800 | To the Earl of Hillsborough

    Pall mall Sept 18 1769

    My Lord

    Before I left Boston I received from the Clerk of the House of Representatives a Copy of a Remonstrance containing many charges against me which the House had Voted to be presented to his Majesty. And since I have arrived in London I have been informed that such remonstrance has been presented accordingly.1

    I have been obliged to submit to the many abuses & misrepresentations which my Endeavours to maintain the rights of the King & the parliament have brought upon me from a Party who have for some years past raised & conducted an Opposition to both. Whilst their Slanders were issued in Newspapers & came from anonymous accusers, I had no tribunal to appeal to, but that of an infatuated people, before whom neither the honour of the Crown nor the Dignity of my Office would suffer me to Answer.

    But since the Party has prevailed on the House of Representatives to adopt their calumnies, to form them into articles, & to carry them to the foot of the throne, I most chearfully embrace this opportunity of vindicating my conduct in the administration of the Government of Massachusets Bay. I therefore have to beg of your Lordship that you would on my behalf beseach his Majesty, that he would graciously be pleased to order that this Remonstrance together with my Answer thereto may be taken into consideration by his privy Council as soon as conveniently may be.2

    It has been very usual for the party from whom this Remonstrance ^originally^ comes to propagate calumnies against the Officers of the Crown within the province, to serve present purposes before they can be refuted; and when the falsity of such calumnies have been detected, to show neither shame nor sorrow for the propagation of them. I have reason to think that this is the Case in the present instance; & from the futility of the charge I do beleive that this Remonstrance is more intended to serve the purpose of a temporary opprobrium than to effect a real condemnation; of which latter, I am persuaded, the Authors of it have little or no expectation. I must therefore hope that I shall be excused in earnestly desiring that I may be free’d from the weight of this accusation as soon as possible. And I humbly pray that if the Agent for the Remonstrance shall shew an intention of postponing the consideration of it to a distant Time, that He may be defeated of his purpose; and that It may be brought to a determination at as early a day as the forms of business will permit.

    I am with great respect, My Lord, Your Lordships most obedient and most humble Servant

    Fra Bernard

    The right honble the Earl of Hillsborough

    ALS, RC      CO5/758, ff 188–189.

    Wills Hill, the first Earl of Hillsborough. Line engraving after unknown artist, published 1781. © National Portrait Gallery, London.