At the Council Chamber Whitehall the 29th. day of January 1774.

Your Majesty having been pleased by Your Order in Council of the 10th. of last Month, to referr unto this Committee, an address of the House of Representatives of the province of Massachusets Bay complaining of the Conduct of Thomas Hutchinson Esquire Governor, and Andrew Oliver Esquire Lieutenant Governor of that province; and humbly praying that Your Majesty would be pleased to remove the said Thomas Hutchinson Esquire and Andrew Oliver Esquire from their posts in that Government; The Lords of the Committee did in Obedience to Your Majesty’s said Order of Reference, proceed on the 11th. of this Instant to take the petition of the said House of Representatives into Consideration, and were attended by Benjamin Franklin Esquire, Stileing himself agent for the said House of Representatives (and from whom the said petition had been transmitted to the Right Honourable the Earl of Dartmouth One of Your Majesty’s principal Secretaries of State) and likewise by Israel Mauduit Esquire from whom application had been made to this Committee humbly praying on behalf of Your Majesty’s said Governor and Lieutenant Governor, that he might be heard by Counsel in relation to the Address of the House of Representatives of the said Province; and the said Benjamin Franklin Esquire having thereupon prayed, that he might in that Case be heard also by his Counsel at a future Day; The Lords of the Committee did in compliance with the petition of the said Israel Mauduit Esquire and at the Instance of the said Benjamin Franklin Esquire, think proper to appoint a further Day to resume the Consideration of the said petition of the House of Representatives of Massachusets Bay, and to allow Counsel to be heard on both sides thereupon. And their Lordships having been this Day attended by Counsel on both sides accordingly and heard all that they had to offer, and having maturely weighed and considered the whole of the Evidence adduced by the said Benjamin Franklin Esquire, upon which the said House of Representatives did come to the several Resolves, which are the foundation of their said Petition to Your Majesty; The Lords of the Committee take leave to represent to Your Majesty, that the said House of Representatives have by their said petition taken upon themselves to bring a general Charge against Your Majesty’s said Governor and Lieutenant Governor and to complain of their Conduct, “as having a natural and efficacious tendency to interrupt and alienate the affections of Your Majesty from that Your Loyal province, To Destroy that Harmony and good Will between Great Britain and that Colony which every honest Subject would strive to Establish, To Excite the Resentment of the Brittish Administration against that province, To defeat the Endeavours of their Agents and friends to serve them by a fair Representation of their State of facts, To prevent their Humble and repeated petitions from reaching the Ear of Your Majesty or having their Desired Effect; and finally Charging Your Majesty’s said Governor and Lieutenant Governor with having been among the Chief Instruments of introducing a Fleet and an army into that province; to Establish and perpetuate their plans, whereby Your Majesty’s said Governor and Lieutenant Governor have been not only greatly instrumental of Disturbing the peace and Harmony of the Government, and causing unnatural and hateful Discords and animosities between the several parts of Your Majesty’s Extensive Dominions, But are justly chargeable with all that Corruption of Morals, and all that Confusion Misery and Bloodshed, which have been the natural Effects of posting an Army in a Populous Town”; But the Lords of the Committee cannot but express their Astonishment , that a Charge of so serious and extensive a nature against the persons whom the said House of Representatives acknowledge by their said petition to have heretofore had the Confidence and Esteem of the people and to have been advanced by Your Majesty from the purest Motives of rendering Your Subjects happy to the highest places of Trust and Authority in that province, should have no other Evidence to support it but inflammatory and precipitate Resolutions founded only on certain Letters written respectively by them (and all but one before they were appointed to the posts they now hold) in the Years 1767, 1768, and 1769, to a Gentleman then in no Office under the Government, in the course of Familiar Correspondence, and in the Confidence of private Friendship, and which it was said (and it was not denied by Mr. Franklin) were surreptitiously obtained after his Death, and sent over to America, and laid before the Assembly of the Massachusets Bay; and which Letters appear to Us to contain nothing Reprehensible, or Unworthy of the Situation they were in. And We presume that it was from this Impropriety that the Counsel did Disclaim on behalf of the Assembly any Intention of Bringing a Criminal Charge against the Governor and Lieutenant Governor; but said that the Petition was founded Solely on the Ground of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor being as they alledged, now become obnoxious to the people of the Province; and that it was in this Light only that the said petition [was] presented to Your Majesty; And there being no other Evidence now produced than the said Resolutions and Letters, together with Resolutions of a Similar Import by the Council of the said province founded, as it was said on the same Letters; The Lords of the Committee do agree humbly to Report, as their Opinion to Your Majesty that the said petition is founded upon Resolutions, formed upon False and Erroneous allegations, and that the same is groundless, Vexatious and Scandalous and calculated only for the Seditious Purpose of keeping up a Spirit of Clamour and Discontent in the said Province. And the Lords of the Committee do further humbly Report to Your Majesty that nothing has been laid before them, which does or can, in their Opinion in any manner or in any Degree, Impeach the Honour, Integrity or Conduct, of the said Governor or Lieutenant Governor. And their Lordships are humbly of Opinion that the said Petition ought to be Dismissed.