of our internal affairs, to behold with amazement a plan almost carried into execution, for enslaving the colonies, founded, as we conceive, on a claim of Parliament to bind the colonists in all cases whatsoever. "Your humble petitioners have for several years, with deep and silent sorrow, lamented this unrestrained exercise of legislative power; still hoping, from the interposition of their Sovereign, to avert that last and greatest of calamities, that of being reduced to an abject state of slavery, by having an arbitrary government established in the colonies; for the very attempting of which a Minister of your predecessors was impeached by a House of Commons. "With like sorrow do we find the Popish religion established by law, which by treaty was only to be tolerated. "That the most essential rights of the colonies have been invaded, and their property given and grant ed to your Majesty, by men not entitled to such a power. "That the murder of the colonists hath been encouraged by another act, disallowing and annulling their trials by juries of the vicinage; and that fleets and armies have been sent to enforce those dreadful laws. "We, therefore, in this desperate extremity, most humbly beg leave to approach the throne, to declare to your Majesty that our fellow-subjects in Great Britain, and consequently their representatives the House of Commons, have not a right, as we trust we have shown, to legislate for the colonies; and that your petitioners and the colonists are not, nor ought to be, bound by any other laws than such as they have themselves assented to, and not disallowed by your Majesty. "Your petitioners do therefore make this claim and demand from their Sovereign, as guarantee of their just rights, on the faith and confidence of which they have settled, and continue to reside in these distant parts of the empire,-that no laws shall be made and attempted to be forced upon them, injuri ous to their rights as colonists, Englishmen, or Britons. "That your petitioners, fully sensible of the great advantages that have arisen from the regulations of trade in general, prior to the year 1760, as well to Great Britain and her colonies as to your petitioners in particular, and being anxiously desirous of increasing the good effects of these laws, as well as to remove an obstacle which is new in our government, and could not have existed on the principles of our constitution, as it hath arisen from from colonization, we do declare for ourselves and the good people of this island, that we freely consent to the operation of all such acts of the British Parliament as are limited to the regulation of our external commerce only, and the sole objects of which are the mutual advantage of Great Britain and her colonies. "We, your petitioners, do there fore beseech your Majesty, that you will be pleased, as the common parent of your subjects, to become a mediator between your European and American subjects; and to consider the latter, however far removed from your royal presence, as equally entitled to your protection, and the benefits of the English constitution; the deprivation of which must dissolve that dependence on the parent state which it is our glory to acknowledge, whilst enjoying those rights under her protection; but, should this bond of union be ever destroyed, and the colonists reduced to consider themselves as tributaries to Britain, they must cease to venerate her as an affectionate parent. "We beseech your Majesty to believe, that it is our earnest prayer to Almighty Providence, to preserve your Majesty in all happiness, prosperity, and honour; and that there never may be wanting one of your illustrious line to transmit the blessings of our excellent constitution to the latest posterity, and to reign in the hearts of a loyal, grateful, and affectionate people." PRUSSIAN CONSTITUTIONS. Berlin, August 5. On the 2d his Majesty came from Toplitz, his birth-day being on the 3d, which he kept with his family in the Pfauen Insel (Isle of Peacocks). The greatest sensation has been excited on this day, which is so dear to all Prussians, by the publication of the Bulletin of the Laws No. 13, which contains the following general law respecting the Provincial Assemblies: "We, Frederick William, &c., to give our faithful subjects a new and durable pledge of paternal favour and confidence, have resolved to introduce Representative Assemblies into the Monarchy, and to that end to establish Provincial Assemblies in the spirit of the ancient German constitution, such as the peculiar situation of the country and the spirit of the times require. A committee, of which his Royal Highness the Crown Prince was President, has been appointed by his Majesty to prepare this measure, and consult upon it with experienced men from each province." On the report of this committee, his Majesty gave the following decree, dated June 5 : 1. Provincial Assemblies shall be called into action. 2. Landed property is the basis of the representation. 3. The provincial estates are the leading organ of the various subordinate estates in each province. According to this decision, his Majesty will-1st, Cause to be sent to them for their discussion, the projects of laws which concern the province only; 2. So long as there are no general assemblies of the States, send to them for discussion such general projects of laws also as relate to changes in the rights of persons and property, and to the taxes; 3. Reserve for the Provincial Assemblies petitions and re monstrances monstrances which concern the special welfare and interest of the whole province or a part of it, examine them, and decide upon them; 4. Leave it to them to decide on the communal affairs of the province, with the reserve of his Majesty's approbation. To the present law, which however is not applicable in Neufchâtel and Vallengin, this will add a special law for each province. Should his Majesty think that changes in these special laws might be useful or beneficial, he will not make them without the concurrence of the Provincial Assemblies. When a convocation of the General Estates of the kingdom will be necessary, and how it shall then proceed for the Provincial Estates, remains for his Majesty in his paternal care to determine. The special laws, all dated 1st of July, relate severally to the Pro- vincial Estates-1. For the March of Brandenburg and the Marquisate of Lower Lusatia. 2. Those of the kingdom of Prussia, comprising (a) East Prussia, (b) Lithuania, (c) West Prussia. 3. To Pomerania and Rugon. The Estates of the 1st province to meet at Berlin; of the 2d at Koningsberg and Dantzic alternately; and of the 3d at Strettin. The special laws contain detailed regulations respecting the eligibility of the deputies, the right of election, the exercise of the right of the Estates, the convocation and the duration of the Provincial Assemblies, the Communal Assemblies, the Assemblies of Circles, &c.-Hamburgh paper, Aug. 8. RUSSIAN FINANCES. The Superintending Council of the Credit Establishment having met on the 27th of June, Lieutenant-General Cancren, Minister of Finance, opened the business with a speech on the state of the several objects to which the attention of the Council was to be called. His discourse was consequently divided into the following heads : Sinking Fund Commission.-Under this head the Minister stated the amount of the debt on the 1st of June, 1822; the inscriptions redeemed in the course of that year, and certain claims on the Govern ment which had been admitted. Of the loan concluded with Messrs. Rothschild in London, in the year 1822, he could not give an account until it was completely terminated. Its amount was stated to be 43,000,000 of silver roubles, but of which only 23,000,160 silver roubles had yet been inscribed in the great book of the public debt. The result of his details appeared to be that the public debt on the 1st of January, 1823, stood as follows: 48,100,000 florins. 3,364,000 roubles in silver. 34,505,753 in assignats. 20,620 roubles in gold. 9,015,412 in silver. 240,945,711 in assignats. 61,362,360 roubles in silver. The |