till the End of Twenty Years, to be fure the Length of the Term would occafion a proportionable Depreciation. But they being a legal Tender in all Payments, and the Poffeffor able to exchange them immediately for their Value, it is not Length of Term, 'but Excels of Quantity, that muft occafion their Depreciation; and that Quantity is by this Bill Iyearly to diminish. Befides, the Eighty Thoufand 'Pounds we have out on Loan, is now to fink in the ⚫ next fix Years, which will greatly leffen our Cur"rency, and confequently leffen the Danger of the Depreciation.

If the Quantity fhould prove too great, which we believe it will not, a fubfequent Act, laying Excife or Duty on other Commodities, encreasing the Duty per Gallon, raifing it alfo from private Confumption, or obtaining Money by any other Means for the publick Service, may be made, and the Money applied to the more speedy Sinking this 'Sixty Thousand Pounds.

2. There will probably be little or no Surplus left to the Difpofition of the Affembly. People now leave the Province faster than they come into it. The Importation of Germans is pretty much over." Many go from us to fettle where Land is cheaper.The Danger attending Frontier Settlements will probably be long remembered, even after a Peace may be reftored. And if our Inhabitants diminish, the Excife will be leffened inftead of being increafed.-At its beft, it produces, communibus Annis, not more than Three Thousand Pounds

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In former Excife Laws the Affembly have had the Difpofition of the Whole.-They preferved the pubJick Credit; paid all publick Debts punctually every Year; and have not abused the Truft repofed in them.

The Inftruction is not a Royal but Proprietary Inftruction, calculated to eftablifh arbitrary Government among us, to diftrefs the Affembly and People,

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and put it out of their Power to fupport their Come plaints at Home. It would, moreover, deprive us of a juft Right and Privilege, enjoyed from the first • Settlement of the Country.

3. Lord Loudon is a Nobleman diftinguished by 'the great Truft the Crown hath placed in him. We have likewife received a high Character of his Integrity and Uprightness, which induces us to con• fide in him. The Chance of War (which Heaven prevent) may, after feveral Removes, give him a • Succeffor unknown to us. If it fhould be found neceffary and convenient before the Money is expended, the Governor and Affembly can at any Time, by a little A&t, fubject the Remainder to the Order of his Succeffor, the Commander in Chief for the Time being.

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4. It is true, there was a Fund appropriated to fink the Notes iffued for the Grant to the Crown• Point Expedition. That Fund in a great Measure fails by the Lofs of one whole County to the Enemy, and the Abandoning confiderable Parts of other Counties, where Lands mortgaged to the Loan• Office are fituated. The whole Sum was appropriated to the King's Service. And if thofe Notes • had not been iffued, that Affistance could not have been given, as our Affairs were then circumstanced. They cannot be redeemed in due Time by that Fund, without adding to the Diftreffes of the People, already too great; and the Publick Credit ought to be kept up, as it may be wanted on fome Future Emergency. Befides, thofe Notes bear Intereft, and at this Time the Province is lefs able than ever to pay Interest. We should now fave Money by all Means in- our Power.'

10. The Fund appropriated for finking the Five Thoufand Pounds, given for the Canada Expedition, was broke in upon by the late extraordinary De• mands for publick Money. Five Thoufand Pounds was given in Provifions to General Braddock, and near Four Thousand Pounds more to cut a Road

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for the King's Service at the Inftance of that General; befides large Sums for the Maintenance of Indians, extraordinary and expenfive Treaties, &c. ⚫ not expected or forefeen when the Fund was laid. It may therefore fall fhort, and the outstanding • Debts not pay the Whole; but, however, the Pubclick Credit ought to be fupported; and the new laid Excife is the moft proper Fund to fupply De•ficiencies in the Old.

The House cannot be fuppofed infenfible of the Diftreffes of their Fellow Subjects on the Frontiers. Several of the Members refide there. They hoped they had in this Bill provided for thofe People the Means of speedy Affiftance, and avoided all Objections. They fee none now of Importance enough, ⚫ in their Opinion, to prevent the Paffage of the Bill. They grant the Money freely to the King's Use, ⚫ and cannot admit of Amendments to a Money Bill: • They therefore perfuade themselves, that the Governor will confider the prefent Circumftances of the * Province, and the Confequences of difpiriting the Inhabitants, by depriving them at this Time of their Privileges, without which they would think the Country scarce worth defending; and that he will not fuffer a Proprietary Instruction, new, unjust, and unfeafonable, to deprive his Majesty of a Grant fo large, fo freely given, and fo necessary for his Service; and for the Prefervation of the Proprietary Eftate, as well as the fecuring the Lives and Fortunes of the Inhabitants, who promised themselves great Happiness in being placed immediately under his Care and Protection.'

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The Kings of Great-Britain have a Negative on Laws as well as the Deputy: Governors of Penfylvania: But then they ufe it as rarely as poffible; and when they do, they rather demur than refufe: But the Deputy-Governor of Penfylvania, having no fuch Managements to obferve, thought the peremptory Stile the beft; and so sent down the Secretary with a verbal Meffage, which is entered in the Minutes of the Province in thefe Words:

SIR,

SIR,

The Governor returns the Bill, intituled, An "Act for ftriking the Sum of Sixty Thousand Pounds, "in Bills of Credit, and giving the fame to the

King's Ufe, and for providing a Fund to fink the "Bills fo to be emitted, by laying an Excife upon "Wine, Rum, Brandy and other Spirits.' And his Honour commands me to acquaint the House, That he wILL NOT give his Affent to it; and, there being no Person to judge between the Go"vernor and the House in these Parts, he will immediately tranfmit to his Majefty his Reasons for fo doing.'

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The Remainder of that Day (the 15th) as it may be furmifed, was wafted in a vain Difcuffion of the Difficulties they were involved in: For the House broke up without coming to any Refolution. The next was a Blank likewife: No Bufinefs was done : But, on the Third, having refumed the Confideration of the Governor's Objections to their Bill, the Committees Report thereupon, the Governor's verbal Meffage refufing his Affent to the faid Bill, and the Proprietaries Inftructions, prefcribing to the Reprefentatives of the Freemen of the Province, the Modes of their railing Money for the King's Service, they cane to the following Refolutions: To wit.

That the faid Proprietary Inftructions are arbitrary and unjuft, an Infraction of our Charter, a ⚫ total Subverfion of our Conftitution, and a manifest • Violation of our Rights, as free-born Subjects of England.

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That the Bill for granting Sixty Thoufand Pounds to the King's Ufe, to which the Governor has been pleased to refufe his Affent, contains nothing "inconfiftent with our Duty to the Crown, or the Proprietary Rights," and is agreeable to Laws which have been hitherto enacted within this Province, and received the Royal Approbation.

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That the Right of granting Supplies to the Crown is in the Affembly alone, as an effential Part of our Conftitution, and the Limitation of all fuch Grants as to the Matter, Manner, Measure and Time, is only in them.

That it is the Opinion of this Houfe, that the many frivolous Objections, which our Governors have been advised from Time to Time to make to our Money-Bills, were calculated with a View to embarrass and perplex the Reprefentatives of the People, to prevent their doing any Thing effectual for the Defence of their Country, and thereby render them odious to their gracious Sovereign, and to their Fellow Subjects, both at Home and • Abroad.

"That the Proprietaries encreafing their Restrictions upon the Governor, beyond what they had ever done before, at a Time when the Province is invaded by the King's Enemies, and barbarous Tribes of Indians are ravaging the Frontier Settlements; and their forbidding the Paffing of any Bills whereby Money may be raised for the Defence of the Inhabitants, unless thofe Inftructions are ftrictly complied with, is tyrannical, cruel and oppreffive, with Regard to the People, and extremely injurious to the King's Service: Since, if the Affembly should adhere to their Rights, as they justly might, the whole Province would be thrown into Confufion, abandoned to the Enemy and loft to the Crown.

The Houfe, therefore, referving their Rights in their full Extent on all future Occafions, and PROTESTING against the Proprietary Inftructions and Prohibitions, do, nevertheless, in Duty to the King, and Compaffion for the fuffering Inhabitants • of their diftreffed Country, and in humble but full • Confidence of the Juftice of his Majefty and a British Parliament, wave their Rights on this prefent Occafion only; and do further Refolve, That a new Bill be brought in for granting a Sum of Money to

the