• Indeed the next Paragraph begins with charging this upon us as a Crime, "You have, the Governor "is pleafed to fay, by a Vote of your own House, "without the Confent of the Government, impowered "a Committee of your Members to borrow Money "upon the Credit of the Affembly, and to difpofe "of the fame to certain Ufes in that Vote mentioned. By this Caution in expreffing the Ufes, a Stranger might imagine, that they were wicked, if not treafonable Ufes and that the Governor, out of mere Tenderness for his People, forbore to explain them : But the Ufes mentioned in the Votes, are, to purchafe fresh Victuals, and other Neceffaries, for the Ufe of the King's Troops at their Arrival; and to purchafe and tranfport Provifions requested by the Govern ment of the Maffachufetts-Bay, to victual the Forces • about to march for fecuring his Majesty's Territories. These are the Ufes, in the Votes mentioned, and the only Ufes; and we can conceive no Reason for touching them fo gently by the Name of certain Ujes, unless the Governor thought, that being more explicit on the Ufes, might feem to leffen, in fome Degree, the heinous Crime of borrowing Money on our own Credit. unt te bek

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The Governor is pleased to add, “You have also, "by Votes and Refolves of your own Houfe, created

Bills, or Notes of Credit, made payable to the Bear"ers thereof, to the Amount of Fifteen thousand Pounds, "which you have iffued in Lieu of Money, and they " are now circulating in this Province, without the

Approbation of the Government. This Charge, we prefume, will, like the reft, vanish on a little Explanation. By the Laws of this Province now in Force, and which have received the Royal Affent, the Difpofition of the Interest-Money, and Excife, is vefted in the Affembly for the Time being Out of this Revenue the Affemblies have, from Time to Time, defrayed the Charges of Government. The • conftant Method of Payment was always this; when

an

an Account against the Public was allowed, or any Expence for public Service agreed to, an Order if'fued, drawn on the Treasurer, or Trustees of the Loan-Office, and figned by the Speaker, or the Clerk, by Order of the Houfe. As thefe Orders ⚫ were generally paid on Sight, they naturally obtain⚫ed fome Credit, and fometimes paffed through feveral Hands before Payment was demanded.-Ať the laft Settlement of the public Accounts, it appeared, that a confiderable Sum of this Intereft and Excife-Money, over which the Affembly alone had a legal Power, ought to be in the Hands of the ⚫ Treasurer and Truftees. The Governor himself was pleased to point this Money out to us, to compute the Sum, and urge the Houfe to make use of it, when in January laft he refused their Bill for giving Twenty-five thousand Pounds to the King's Ufe. The House alledged, and truly, that the Money was outftanding in many Hands, and could not fuddenly be collected, without distreffing and ruining the People. However, on the Credit of this Fund, we voted the first Five thoufand Pounds for Provifions, and ordered the Money to be borrowed on Intereft. • And at the last Sitting, when the Governor refused to pass our Bill for giving Twenty-five thousand Pounds *to the King's Ufe, he may be pleased to remember, that he fent us down a Meffage, in which, after the Reafon given for not paffing the Bill, there are these Words; As this is a Time of imminent Danger, " and the Forces, raised and deftined for the Service "So off the Colonies, muft wait the Supplies from this "Province, I again intreat you to fall upon fome other "Method of raifing Money, that we may not lofe this Shappy Opportunity of recovering his Majefty's

Dominions now invaded by the French King." The Houfe accordingly fell on this other Method; they gave Ten Thousand Pounds of the Money in their Power to the King's Ufe; they appointed a Committee to purchase the Provisions required, and impowered them to draw for the Sum on the Treafu

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rer or Trustees of the Loan Office, as had been u fual; with this only Difference, that as former • Draughts were payable on Sight, and therefore bore no Intereft, thefe being payable in a Year, were to bear Intereft; and in the mean time the outstanding • Money was ordered to be got in, that the Draughts might be punctually difcharged. Money'd Men, ⚫ knowing the Goodness of the Fund, and confiding in the Juftice and Punctuality of the Affembly, which has always honourably discharged the public Debts, • have voluntarily furnished the Committee with Cash ' for thefe Draughts, which they have laid by in their • Chefts to receive in Time the Intereft. Thus the King's Forces have been expeditiously supplied, the People have Time to pay off their Debts to the Public, and no one is oppreffed, diftreffed, or injured; nor is any Encroachment made on the Powers of ⚫ Government, or any Thing done that has not been • ufual, or which the Affembly are not by Law impowered to do.-Yet this is what the Governor re* ⚫ prefents as "creating Bills of Credit, and iffaing "them in Lieu of Money, without the Approbation "of the Government;" by which, Perfons unac

quainted with the Fact, might understand we had ⚫ been making Paper-Money, and iffuing it on Loan, or in fome other Manner, to produce an Advantage to ourselves, and attempted to make it a legal Ten der without the Governor's Affent, &c. all which is mere Mifreprefentation or Mifapprehenfion, as will appear by the Refolves themselves, to which we beg Leave to refer. After this Explanation of our Conduct, we believe it will clearly appear, that thè Governor's Infinuation, as if we had used Powers dangerous to the Government, is as groundless as it is unkind.

The other Charges, of "denying the Governot "Accefs to our Journals, and printing the Secretary "of State's Letters," having been made and an 'fwered in former Meffages between the Governor and the House, we think it unneceffary to take any fur

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ther Notice of them here!But we are furprized Seto find, that after having effectually given Fifteen Thoufand Pounds, in Provifions, and other Necef5 faries for the King's Forces, maintained at fo great an Expence our Indian Allies, established a conftant regular Poft through Two Hundred Miles of Country, merely for the Service of the Army, and ad⚫vanced a confiderable Sum to make a long and chargeable Road through the Wilderness and Moun tains to the Obio, for the Ufe of the King's *Forces, the whole Expence of which we have en-. gaged to defray, we should still be flatly told by the Governor, "That he is convinced, from the whole “Tenor of our Behaviour, that we have no Design to " contribute any Thing towards the Defence of this "Country."

The Governor is pleafed further to cenfure us, for ⚫ not defiring a Conference on the Bill to prevent the Importation of Germans, or other Paffengers, in too great Numbers in one Ship or Veffel, and to ⚫ prevent the Spreading of contagious Diftempers, & We own that it is fometimes practifed, when the Governor and Affembly differ in Judgment concerning a Bill, to request a Conference, if there be any Hope by fuch a Conference to obtain an Agreement; but we being, from many Circumftances atntending the Bill, without fuch Hope at prefent, contented ourselves with laying before the GoverEs nor, in a Meffage, our Reafons for not agreeing to his propofed Amendments, and fubmitted thofe fReasons to his Confideration; the Bill may ftill be refumed, and a Conference entered into at a future Seffion, if there fhould be any Profpect of Success. If our Proceeding was irregular, which we think it was not, the Governor may be pleafed to rememfober, he himself fet us a more irregular Example at our laft Sitting, when we prefented him the Bill for granting Twenty-five Thousand Pounds to the King's Ufer for hes neither proposed any Amendment, nor

'defired

• defired any Conference, nor would return us our Bill (when we exprefly fent for it to be re-confidered) according to the conftant Custom in this < Government, but only acquainted us, that, "it be"ing a Bill of a very extraordinary Nature, he would "fend it Home to the Miniftry," which we hope ⚫ he has accordingly done, as we believe it will be < found, however the Governor may have misapprehended it, to have nothing extraordinary in its Nature, or inconfiftent with our Duty to the Crown, or affuming more than our juft Rights and Priviléges.

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On the whole; while we find the Governor 'transforming our best Actions into Crimes, and endeavouring to render the Inhabitants of Pensylvania odious to our gracious Sovereign and his Ministers, to the British Nation, to all the neighbouring Colonies, and to the Army that is come to protect us; ⚫ we cannot look upon him as a Friend to this Country. We are plain People, unpractifed in the Sleights and Artifices of Controverfy, and have no Joy in Difputation. We with the Governor the fame Difpofition; and when he fhall, as we hope he will, on better Confideration, alter his Conduct towards us, and thereby convince us that he means well to the Province, we may then be able to tranfact the Pub"lick Bufinefs together with Comfort both to him and ourselves; of which till then we have small Expec'tation.".

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Such was the Language of Liberty, Truth and Candor! We feel the force of it! We cannot refift its Authority! And if the Governor had the Mortification to find they had ordered both his Meffage and their Answer to be printed in their Gazettes, he had alfo the Pleafure to find himself excufed for the prefent by their Adjournment, from the impoffible Tafk, of conftructing such a Reply as the Preffure of his Cafe required.

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