To the Right Honourable Lord Viscount Weymouth
One of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State,
The Memorial of the Merchants, Traders, and Ship Owners of London whose Names are hereunto subscribed.
Humbly sheweth:

24^th. November 1777

That there have been already laid before your Lordship by the individual parties injured, many and various Cases of the Depredations committed against the Trade of this Kingdom, by American Privateers being permitted to carry British Ships and Cargos into French and Spanish Ports, and there to sell them, in violation of a fundamental and uncontrovertible Maxim of the Law of Nations, vizt

"That before the Ship or Goods taken, can be disposed of by the Captor, there must be a regular judicial Proceeding, wherein both Parties may be heard, and Condemnation thereupon as Prize in a Court of Admiralty judging by the Law of Nations and Treaties: and the proper and regular Court for these Condemnations in the Court of that State to which the Captor belongs."

That notwithstanding the Orders which your Memorialists have been informed have been issued by the Court of France, prohibiting American Privateers from bringing Prizes into their Ports, the Practice has been and is now continued in a much more alarming and dangerous Shape; for they now carry them into the Bays of France and unload the Cargos by means of the Assistance afforded them by the Inhabitants, which your Memorialists apprehend could not be executed if the Court of France were sincere in their Proffessions to the Court of Great Britain, or serious in those Orders issued to their own Subjects.—

That many Ships, particularly those returning from the Newfoundland Fishery, have lately been taken by American Privateers, and carried into the very Ports of their destination in Spain, where they have been disposed of with their Cargos, by the Captors; and that no Court in that Kingdom will take Cognizance of the Complaints and Claims of Restitution made in behalf of his Majesty's Subjects the right Owners.—

These are Practices to which your Memorialists could not apprehend they were exposed from those two civilized States, either in the principle of the Law of Nations or the feeling of Amity between Great Britain &France, and Spain; they are practices which must be productive of general Piracy, and leave a Train of that most dangerous and worst of Crimes, for Years to come, even after a Reduction of the present Rebellion.—

They are Practices, which if not immediately put a Stop to, must sap the Vitals of this Kingdom; for to such a Price has the Premium of Insurance already arisen, in Contemplation of those Hazards, that many of the most valuable Branches of the Navigation of the Kingdom cannot support so heavy a Charge and must therefore be greatly impaired in their Extent, if not totally foregone and laid aside.—

The great Importance of the Subject renders any further Arguments unnecessary, to engage your Lordship's immediate and serious Attention to the Redress of an Evil, replete with the most fatal Consequences to the Prosperity and Security of the Navigation of this Kingdom, on which it's natural Strength and Safety must ever depend.—