temporary allowance from
Government, a mere pittance when compared with the sum due them."

Shortly after the publication of the pamphlet containing these
statements, the Commissioners submitted their eleventh report, April,
1788, and Mr. Pitt, Chancellor of the Exchequer, yielded the following
month to the pressing entreaties of the claimants to allow their
grievances to be discussed in Parliament. "Twelve years had elapsed
since the property of most of them had been alienated under the
Confiscation Acts, and five since their title to recompense had been
recognized by the law under which their claims had been presented and
disposed of."

We will give an abridged account of the proceedings in Parliament and by
the Commissioners in their own words:

"The business came on in the House of Commons on the 6th of June, 1788,
which Mr. Pitt opened in a very handsome and eloquent speech respecting
the merits of the American Loyalists, and which, he did not doubt, would
meet with the unanimous acknowledgment of the House; and he trusted,
therefore, there would be no difference of opinion as to the principle,
though there might be as to the mode of compensation and the
distribution which he thought it his duty to propose.

"The first principle he laid down was, that however strong their claims
might be on the generosity of the nation, the compensation could not be
considered as _a matter of right and strict justice_;[129] in the mode,
therefore, he had pursued, he had marked the principle in the various
quotas of compensation he should propose to be made to the various
classes of the American Loyalists.

"He considered the three first classes of them, stated by the
Commissioners in their reports as the most meritorious, and who were
likewise the most numerous, viz.:

"1st. Loyalists who had rendered services to Great Britain. Number, 204.

"2nd. Loyalists who had borne arms in the service of Great Britain--481.

"3rd. Zealous and uniform Loyalists--626.

"Total number of these three classes--1,311.

"The number of the remaining classes were much fewer, viz.:

"4th. Loyal British subjects resident in Great Britain--20.

"5th. Who took the oath to the Americans, but afterwards joined the
British--27.

"6th. Who bore arms for the Americans, but afterwards joined the
British--23.

"7th. Ditto, losses under the Prohibitory Act--3.

"8th. Loyal British proprietors--2.

"9th. Subject or settled inhabitants of the Un