Wicked attempts to increase and establish a standing army, by endeavouring to vest in the crown an unlimited power over the militia, which, should they succeed, must, sooner or later, subvert the constitution, by augmenting the power of administration in proportion to their delinquency.
Repeated endeavours to diminish the importance of members of parliament individually, in order to render them more dependent on administration collectively. Even threats having been employed by ministers to suppress the freedom of debate; and the wrath of parliament denounced against measures authorized by the law of the land.
Resolutions of one branch of the legislature set up as the law of the land, being a direct usurpation of the rights of the two other branches, and therefore a manifest infringement of the constitution.
Public money shamefully squandered and unaccounted for, and all inquiry into the cause of arrears in the civil list prevented by the ministry.
Inquiry into a paymaster’s public accounts stopped in the exchequer, though the sums accounted for by that paymaster amount to above forty millions sterling.
Public loans perverted to private ministerial purposes.
Prostitution of public honours and rewards to men who can neither plead public virtue nor services.
Irreligion and immorality, so eminently discountenanced by your Majesty’s royal example, encouraged by administration, both by example and precept.
The same discretion has been extended by the same evil counsellors to your Majesty’s dominions in America, and has produced to our suffering fellow-subjects in that part of the world grievances and apprehensions similar to those which we complain of at home.