PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM SAMS, BOOKSELLER TO HIS ROYAL HIGH- NESS THE DUKE OF YORK. PHILADELPHIA,-REPUBLISHED BY JOHN CONRAD, No. 121, CHESNUT STREET. CARLTON PALACE, DEO. 1, 1820. To all our loving Subjects and Countrymen, however exalted in rank or humble in station, the King sends alike his most affectionate greeting. THE liberty of the press does not permit to your King, the possibility of remaining ignorant of passing events, or unaffected by the public agitation: at one and the same time it conveys to me sentiments of satisfaction or grounds of complaint; the promised support of the constitutional, and the threat of the disaffected. My own conduct, the measures of my executive, the state of my kingdom, and the condition of my subjects, are placed before me in as many various, confused, and contradictory positions, as the greater or lesser degree of information, the rivalship of party, the animosity of prejudice, or the insidiousness of faction, alternately suggest. In this chaos of contrariety, to me the first great difficulty is, to discover the truth; the next, so to manage the discovery, as to produce from it some sound and dispassionate course of action. This liberty of the press, in itself a great abstract good, capable alike of being converted into a bane or antidote, and, by discreet and conscientious management, capable also of promoting and effecting immortal benefits to mankind, or inflicting upon them irremediable ills, keeps up at least a constant communication between us, depriving the courtier of the power of concealing from his Sovereign public opinion, and placing him within the effect of inquiry. With such a constant possibility of explanation, a Monarch may be misguided, but cannot be uninformed; he may adopt |