Source 4a: Letter from William Legge

Transcript

Whitehall 5th February 1774

Attorney and Solicitor General

Gentlemen

I am commanded by the King to transmit to you the enclosed narrative of facts relating to some of the late transactions of Boston in North America, accompanied with the two Questions thereupon. 

This is the King’s Pleasure that you do take this Case into your immediate and mature consideration and Report to me for His Majesty’s Information your answer to the Questions proposed.

The state of His Majesty’s Colonies in America, under the Insults that have been offered to the Authority of this Kingdom, requires the most serious deliberation and speedy decision. It is therefore His Majesty’s Pleasure that you should transmit your answer to me with all possible dispatch, to the end that the measures His Majesty may think proper to pursue may not fail of their Effect through any Delay that can be avoided. 

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Dartmouth