in five years. He perseveres in maintaining, that the act of the sixth of Queen Anne had been shamefully slighted even in their province; because pieces of eight were then, and had been for many years past, current at seven shillings and sixpence; whereas, according to that act, they should pass for six shillings only; as if money, like all other commodities, would not find and fix its own value, in spite of all the precautions and provisions the wit of man could invent. He also maintained, that, on a reëxamination of the provincial accounts, their revenue was seven thousand three hundred and eighty-one pounds per annum, clear of the five hundred pounds per annum for sinking the five thousand pounds formerly given for the King's use; and that the sums due, and which, by the laws in being, should have been paid in the September preceding, amounted at least to fourteen thousand pounds. He averred they could not but be sensible that the twenty thousand pounds currency they proposed to give, and called a generous sum, was very insufficient to answer the exigence, and that it was not two pence in the pound upon the just and real value of the estates of the province; and, in short, he said whatsoever else occurred to him, which could favor his purpose of figuring here at home; as if he was in all respects right, and the assembly in all respects wrong.

Argumentatively then, if not historically, we have now the merits of the case before us; and may safely pronounce, that, if instructions may or can be construed into laws, instructions are then of more value than proclamations, which do not pretend to any such authority. That, though grants from the crown are in the first instance matter of grace, the subject may claim the benefit of them as matter of right. That when the prerogative has once laid any restraint on itself, nothing

short of a positive act of forfeiture, or act of Parliament can authorize any species of resumption. That, if a subsequent instruction may cancel or obviate an original grant, charters, under all the sanctions the prerogative can give them, are no better than quicksands. That in the charter given to William Penn, Esquire, and solemnly accepted as the basis of government by his followers, there is no reserve on the behalf of the crown to tie up the province from making the same use of its credit, which is the privilege of every private subject. That, notwithstanding all the pretended sacro-sanctitude of an instruction, probationary at first, neither renewed or referred to, directly or indirectly, by his Majesty or his ministers afterwards, and virtually discharged by a subsequent act of Parliament, which expressly restrained some colonies, and consequently left the rest in possession of their ancient liberty, the governor was notoriously ready to dispense with it on proprietary terms. That the difference between five and ten years for sinking the bills, was a point in which the national interest had no concern. That, if the eastern colonies, which were those restrained by the said act, might, nevertheless, in case of exigence, make new issues of paper money, those unrestrained might surely do the same in the like case, on such terms, and after such a mode, as appeared most reasonable to themselves. That, according to all the representations of the governor to the assembly, if true, the fate of the province, if not of the public, depended on their giving a supply. That, consequently, no exigency could be more pressing than the present, nor emission of paper money better warranted. And that he could, nevertheless, leave the province exposed to all the calamities, which that exigence could possibly bring upon it, or upon the service in general, rather than

give up one proprietary item; whereas the difficulty imposed upon the people manifestly was either to be a prey to their invaders, or give up every privilege that made their country worth defending; which shows, in the fullest, clearest, and most unanswerable manner, that all proprietary interposition between the sovereign and subject is alike injurious to both, and that the solecism of an imperium in imperio could hardly be more emphatically illustrated.

CHAPTER VIII.

The Assembly make their Appeal to the Crown. The Governor's expostulatory Message thereon. He demands a Copy of their Minutes; they order him one when the printed Copies were finished, and adjourn. Upon Braddock's Arrival in Virginia, they are re-assembled by special Summons; the Demands made by Message on that Occasion. Twentyfive Thousand Pounds granted to the King's Use, to be raised by an Emission of Paper Bills. Refused by the Governor, on the old Pretence of a contrary Instruction. A Provision demanded for the Expense of an Indian Treaty. A Memorial to the Assembly from Mr. Quincy, a Commissioner from the Government of Massachusetts Bay. The Assembly resolves to raise the said sum on the Credit of the Province. Another Paper of Acknowledgment from the said Mr Quincy. The Governor revives the former Controversy. The Assembly's spirited Answer to his Message. A Remark thereon.

To the crown under this difficulty the assembly now thought it high time to make their appeal, in humble confidence, that a fair and modest state of their case would recommend them to the royal protection, and screen them from the malignity of their adversaries.

That the governor, however, might not, in the mean time, remain ignorant of their sentiments, they made another application to him by message; in which they apprized him of what they had done, and of their joining issue with him in submitting their cause to his Majesty's decision; as also, of their inclination to adjourn till May, for the sake of their own private affairs, to relieve the province from the expense they sat at, and suspend the uneasiness which a contest, like to be endless, and in which they were treated with so little decency, had given to them. And having thus, as they observed, reduced what immediately concerned them within a narrow compass, they first declare it was hard for them to conjecture how the governor came by his knowledge of the people's fondness of their currency

and aversion to restraints on that head; seeing they had not petitioned for any increase of it, nor the assembly offered any such bill during his administration, except that which comprehended the sum given for the King's use, and that only as the best method they could devise for making the grant effectual. On the behalf of the late assemblies they next insinuate, that, when they did offer such bills, they were but for a very moderate sum, founded on minute calculations of their trade, and guarded against the danger of depreciation by such securities as long experience had shown to be effectual. Proceeding then to the governor's re-assertion concerning the shameful slights put on the money-act of Queen Anne, they appeal to the testimony of the Board of Trade in favor of their own as a reasonable act, and the royal sanction given thereto, by which it is declared, that their provincial bills of credit are lawful money of America, according to the said act of Queen Anne; as also to the course of exchange ever since, as a full confutation of his charge. They further plead a necessity to differ from him in his state of the public money; assure him the computations he relied upon were made without skill, or a sufficient knowledge of their laws; adhere to the justice and rectitude of their own state; maintain, that, by the laws in being, seven thousand pounds was the most they had power over, which sum, since their last settlement, had been greatly reduced by the very heavy charges of government; and, having recapitulated what the governor had been pleased to say concerning the insufficience of their grant, &c., conclude in the following spirited manner;

"What the governor may think sufficient is as much a mystery to us, as he may apprehend his proprietary instructions are; but, we presume, it may be sufficient