1-187 (Raw)

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THE HUMBLE PETITION OF THE EMANCIPATED COLONISTS OF THE TERRITORY OF NEW SOUTH WALES AND ITS DEPENDENCIES.
To the King's most Excellent Majesty.
Most humbly sheweth, [...] 
Yet that your Petitioners, retrospectively and prospectively, are to be considered as Convicts attaint, without personal Liberty, without Property, without Character or Credit, without any one Right or Priviledge belonging to free Subjects; And are now, after thirty Years of good Conduct and Industry, whereby they have attained to Wealth, Character and Rank in Society, to be thrown back at once and for ever to that state of degradation from which they have by worthy Conduct, they hope, not undeservedly arisen; And for this one single reason that the names of Your Petitioners have not been inserted in any General Pardon under the Great Seal of England, without which Ceremony the Courts of Civil Judicature in this Territory have, as aforesaid, adjudged that the Instruments of remission granted by the Governors of this Colony are of no force, effect or Validity whatever; whereas your Petitioners most humbly submit unto Your Majesty that the insertion of their Names respectively in any General Pardon under the Great Seal of England is a circumstance in which your Petitioners have no Controul or interference whatever, nor does it lie upon or with them to have the same performed; for, on the contrary, that Ceremony by the Act of Parliament is directed to be performed by one of Your Majesty's principal Secretaries of State. . [...] And your Petitioners further most humbly represent unto your Majesty that these decisions of the Courts of Justice in this Colony will have the effect of introducing and perpetuating party distinctions, unpleasant discussions, irritable feelings and Jealousies, heats, Animosities and diversions, between Your Majesty's free Subjects in these Territories, not only of the present Generations but for Generations to come; Will entirely take away all Encouragement, incentive and Stimulus to good Conduct and reformation of manners, for how can these good consequences be expected where all hope of reward is with-drawn; Will almost entirely destroy the Spirit of Industry, for Industry cannot flourish where there is no Security for the enjoyment of its fruits, As well as the confidence and Credit that ought to exist between Man and Man, for the foundation of all Confidence and Credit, namely the Security of Property, Will be thereby taken away, and the sure result of these fatal consequences will be most irretrievably to endanger, if not totally annihilate, the Agriculture and Commerce of the Colony, and so destroy possibly for ever the Labour and Fruits of Thirty Years of Laborious Industry, and throw back these Your Majesty's Territories, upon which so much of the Public Money has been expended, and which is now in the Progress of fully Answering the purposes for which it was established, to that State of immorality, Poverty and Distress, which prevailed during the early period of its establishment, and from which it has emerged solely through the beneficial operation and influence of that System of humane and benevolent Policy, by which it was founded and has been hitherto Governed. [314] Your Petitioners do therefore with the most profound humility approach Your Majesty, and, in confident reliance on your Majesty's royal Grace and Clemency; Most Humbly pray that your Majesty will be graciously pleased to take, into your royal Consideration, the Condition in which we your Majesty's Petitioners are placed in by this State of the Law, as interpreted and acted upon by the Courts of Civil Judicature in this Territory, and afford your Petitioners such relief as our Situation and Circumstances in Your Majesty's Royal Wisdom shall seem to deserve.
WM. REDFERN, Chairman, &c.
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