forth the Strength of the Province, and to trepel Force by Force, you would not admit that the French Encroachments and Fortifications on the Obie were within our Limits, or his Majefty's Domini. ons; thereby feeking an Excufe to avoid doing what was required of you.... ht out

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He had alfo the Difingenuity to mention the late Defeat of his Majesty's Forces, in exprefs Terms as having happened, for Want of that timely Support and Affiftance which it was in the Power of the Province to have afforded. And having again. declared, That he could not recede from his Amendments, and expreffed his Satisfaction at their intended Complaint against him, he concluded with the two following Paragraphs, which are equally infidious, injurious, and unbecoming.

Upon the Whole, it appears clear to me, that you never intended that any of your Bills fhould pass ⚫ for raifing Money to defend the Province; and this feems now to be placed beyond all Difpute, fince thofe People, under whofe Influence you are chiefly known to be, are faid to have declared publickly to you, that they would fooner fuffer than pay towards • fuch Purposes.

However, I fhall put one Proof more, both of your Sincerity and mine, in our Profeffions of Regard for the Publick, by offering to agree to any Bill, in the prefent Exigency, which it is confiftent with my Duty to pass, left, before our préfent Difputes can be brought to an Iffue, we fhould neither have a Privilege to difpute about, nor a Country to * difpute in.'

Together with this Meffage, the Secretary alfos brought down another altogether as extraordinary, in which the Governor acquaints the Houfe, That hers had confidered their Bill, for the better ordering and regulating fuch as were willing and defirous to be united for military Purpofes within that Province; 01 and though there were many Things in it of a very extraordinary Nature, and that he was convinced it

would

would never, anfwer the Purpose of defending the Brovince, even if it could be carried into Execution in any reasonable Time, which he was afraid it could not yet, to fhew he was defirous of doing any Thing that had even a Chance of contributing to the Safety of the Province, he fhould confent to it in the Shape they had fent it, as it would be entering into new Df putes, fhould he amend it properly.'

And what is, perhaps, more extraordinary ftill, the Governor on the fame Day, namely, Saturday," November 22, received fome Difpatches from the Proprietaries, the Contents of which he did not com municate to the Houfe till the Monday following; by which Time he was ready to unmask fuch a Variety of Batteries, as he thought would be fufficient, by their very Noife alone, fo to intimidate his Antagonifts at least, that they fhould not prefume to make him fuch a Return to his laft Meffage as they had done? to his former..

The first was a Report from his Council; containing, fuch a Difcuffion of Indian Affairs as was to be taken for a Difcharge in full of the Shawanefe Complaints mentioned in a Meffage from the Affembly, at their firft Sitting in Confequence of the Governor's Summons,

The fecond was a Call upon them to provide for a Swarm of French Inhabitants banished out of Nova Scotia by Governor Lawrence, and fent at a Venture to be diftributed through the Reft of his Majefty's Colonies along the Continent...

And the third, not only notified the Receipt of the Proprietaries Difpatches abovementioned, but farther specified, That, fuch was their Care and Regard for the People, that they had no fooner received the Account he had fent them of General Braddock's Defeat, than they fent him an Order upon their Re ceiver-General for 5000l. as a free Gift to the Public, to be applied to fuch Ufes as that Event might make neceffary for the common Security of the Province : That he had directed the faid Receiver-General to have

f

the

the Money ready as foon as poffible; and that it fhould be paid by fuch Perfons as fhould be appointed by Act of Affembly for the Difpofition of any Sum they might think neceffary to raife for the Defence of the Province in that Time of Danger. Two other Claufes were alfo added: One importing, That this timely and generous Inftance of the Proprietaries Care and Anxiety for the Inhabitants, could not fail making the moft lafting Impreffion upon the Minds of every Well-wisher to that Country: And the other, That the Governor upon that Occafion again recommended it to them to lay afide all Disputes, and to grant fuch Sup plies in Addition to what the Proprietaries had given, as his Majefty's Service and the preffing Exigencies of the Province required.*

That they might not, however, have any Merit tờ plead on either of these Heads, but might feem to be driven by Force into every fuch Measure as was thus recommended, on the very next Day after this, and before it was poffible for them to come properly to any Refolutions at all; came again the Mayor of Philadelphia, having now alfo prevailed with his Corporation to join him and his Prompters, with a Remonftrance, in a Stile altogether dictatorial, Reproaching them with lofing their Time in Deliberations while their Fellow-Subjects were expofed to Slaughter, and in Debates about Privileges while they were deprived of the great first Privilege of Self-Prefervation, and requiring them to poftpone all Difputes, grant neceffary Supplies, and pass a reasonable Law for establishing a Militia; and, in the Clofe of it, recommending Difpatch, as the People feemed already in a deplorable and defperate State, and they feared it would not be poffible to preferve the Peace and Quiet of the City, or of the Province itself, much longer."

The Houfe, notwithstanding, to be confiftent in all Things, called, in the firft Place, upon their Committee for the Anfwer they were directed to prepare to the Governor's laft Invective; which was ready, and in Subftance as follows: To wit,

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⚫ That

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i

"That if they could be aftonifhed at any thing which came from their Governor, they fhould be aftonished at his repeating Charges and Calumnies, groundless in themselves, and fo repeatedly, fully, and publicly refuted: That inftead of refuting them, therefore, they should only refer to their former Refu tations: That what he fays concerning the Rifk of lofing fo important an Act was mere Sophiftry and Amusement: That, as they had before afferted, conditional or alternative claufes were common: That in the fame Act there was another, namely, that in cafe the four Years Tax did not produce 60,000 %. the Defect should be fupplied by an additional Tax; and, if it exceeded, the Overplus fhould be difpofed by a future Act; to which the Governor had made no Objection: That, notwithstanding all the Duft he had attempted to raife, it was therefore clear to them, that the Bill was entirely unobjectionable: That their Mode was more proper than bis, and as fafe both for the Bill, and the pretended Rights of the Proprietary: That his Commiffion had no fuch Prohibition as he affected to find in it; and that they could not, in a Money-Bill like this, admit of Amend ments not founded in Reafon, Juftice, or Equity, but in the arbitrary Pleasure of a Governor, without betraying the Truft repofed in them by their Conftituents, and giving up their juft Rights as free-born Subjects of England: That by the Charters their Conftitution was founded upon, in Addition to the Privileges therein fpecially named, they are moreover intit led to ALL OTHER Powers and Privileges of an Af fembly, according to the Rights of the free-born Subjects of England, and as is ufual in ANY of the King's Plantations in America: That the free-born Subjects of England had a Right to grant their own Money their own Way, the Governor did not deny, nor that the fame was ufual in other Plantations: That therefore they had the fame Right, and fhould have had it if it had not been fo fpecified in their Charter; fuch free-born Subjects, inftead of lofing

any of their effential Rights, by removing into the King's Plantations, and extending the British Dominions at the Hazard of their Lives and Fortunes, being, on the contrary, indulged with particular Privileges for their Encouragement in fo ufeful and meritorious an Undertaking: That indeed their Conftitution was, in one Refpect, no way fimilar to that of England; namely, the King's having a natural Connection with his People, the Crown defcending to his Pofterity, and his own Power and Security waxing and waneing with the Profperity of his People; whereas Plantation-Governors were frequently tranfient Perfons, of broken Fortunes, greedy of Money, deftitute of all Concern for those they governed, often their Enemies, and endeavouring not only to opprefs, but defame them, and thereby render them obnoxious to their Sovereign, and odious to their Fellow-Subjects: That their prefent Governor not only denied them the Privileges of an English Conftitution, but had endeavoured to introduce a French one, by reducing their Affemblies to the Infignificance to which the French Parliaments had been reduced; had required them to defend their Country, and then put it out of their Power, unless they would first part with fome of the Effentials which made it worth defending; which was in Fact reducing them to an Egyptian Conftitution: For, that as the Egyptians were to perifh by Famine unless they became Servants to Pharaoh, fo were they by the Sword, unless they alfo became Servants to an abfolute Lord, or, as he was pleased to stile himself, abfolute Proprietary: That all Comparisons, made by the Governor of himself to his immediate Predeceffor would be to his own Difadvant ge, the Differences between the former Gentleman and his Affemblies having been but fmall, in Comparison with those then fubfifting; and conducted by him with fome Tenderness to his Country: That. how much foever the People were at that Time diffatisfied with fome Particulars in his Administration, the prefent had given them abundant Reason to regret

the