well as from the Reasonableness of the Thing in itfelf, we have no doubt that he will favour us in granting this Request.'

The Affembly was civil:-The Governor was artful. As he would not grant all that was afked, he refolved to be as forward as poffible in performing as much as he defigned. Thus, on the very Day their Request was made, he laid the Inftructions in question before them; being the eleventh, twelfth, and twentyfirst Articles of the Proprietary Inftructions.

Of these the first regards the Intereft Money arifing from the Provincial Bills of Credit, and the Money to be raised by Excife; and having by Advance afferted a joint Intention in the faid Proprietaries, and the House of Reprefentatives, to have it applied for the public Service, proceeds to ground upon that joint Intention a Title to an equal Power over it; then forbids the Governor to give his Affent to any Bill or Act of Affembly for emitting, re-emitting, or continuing any Paper Currency, unless the whole of the Intereft Money arifing therefrom should be difpofed of only to the very Purposes to be specified in fuch Act, or where that could not be conveniently done, by the joint Concurrence of Governor and Affembly for the Time being. And the fame Prohibition is alfo extended to all Excife Laws, except the Difpofition of the Money to be raised by them is alfo appropriated in the fame Manner.

The Second, having admitted that a reasonable and moderate Quantity of Paper Money tended greatly to the Benefit of the Province, as well as to the Trade of Great Britain, and that the Dangers of Depreciation arofe only from an over-great Quantity, authorifes and impowers the Governor difcretionally, on proper Inquiry made, and proper Affurance obtained of the real Utility of fuch a Measure, to make an Addition to the prefent Currency of 40,000l. more; provided ftrict Regard was had to all the Limitations fpecified in the Inftruction foregoing: And alfo, that effectual Care was taken that all Rents and Quit-Rents, due to

the

the faid Proprietaries, fhould be always paid according to the Rate of Exchange at the Times of Payment between the Cities of Philadelphia and London, by fome fufficient Provifion in the very Act itself, or fome separate Act, as was done in the 12th of the prefent King, when the farther Sum of 11,110%. 55. was iffued.

And the Third related to the Proprietary Eftate; concerning which it afferted and maintained, ift, That the faid Eftate never had been taxed. 2dly, That, over and above fuch Exemption, feveral Acts were paffed, giving to the faid Proprietary a Support by Duties and other Impofitions. 3dly, That, fince the Expiration of thofe Laws, no Aid had been given to the Proprietaries as fuch; notwithstanding which, they had, on several Occasions, shewn their Regard to the public Service, by voluntarily and chearfully expending feveral confiderable Sums of their own Money for the Advancement thereof, altho' no Provincial Tax had been laid upon the People within their Time, till the laft Year: So as that, not having any Reafon to fufpect the Affembly would deviate fo much from the antient Ufage, as to pretend, by any Act of theirs, to charge their Eftate with the Burden of any Taxes, they had therefore given the preceding Governor no particular Inftructions on that Head. 4thly, That the Affembly, taking Occafion of the Troubles of America, had reprefented them in a very untrue Light, as unwilling to affift the Public by contributing to the Defence of the Country, tho' no Application had been made to either of them for that Purpose. 5thly, That the Bill they had prepared and fent up for railing 50,000 /. for the King's Ufe, by a Tax of 12 d. per Pound, and 20 s. per Head, was a Bill of a most unjust and extraordinary Nature; in as much as the Eftates of the Proprietaries were not excepted, but, on the contrary, the Affeffors were to acquaint themfelves with and procure the Amount of their Eftate in Quit-Rents, and in the fame Manner as other Estates were affeffed and taxed in the refpective Counties, by

virtue of the faid Bill; as the faid 12 d. was laid on the whole Value or Fee-fimple of every Eftate, which, fuppofing the fame computed at Twenty-five Years Purchase only, was a Quarter-part more than the whole grofs Rent, without allowing for any Charges or Repairs; as it was contrary to the Royal Charter, which required Land-tax Bills, as well as other Bills, to be confonant to Reason, the Laws, Statutes, and Rights of the Kingdom, &c. not repugnant to them; as fo heavy a Tax was not neceffary to be laid for the raifing fuch a Sum, which might have been raised many other Ways; as calculated for the Purpofe of putting it in the Power of Perfons wholly chofen by the People to tax their Eftates up to their full Value, and to cafe other Perfons, by taxing them fo lightly as only to make up what might afterwards be wanting to complete the faid Sum; as the taxing of unimproved Lands yielding no Rent or Profit to the Owner, was highly unreasonable, and contrary both to the Practice of Great Britain, and the Laws and Statutes thereof; as, according to the best Inquiries they could make, neither the Quit-Rents referved to the Crown, or the Proprietaries of any other Colonies, had ever been taxed towards the raifing any Supplies granted in those Colonies; Quit-Rents in general being indeed fo fmall, that little or no Land-tax would be payable out of them, even in Great Britain, where Land-taxes are annual; and as the Grantees and Owners of fuch Farms and Plantations, out of which fuch very fmall Acknowledgments were referved to them, did, in cafe. of a Land-tax, pay for the Value of fuch their faid Farms. 6thly, That tho' their Deputy Governor did refufe his Affent to the Bill, on the Affembly's refufing to exempt their Eftates, they were fo far from defi- 13 ring not to contribute to the Defence and Support of His Majefty's Rights and Dominions, that immediately on the first Notice fent them of Braddock's Defeat, they d fent over an Order to their Receiver-General to pay out of the Arrears of their Quit-Rents the Sum of 5000l. as a free Gift towards the Defence of the Pro-3

W

vince, defiring all Difputes might ceafe, and that the Governor and Affembly would join together in Meafures to oppose the common Enemy. 7thly, That the faid Sum of 5000 l. fo by them given, was, according to their Belief, twenty times more than the Tax upon all their Eftates there, if truly and proportiona-, bly rated, according to the Value of all other Eftates, would have amounted to, for raifing a Sum of 50,000l. 8thly, That another Bill of the fame unjuft Nature, for raifing 55,000l. by a Tax of Six Pence in the Pound on the clear Value of all Estates (theirs excepted in Confideration of the faid Free-gift) their then Lieutenant Governor not being provided with particular Inftructions with refpect to fuch Bill, and because the Money was then requifite for the Defence of the Province, gave his Affent to. 9thly, That they, tendering as they ought to do, the then Exigency of Affairs, and the Neceffity of a Supply, did not make any Application to his Majefty for his Royal Difallowance of the faid Act, as at any other Time they fhould have done. rothly, That the Affef fors apointed by the Affembly in both the faid Bills were few in Number, chofen by the People only, and not one by them; and tho' incapable of knowing the true Value of the feveral Estates, fo to be rated and taxed, were made final and absolute Judges without Appeal. 11thly, That by laying fo great a Tax to raise fo fmall a Sum, the faid Assessors had it in their Power to commit great Irregularities, in taxing fome Eftates to their utmoft Value, and eafing others, which would be unequal and unjuft, and was fo much the more to be feared, because they, the Proprietaries, had been informed, That in affeffing the ordinary County Levies on the like Plan, many Perfons, inftead of being rated at their full Worth, had not been rated at a fiftieth Part of it.

All these several Articles (here ftated in their full Force) are introduced with a Whereas at the Head of each, and all implicated in one embaraffed immea

furable

Jurable Period; to which is tacked the Inftruction itfelf, with the following Preamble:

And whereas the faid Affembly appear to us to ⚫ have been inclined not only to load and burden our • Eftates with Taxes by their Authority, directly contrary to former Ufage, but even to charge the fame difproportionably, and in an unequal Manner, in or<der to eafe the Eftates of others, which is a Meafure we are by no means willing to confent to: And as the prefent Invafion of his Majefty's American • Dominions may make it neceffary to raise further Supplies for his Service in our faid Province, the Affembly may hereafter propose and offer Bills or Acts of Affembly, to lay additional Taxes on real Eftates there: You are, therefore, hereby required • and directed, not to give your Affent to any Bill or • Act of Affembly of that Sort, unless the Act be 'made to continue for one fingle Year only, and no longer, &c.'

Here follows a Variety of Prefcriptions and Prohibitions; fome plaufible; fome artificial; and all ferving as a Shoing-horn to the great One of all, the Exemption of the Proprietary Quit-Rents, which was to be rendered as exprefs as poffible.

That, however, they may not appear altogether intractable, one Conceffion is made towards the Conclufion, which is worth more perhaps than they fuppofed; as it contains a tacit Acknowledgment that, in Equity, they ought to be taxed like the reft of their Fellow-Subjects, and yet lefs than them they would have it understood; fuch Eftates of theirs, as come within that Description, not being like to produce fuch a Sum as deferved to be made a provincial Object; and the introductory Part of the Paragraph, as may be collected from the famous Contest between them and the Affembly concerning Indian Expences, justly drawing the whole into Sufpicion.

4

This is the Paragraph. Valeat quantum valere poteft. "And whereas we are, and always have been, moft ready and willing to bear a juft Proportion along