concern for the trouble this subject has occasioned your Lordship in council, I beg to acknowledge the endeavours that have been made by your Lordship's government to prevent the evil His Majesty's service and the public prosperity in these settlements have so much cause to lament."
King implored Lord Hobart to take "more efficient steps" with Mr. Campbell, supposed to be then in England, and took steps in the colony himself. He conceived the petition to be more of a "command than a request."
"However speciously worded, it had for its object the vesting the spirits in the hands or at the command of Mr. Campbell's agents, who were (the deluded settlers were informed) to have retailed it at six shillings a gallon for fresh pork at sixpence a pound, which would infallibly have prevented any exertion in agriculture and been the means of beggaring the settlers. As I conceived this measure highly improper, I hastened the Eagle's departure without allowing one drop to be landed."
King "summoned the magistrates to consider whether the signatures to the petition had been obtained in a proper manner." They thought that under the Bill of Rights every person had a right to petition, and that any irregularity might have "proceeded from ignorance," and recommended the "discharge of the delinquents," which King "concurred with readily," first giving an "admonishing General Order."
On any "supposed or real occasion" an intending petitioner was to communicate with "the nearest magistrate," who was to refer to the Governor, that "immediate attention" might be given, which would "prevent the seditious and ill-disposed going about getting petitions signed by the credulous and unwary for the most destructive purposes." . . . Legal and proper petitions he would decide upon the existing laws of England . . . "as nearly as local circumstances" . . . and the "tranquillity and welfare of the colony" would admit.
"Any petition sanctioned by three magistrates to be signed by more than one person after its subject had been first communicated to the Governor will be received and strictly considered; but any person presuming to go about with petitions otherwise than allowed by law, will incur the pains and penalties provided for on that behalf by the laws of England."
"This measure," the Governor wrote, "had the effect of calming the petitioning settlers, or rather two or three interested people who cared but little for the welfare of those about them, provided their avarice could be gratified at any sacrifice of health, property, and morals. In short, the
