*crease of dutiful and loyal Subjects, and bears no * mean Rank in contributing to the Wealth and Trade ⚫ of our Mother Country.

P

• Whether the above Act for granting Five Thoufand Pounds for the King's Ufe, or the Act for vefting Lands in George McCall, were ever fent home for the royal Approbation, very little concerns us, as we prefume the Tranfmitting our Acts is the immediate Duty of our Proprietaries, or their Lieutenants, in Pursuance of the Royal Charter, which we look upon as the anterior folemn Royal Inftruction, for the Rule of their Conduct, as well as of our own.

Upon the whole; from what we have faid, we • prefume it evidently appears, that Proprietary Inftructions and Restrictions upon their Governors, as ❝ they have occafionally been made a Part of the Publick Records at different Times, have been judged ⚫ and refolved by our Governor, Council, and the Re * presentatives of the People, either,

1. Inconfiftent with the legal Prerogative of
⚫ the Crown settled by Act of Parliament.
2. Ora pofitive Breach of the Charter of Privi
leges to the People.

3. Or abfurd in their Conclufions, and there
fore impracticable.

4. Or void in themselves. Therefore, Whenever the Governor fhall be pleafed to lay his Proprietary Inftructions before us for our Exas mination, and if then they fhould appear to be of the fame Kind as heretofore, his good Judgment fhould lead him to conclude, that fuch "Confi"derations in Life" as our Allegiance to the Crown; <or the immediate Safety of the Colony, &c. are fufficient Inducements for him to disobey them, notwithstanding any Penal Bonds to the contrary, we 'fhall chearfully continue to grant fuch further Sums of Money for the King's Ufe, as the Circumftances of the Country may bear, and in a Manner we judge leaft Burthenfome to the Inhabitants of this Pro• vince.'.

7

Lastly:

Laftly That they might be able to fet all Imputation and Mifreprefentation whatsoever at Defiance, they applied themselves to find out fome Expedient, by which the Service recommended to them by the Crown might be promoted as far as in them lay, even without the Concurrence of the Governor. In Order to which, having thoroughly weighed the Contents of Sir Thomas Robinson's last Letter, and the State of the Provincial Treasury, in which there was scarce 500l. remaining, they unanimously refolved to raise Five Thousand Pounds on the Credit of the Province, for the Accommodation of the King's Troops; and impowered certain Members of their own to negotiate the Loan, and allow fuch Intereft as fhould be found neceffary.

The Controverfy, however, which this new Governor had been fo ingenious as to work up to fuch a Pitch in fo fhort a Time, was by the Continuance of the fame Ingenuity, to be ftill continued as warm as

ever.

Accordingly, down came another Meffage from him, in which he complains to the Affembly, of the very great Obfcurity, unneceffary Repetitions, and unmeaning Paragraphs contained in their laft Performance; and thro' the whole manifefts that Spirit of Perverseness, which is but too prevalent with moft Men on the like Occafions. Of the Inaccuracies before acknowledged in that Performance (and which are perhaps unavoidable in Pieces drawn up from a Variety of Suggestions, and fubject to a Variety of Alterations and Additions) he takes all the Advantage he can and does indeed foul the Water, though he cannot divert the Current.

It would be endless to wade through all the Minuteneffes of fo tedious a Conteft; and Odds if the Reader did not leave the Writer in the Midft of it.

To be as concife as poffible, therefore; his Paper is as infidious as that of the Affembly was candid and open. He would not allow, that he had promifed them a Sight of his Inftructions-with Regard to

their Bill for granting 20,000l. to the King; which was fo far true, because he could have none regarding that particular Measure: He would not allow, that he had represented their Application for thofe Inftructions, as having a Tendency to alienate the Affections of the People from the King; which was alfo true, because fuch his Representation had been confined to the Expreffions they had made Ufe of, concerning the Invafion of their civil and religicus Liberties; the laft of which is indeed no otherwife to be accounted for, than by the Demand made upon them, to establish a Militia, and thereby oblige thofe to carry Arms, who made it a Point of Confcience, to difavow Refiftance by Force: Thofe Expreffions, he would needs have it, had the Tendency he afcribed to them; because, •he very well knew how fond the People were of their Currency, and how averfe to any Restraint upon it.' -He endeavoured to embroil them with the Crown, for having called the Inftruction in queftion, an Infraction of the Royal Charter.- He reproached them both with Ingratitude and Injustice for being pleased to be angry with their Proprietaries:In vindicating the Affections of thofe Gentlemen to the Province, he derived his Argument from their Intereft in it; and he is peremptory, that, inftead of entertaining Defigns to invade the juft Rights and Privileges of the Inhabitants, there was nothing they fo much detefted and abborred:He adhered to the Refolution he had taken, nevertheless, not to lay his Inftructions before them at that Time; being fenfible they were no way neceffary, and that the Affembly, having already declared them deftructive to their Liberties, they were not in a proper Temper for the Confideration of them:

To fhew he was not restrained by Proprietary Inftructions from paffing Bills for the Defence of the Country, he declares himfelf ready to pass a Law for establishing a Militia, &c. and for emitting any Sum: in Paper Money, on Proprietary Terms; that is to fay, on fuch Funds as might fink the fame in five Years He perfeveres in maintaining, that the Act

of

of the Sixth of Queen Anne had been fhamefully flighted even in their Province; because Pieces of Eight were then, and had been for many Years past, current at Seven Shillings and Six Pence; whereas, according to that Act, they fhould pafs 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 Provifions the Wit of Man could invent:-He alfo maintained, That, on a Re-Examination of the Provincial Accounts, their Revenue was 7,3811. per Annum, clear of the 500l. per Annum for finking the 5000l. formerly given for the King's Ufe; and, that the Sums due, and which, by the Laws in being, fhould have been paid in the September preceding, amounted at least to 14000/ He averred they could not but be fenfible that the 20,000l. Currency they propofed to give, and called a generous Sum, was very infufficient to answer the Exigence, and that it was not Two Pence in the Pound, upon the juft and real Value of the Estates of the Province: And, in fhort, he said whatsoever else occurred to him, which could favour his Purpose of figuring here at Home: as if he was in all Refpects right, and the Affembly in all Refpects wrong.

Argumentatively then, if not hiftorically, we have now the Merits of the Cafe before us, and may fafely pronounce, That, if Inftructions may or can be conftrued into Laws, Inftructions are then of more Value than Proclamations, which do not pretend to any fuch Authority.-That, though Grants from the Crown are in the first Inftance 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 fhort of a pofitive Act of Forfeiture, or Act of Parliament, can autho rize any Species of Refumption.That if a subse quent Inftruction may cancel or obviate an original Grant, Charters, under all the Sanctions the Prerogative can give them, are no better than Quickfands.

O

-That

-That in the Charter given to William Penn, Efq; and folemnly accepted as the Bafis of Government, by his Followers, there is no Referve on the Behalf of the Crown to tie up the Province from making the fame Ufe of its Credit, which is the Privilege of every private Subject. That, notwithstanding all the pretended Sacro-Sanctitude of an Inftruction, probationary at firft, neither renewed or referred to direct. by or indirectly, by his Majefty or his Minifters afterwards, and virtually difcharged by a fubfequent A& of Parliament, which exprefly reftrained fome Colonics, and confequently left the Reft in Poffeffion of their antient Liberty, the Governor was notoriously ready to difpenfe with it on Proprietary Terms.-That the Difference between five and ten Years for finking the Bills was a Point in which the national Intereft had no Concern.-That if the Eaftern Colonies, which were those restrained by the said Act, might, nevertheless, in Cafe of Exigence, make new Iffues of Paper-Money, thofe unrefrained might furely do the fame in the like Cafe, on fuch Terms and after fuch a Mode as appeared most reasonable to themselves. -That, according to all the Representations of the Governor to the Affembly, if true, the Fate of the Province if not of the Public, depended on their giving a Supply. That, confequently, no Exigency could be more preffing than the prefent, nor Emiffion of Paper-Money better warranted. And that he could, nevertheless, leave the Province expofed to all the Calamities which that Exigence could poffibly bring upon it, or upon the Service in general, rather than give up one Proprietary Item.-Whereas the Difficulty impofed upon the People manifeftly was, either to be a Prey to their Invaders, or give up every Privilege that made their Country worth defending. Which fhews, in the fulleft, cleareft and most unanswerable Manner, that all Proprietary Interpofition between the Sovereign and Subject is alike injurious to both: And that the Solecifm of an Imperium in Imperio, could hardly be more emphatically illuftrated.

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