[Continuing Officers in the Colonies.]

BY THE KING.

A PROCLAMATION

Declaring His Majesty's Pleasure for continuing the Officers in His Majesty's Plantations till His Majesty's Pleasure shall be further signified.

George R.

Whereas by an Act of Parliament made in the Sixth Year of the late Queen Anne, of blessed Memory, intituled, "An Act for the Security of her Majesty's Person and Government, and of the Succession to the Crown of Great Britain in the Protestant Line," it was enacted (amongst other Things) That no Office, Place, or Employment, Civil or Military, within any of her said late Majesty's Plantations, should become void by Reason of the Demise or Death of her said late Majesty, her Heirs, or Successors, Kings or Queens of this Realm; but that the Person and Persons in any of the Offices, Places, or Employments aforesaid, should continue in their respective Offices, Places, and Employments, for the Space of Six Months next after such Death or Demise, unless sooner removed and discharged by the next in Succession to whom the Crown of this Realm should come, remain, and be, according to the several Acts of Parliament for limiting and settling the Succession of the Crown, as by the said recited Act may appear; And in regard it may happen, that Our Pleasure may not, within the said Time, be declared, touching the said Offices, Places, and Employments, in Our Foreign Plantations, which will, at the End of the said Six Months, become void; We, for preventing the Inconveniences that may happen thereby, in Our princely Wisdom and Care of the State (reserving to Our Judgement hereafter the Reformation and Redress of any Abuses in the Execution of any such Offices, Places, and Employments, upon due Knowledge and Examination thereof) have thought fit, with the Advice of Our Privy Council, to issue this Our Royal Proclamation, and do hereby order, signify, and declare, That all Persons that, at the Time of the Decease of Our late Royal Grandfather King George the Second, of glorious Memory, were duly and lawfully possessed of, or invested in, any Office, Place, or Employment, Civil or Military, in any of Our Plantations, and which have not been since removed from such their Offices, Places, or Employments, shall be, and shall hold themselves continued in the said Offices, Places, and Employments, as formerly they held and enjoyed the same, until Our Pleasure be further known, or other Provision be made, pursuant to the Commissions and Instructions of Our said late Royal Grandfather, to His Governors and Officers of the Plantations aforesaid; and that in the mean time, for the Preservation of the Peace, and necessary Proceedings in Matters of Justice, and for the Safety and Service of the State, all the said Persons, of whatsoever Degree or Condition, do not fail every one severally, according to his Place, Office, or Charge, to proceed in the Performance and Execution of all Duties thereunto belonging, as formerly appertained unto them, during the Life of Our said late Royal Grandfather: And further, We do hereby will and command all and singular Our Subjects in the said Plantations, of what Estate or Degree they, or any of them, be, to be aiding, helping, and assisting, at the Commandment of the said Officers, in the Performance and Execution of the said Offices and Places, as they tender Our Displeasure, and will answer the contrary at their utmost Perils.

Given at Our Court at Saville House, the Twenty Seventh Day of October, 1760, in the First Year of Our Reign.

God Save the King.

No printed copy found. Entered on Patent Rolls; in Crown Office Docquet Book, vol. II, where it is dated October 25; and in Privy Council Register, III Geo., vol. 1, p. 11. Printed in "London Gazette," October 13, 1761, from which this transcript was made.