over the Colonies, yet it cannot be doubted but it will exert it with a due regard to the nature of their connection with the mother-country.
"Upon this occasion it is proper to observe in general that the ease and honour of His Majesty's government in America will greatly depend on the temper and wisdom of those who are entrusted with the Administration there, and that they ought to be persons disdaining narrow views, private combination, and partial attachments. A temperate conduct founded on the true basis of public good, avoiding all unnecessary reserve where nothing arbitrary is thought of, nothing unreasonable required, must carry conviction to the hearts of the deluded, conciliate the minds of all, and insure the confidence of His Majesty's loyal and loving subjects of America.
"Upon these considerations I am persuaded that the Assembly will immediately upon their meeting fall upon measures to terminate all local difficulties, which appear by your accounts to have hitherto prevented that compliance expected by Parliament with the recommendations you have been required to make, in consequence of the resolutions of both Houses. It is impossible to conceive that they will suffer any private considerations to interfere with their desire of showing a proper sense of that paternal regard which they have experienced from His Majesty, and of that attention which Parliament has given to their complaints, which can never be done with more propriety than by granting with the utmost cheerfulness a just compensation to those who have suffered by the late disorders."[1]
The friendly attitude of Shelburne seems to have caused a general willingness to grant relief to the victims of the riots, and relief was granted; but Hawley's Bill passed at the same time, and the House of Assembly at Massachusetts, whether knowingly or unknowingly, thereby resolved to exercise the prerogative of mercy, the prerogative of the Crown and of the Crown alone.
A few months before these events the Assembly of
- ↑ Shelburne to Bernard, October 1766.
