[Appendix A(18) 1792 Report of Commissioners of Inquiry]

N° 18.

ADDRESS of the KEYS to the Duke and Dutchess of Atholl:

To their Excellencies the Duke and Dutchess of Atholl, Lord and Lady of Man and the Isles, May it please your Excellencies,

WE, the Keys of Man, now assembled, do humbly beg Leave to implore your Excellencies molt gracious Favor and Protection in our present calamitous Situation, and consequent to your late Agreement with His Majesty, do beseech your Excellencies will be most gracioufly pleased to interpose in our Behalf, to procure and obtain some advantageous Terms, tending to promote the Interest and Welfare of your People in general, as well as secure their Property and Effects; in Place and Lieu of their late Commercial Plans and Operations, which we dread and apprehend the Merchants, who are the Props and Supports of this poor Country, are now to be totally excluded and deprived of.

With this Prospect and View we have thought proper to dispatch the Bearer to wait on you Excellencies, with some Proposals, which we humbly crave Leave to request your Excellencies will be graciously pleased to lay before His Majesty, or aid in such other Way as shall be thought proper to obtain Relief and Redress in all such Matters as shall be found for the Good and Welfare of your poor distressed Inhabitants, who, we fear, will be reduced to their primitive State of Distress and. Poverty; and disabled from paying your, chief Rents and Customs, if some new Plans of Commerce be not procured and obtained for them.

At a Meeting in Castle Town, the 21st March, 1765.

A true Copy from the Journals of the House of Keys, this 28th Day of September, 1791, by John Lace, a Member.