⚫ day, in order to fall upon Measures to provide Money for the Payment of the Labourers, &c. employed in the Service of the Roads; and we have thought of this • Expedient (with Submiffion to your Honour's better Judgment) that fome Perfon or • Perfons fhould be appointed by your Honour to bring up Money, and to be fatisfied ⚫ with our Settlement of the Accounts.We cannot at prefent inform your Honour of the just Sum of Money that will be wanted for the above Purpofe; but we think it will amount to Five Thousand Pounds. As the People are much in Want of Money, we should be glad how foon the Money can be fent, &c.-This Letter was figned by the fix Commiflioners, and fent down to the Houfe by the Governor; to what End, unless that we might furnish him with the Sum required? Yet now he knows nothing of this Demand, and is pleased to lay, it could not have been then made by any one, because the Accounts were not come in,' as if a Demand in Part was a Thing impoffible, before a Settlement. The Accounts however are at length come in, and under Examination, and it will now foon be feen, what Cause we fhall have to commend the Governor's or the Commiffioners Frugality: And we hope we fhall not be backward to do it Justice. The Governor's Judgment of our Motives to engage in this Work of opening the Roads, feems to us a very uncharitable one, but we hope to find more equitable Judg ment elsewhere. We are obliged to him, however, for owning that we did engage in it at all. For as he is pleafed to lay it down as a Maxim that we are very wicked People; he has fhewn in other Inftances, when we have done any Good, that he thinks it no more Injustice to us to deny the Facts, than now to deny the Goodness of our Motives.-He would however think himself ill used, if any Part of his Zeal in that Affair was afcribed to the Menaces directed to him; or to a View of accommodat ing by the new Road the Lands of the Proprietaries new Purchase, and by that Means encreafing the Value of their Eftate at our Expence. קט The Governor is next pleafed to tell us, that we have taken great Pains to infuse into the Minds of the People, particularly the Germans, that the Government have Designs to abridge them of their Privileges, and to reduce them to a State of Slavery. That this may, and will alienate their Affections from his Majesty's Govern ment, and deftroy that Confidence in the Crown and its Delegates, which, at this <Time, is particularly neceffary, and render all the Foreigners among us very indif<ferent as to the Success of the French Attempts upon this Continent, as they cannot ⚫ be in worse Circumstances under them, than we have taught them to expect from the King's Government.' And a little lower he tells us, that we scruple not to flir his Majesty's Subjects against his Government, forgetting all Duty to our Sovereign, and all Decency to thofe in Authority under him.' These are very heavy Charges indeed! But can the Governor poffibly expect that any body will believe them? Can he even believe them himself?-We can indeed truly fay it with Confidence, and the Governor may, if he pleafes, call it our ufual Confidence,' that there is not a more dutiful, loyal and affectionate People to any Prince on Earth, than are the People, not only of this Colony, but of all the other British Colonies in America, to the best of Kings, his prefent Majefty; and we cannot therefore forbear to fay, that this Charge is a virulent Calumny, deftitute of all Truth and Probability. But what must we do to please this kind Governor, who takes fo much Pains to render us obnoxious to our Sovereign, and odious to our Fellow Subjects? Muft we bear filently all these Abuses? "Tis too hard. But if we deny his Accufations, and prove them falfe, this he calls, forgetting all Decency to our Governor; and if we complain of his Treatment, that is, ftirring up his Majefty's Subjects against his Government. No, may it please the Governor, we make a wide Diftinction between the King's Government, and the Governor's Conduct; and we have Reason. Every Deputy Governor is not the Prince, and fome are very indifferent Representatives of him. Every Dislike of a Governor's Behaviour is not a Diflike of Government; nor every Cenfure of a Governor, Difaffection to the King. And indeed the more a People love their Prince and admire his Virtues, the lefs they must esteem a Governor who acts unlike him. That there is a Defign in the Proprietaries and Governor, to abridge the People here of their Privileges, is no Secret. The Proprietaries have avowed it in their Letter to the House, dated London, March 2, 1741, The Doctrine that it is neceffary, is publickly taught in their Brief State; and the Governor himfelf has told us, that we have more than is fuitable for a dependent Colony. It is thefe Proceedings that give Jealoufy to the People, but do not however alienate their Affections from his Majesty's Govern Government, though they may from the Proprietaries. Their Confidence in the Crown' is as great as ever; but when the Delegates of Power are continually abuf ing and calumniating the People, it is no wonder if they lose all • Confidence' in fuch Delegates. The Governor can think himself at Liberty to tell us, That we ftir up his Ma→ jefty's Subjects against his Majefty's Government, forgetting all Duty to our Sovereign; and yet if we only tell him, that the Difficulties he meets with, are not owing to those Caufes, which indeed have no Existence, but to his own Want of Skill and Abilities for his Station, he takes it extreamly amifs, and fays, ⚫ we forget all Decency to thofe in Authority. We are apt to think there is likewife fome Decency due to the Affembly, as a Part of the Government, and though we have not, like the Governor, had a Courtly Education, but are plain Men, and must be very imperfect in our Politeness, yet we think we have no Chance of improving by his Example. Skill and Abilities to govern, we apprehend fall to the Share of few; they may poffibly be acquired by Study and Practice, but are not infused into a Man with his Commiffion; he may without them be a wife and able Man in other Affairs, and a very good and honeft Man in general. But thofe who ftir up his Majesty's Subjects against his Government, and forget all Duty to their Sovereign,' as the Governor fays we do, must be Traitors and Rebels, a Character that includes the highest Folly with the greatest Wickednefs. The World will judge which of thefe Charges is moft decent, as well as most true, and we shall leave it to their Judgment. The Governor is pleafed to repeat the Charge of our "taking upon us great and "mighty Powers," and to fay, Since you call upon me to particularize them, I fhall gratify you:--We apprehend it is rather to gratify himself; for left thefe Particu lars fhould feem to be brought in improperly, the Governor fays, we call upon him for them. We cannot find any fuch Call in our Meffage; but if there were, it was a very unneceffary One; for the Governor has fo accustomed us to find fome of thefe Charges in almost every Meffage, and fo delights in renewing them, after repeated Refutations, that we might have expected them as Matters of Courfe. You have created a Paper Currency of your own, &c. This ftale Charge was fully refuted in our Meffage of the Seventeenth of May last, and now repeated without taking the leaft Notice of that Refutation. You pay your own Wages out of the Provincial Money, when the Law requires and provides for their being paid in another Manner. This Charge is premature, as we have not yet paid ourfelves any Wages out of any Money. We gave the Governor, indeed, Five Hundred Pounds out of this Provincial Money, tho' the Law requires and provides for his being fupported by Licences of Publick Houses, Fees, &c. but that he might be fure of being right, he took both. The plain State of the Matter is this: By the County Levy A&t, the Commiffioners and Affeffors are directed" to adjust and settle the Sum and Sums of Money which ought OF NE"CESSITY to be raised yearly, to pay for Reprefentatives Service in General Affem"bly, and to defray the Charges of building and Repairing of Court-Houfes, Prifons, "Work-houses, Bridges and Caufeways, and for deftroying of Wolves, &c. and to lay a Tax for thefe Purposes."--- But other Acts of Affembly having directed that the Provincial Money, arifing from the Loan-Office and Excife, fhall be "difpofed of as the Affembly of this Province fhall direct and appoint," former Affemblies have, for many Years paft, paid Provincial Charges, and the Publick Sala ries out of that Provincial Money, and among others, their own fmall Wages. Hence it happened, that the Wages being otherways paid, the Commiffioners and Affeffors found no Neceffity of railing a Tax for that Purpose, and therefore have not done it, being no more obliged to do it without fuch Neceffity, than to tax for building Court-houfes when they have them already built, or to repair them when they need no Repairs; or to pay for Wolves Heads when none are killed.-----As to the other Charge of not keeping the Borrowers in the Loan-Office ftrictly up to their yearly Payments as the Law required, we beg Leave to fay, that we cannot think this Houfe is ftrictly accountable for all the Faults of their, any more than the Governor for the Faults of his, Predeceffors; nor that every Forbearing to execute a Law is properly called dispensing with Law. If it were, the Executive Power in most Governments is greatly chargeable with the fame Offence. For our Parts, whom the Governor is pleafed to load with this Charge, we did in May last exprefly order the Trustees to use the utmost of their Care and Diligence to collect the outstanding Quota's, and, to quicken them, drew Orders on them nearly for the Amount; but as a feyere Execution of that Law would in fome Cafes have been extremely injurious, as the Evil Evil had been almoft imperceptibly growing, and gradually stole upon the Affemblies in a long Courfe of Years; and as a fudden Sale of all delinquent Estates to recover their refpective Quotas, would have been the Ruin of many; and no Depreciation of the Money or other confiderable Inconvenience has followed the Forbearance, we conceive that former Trustees and Affemblies, who gained nothing to themselves by this Indulgence of the People, tho' not free from Blame, deserve a less severe Cenfure than the Governor is difpofed to bestow upon them. The Charge perhaps amounts to little more than this, that they did not exact from the People the Payments that by Law they ought to have exacted; which the Governor calls difpenfing with a Law: They are not, however, chargeable with Exacting Money from the People which by Law they had no Right to exact, as we apprehend the Governor does, in the Fees for Marriage Licences, by which many Thousand Pounds have been drawn from the Inhabitants of this Province. If this be not difpenfing with Law, 'tis making Law, and we prefume the Governor alone has no more Right to do the one, than the Affembly alone the other. The laft of this String of Charges, "that we have taken upon us to admi"nifter the Affirmation to our Clerk, and feveral of our Members not Quakers" is a total Miftake in Point of Fact. As an Affembly we difclaim any Right of adminiftring either an Affirmation or an Oath; and have never administered an Oath or Affirmation to our Clerk, or any Member; but whenever an Oath or Affirmation is adminiftred in the Houle, it is done by a Juftice of the Peace. And our Members are always qualified according to Law. . The Governor is pleased to fay, we have often mentioned what we have done to promote the Succefs of his Majefty's Arms under General Braddock.' We own that we have often mentioned this, but we have been forced to it by the Governor's afferting as often in his Meffages, contrary to known Fact, that we had done nothing, and would do nothing of that Kind. But it feems we take to ourselves the Services of particular Men, in which, the Governor fays, we had no Hand; and adds, that had we in • Time opened the proper Roads, raised Men, and provided Carriages, and neceffary • Provifions for the Troops, we might now have been in peaceable Poffeffion of Fort • Duquesne. We beg Leave to ask the Governor, Has the Body no Share in what is done by its Members? Has the Houfe no Hand in what is done by its Committees ? Has it no Hand in what is done by Virtue of its own Refolves and Orders? Did we not, many Weeks before the Troops arrived, vote Five Thousand Pounds for purchasing fresh Victuals, and other Neceffaries for their Ule? Did we not even borrow Money on our own Credit to purchase thofe Provifions when the Governor had rejected our Bill? Will the Governor deny this, when he himself once charged it upon us as a Crime? Were not the Provifions actually purchafed by our Committee, the full Quantity required by the Commiffary, and carried by Land to Virginia at our Expence, even before they were wanted? Did the Army ever want Provifions, till they had abandon, ed or destroyed them? Are there not even now fome Scores of Tons of it lying at Fort Cumberland and Conegochieg? Did the Governor ever mention the Opening of Roads to us before the Eighteenth of March, though the Requisition was made to him by the Quarter Master General in January? Did we not in a few Days after fend him up a Bill to provide for the Expence, which he refufed? Did not the Governor proceed nevertheless to appoint Commiffioners, and engage Labourers for opening the Road, whom we afterwards agreed to pay out of the Money we happened to have in our Power? Did the Work ever ftop a Moment through any Default of ours? Was the Road ever intended for the March of the Troops to the Ohio? Was it not merely to open a Communication with this Province, for the more convenient fupplying them with Provifions when they should be arrived there? Did they wait in the leaft for this Road? Had they not as many Men as they wanted, and many from this Province ? Were they not more numerous than the Enemy they went to oppofe, even after the General had left near Half his Army fifty Miles behind him? Were not all the Carriages they demanded, being One Hundred and Fifty, engaged, equipt, and fent forward in a few Days after the Demand, and all at Wills's Creek many Days before the Army was ready to march? With what Face then, of Probability, can the Governor undertake to fay, That had we in Time opened the proper Roads, raised Men, and provided Carriages, and neceffary Provifions for the Troops, we might now have • been in peaceable Poffeffion of Fort Duquesne ? The Governor is pleafed to doubt our having fuch Letters as we mentioned; we are erefore, in our own Vindication, under a Neceffity of quoting to him fome Parts of and will shew him the Originals whenever he fhall pleafe to require it. The General's General's Secretary, in his Letter of the Tenth of May to one of our Members (who, in Pursuance of a Refolve of the Houfe for the Service of the Army, waited on the General at Frederic, and there occafionally undertook the furnishing of Waggons, which he performed with the Affiftance of fome other Members of the Committee, and for that, and other Services to the Troops, received the Thanks of the House at his Return) fays, You have done us great Service in the Execution of the Bufinefs you have kindly undertaken; and indeed without it, I don't fee how the Service • could have been carried on, as the Expectations from Maryland have come to nothing. And again, in his Letter of May the Fourteenth, The General orders C me to acquaint you that he is greatly obliged to you, for the great Care and Readi nefs with which you have executed the Bufinefs you undertook for him. At your Requeft he will with Pleasure discharge the Servants that may have inlifted in the Forces under his Command, or any others for whom you may defire a Discharge; ⚫ and defires that you would for that Purpofe fend him their Names.' And again, in his Letter of May the Twentieth, I have only Time to thank you once more, in the Name of the General and every body concerned, for the Service you have done; which has been conducted throughout with the greatest Prudence and moft generous Spirit for the Publick Service.' The General's own Letter, dated the Twenty-ninth of May, mentions and acknowledges the Provifions given by the Pennfylvanian • Affembly' [though the Governor will allow us to have had no Hand' in it] and fays, Your Regard for his Majefty's Service, and Affiftance to the prefent Expedition, deferve my fincereft Thanks,' &c.-Colonel Dunbar writes, in his Letter of May the Thirteenth, concerning the Prefent of Refreshments, and Carriage Horfes fent up for the Subalterns, I am defired by all the Gentlemen, whom the Com⚫mittee have been fo good as to think of in fo genteel a Manner, to return them their • hearty Thanks. And again, on the Twenty-firft of May, Your kind Present is now alt arrived, and thall be equally divided To-morrow between Sir Peter Halket's ⚫ Subalterns and mine, which I apprehend will be agreeable to the Committee's Intent, This I have made known to the Officers of both Regiments, who unanimoufly de◄ fire me to return their generous Benefactors their most hearty Thanks, to which be • pleased to add mine, &c.' and Sir Peter Halket, in his of the Twenty-third of May, fays, The Officers of my Regiment are moft fenfible of the Favours conferred on the Subalterns by your Affembly, who have made them fo well-timed and fo handfome a Prefent. At their Request and Defire I return their Thanks, and to the Acknowledgments of the Officers, beg Leave to add mine, which you, I hope, will do me the Favour for the whole to offer to the Affembly, and to affure them that we fhall on • every Occafion do them the Juftice due for fo feafonable and well judged an Act of Generofity. There are more of the fame Kind, but thefe may fuffice to fhew, that we had fome Hand in what was done,' and that we did not, as the Governor fuppofes, deviate from the Truth, when, in our juft and neceffary Vindication against his groundlefs, cruel, and repeated Charge, that we had refufed the proper, neceffary and timely Affiftance to an Army fent to protect the Colonies,' we alledged we had supplied that Army plentifully with all they afked of us, and more than all, and had Letters from the late General, and other principal Officers, acknowledging our Care, and thanking us cordially for our Services.' If the General ever wrote differently of us to the King's Minifters, it must have been while he was under the first Impreffions given him by the Governor to our Difadvantage, and before he knew us; and we think with the Governor, that if he had lived, he was too honeft a Man not to have retracted thofe miftaken Accounts of us, and done us ample Juftice. that The Governor concludes with telling us, that if our Minutes be examined for Fifteen Years paft, in them will be found more frivolous Controverfies, unparallelled Abufès of Governors, and more Undutifulness to the Crown, than in all the reft of his Majefty's Colonies put together.' The Minutes are printed, and in many Hands, who may judge on examining them whether any Abufes of Governors and Undutifulness to the Crown are to be found in them. Controverfies, indeed, there are too many; but as our Assemblies are yearly changing, while our Proprietaries, during that Term, have remained the fame, and have probably given their Governors the fame Inftructions, we must leave others to guefs from what Root it is most likely that thofe Controverfies fhould continually fpring. As to frivolous Controverfies, we never had so many of them as fince our prefent Governor's Adminiftration, and all raifed by Gg by himself; and we may venture to fay, that during that one Year, fcarce yet expir ed, there have been more unparallelled Abufes' of this People, and their Reprefentatives in Affembly, than in all the Years put together, fince the Settlement of the Province, We are now to take our Leave of the Governor; and indeed, fince he hopes no Good from us, nor we from him, 'tis Time we should be parted. If our Conftituents difapprove our Conduct, a few Days will give them an Opportunity of changing us by a new Election; and could the Governor be as foon and as eafily changed, Pennfylvania would, we apprehend, deserve much less the Character he gives it, of an unfortunate Country. Extract from the VOTES of ASSEMBLY, Sept. 29, 1755. The Speaker read to the Houfe a Paper containing fome Authorities relating to the Rights of the Commons of Great-Britain over Money Bills, and in Support of the Bill paffed by this Houfe for granting Fifty Thousand Pounds to the King's Ufe, fo far as the faid Bill relates to the Taxing the Proprietaries Eftate within this Province.----And the Speaker being requested by the Houfe to let the fame be entered upon the Minutes, confented thereto; and it accordingly follows in these Words, viz. HE Governor, in his Meffage of the Thirteenth of Auguft laft, afferts, That in chufing Reprefentatives in the Affembly, therefore it is not confiftent with the British Conftitution that their Eftates here fhould be liable to pay Taxes.' And in Anfwer to the Privilege we claim, of having our Bills granting Supplies paffed as they are tendered, without Alterations, the Governor in his Meffage of the Twenty-fourth Inftant fays, that this Claim is not warranted by Charter; to which the House very justly replied on the Twenty-ninth, that the Charter gives us all the Powers and Privileges of an Affembly, according to the Rights of the Free-born Subjects of England, and as is ufual in any of the King's Plantations in America. If the Free-born Subjects of England do not exercife this Right, and it is not ufual in any of the King's Plantations in America, then we are in the Wrong to claim it, and the Governor is in the Right in denying it.' The Governor in the Beginning of his Administration has folemnly promised, that he would upon all Occafions be ftudious to prote& the People committed to his Charge in all their civil and religious Privileges. So far then, as these Privileges be long to the People and their Reprefentatives, from known Facts and unexceptionable Authorities, fo far the Governor must have failed of his Promise in the Protection we have a Right to from the Duty of his Station, and our Charters, and the Laws of this Province. The Practice of the other Plantations in America, and particularly very late Inftances of his Majefty's Colony of New-York, on Money Bills, are against the Governor; but I fhall chufe to confine myself to the Rights of the Houfe of Commons, to which we are entitled by our Provincial Charter, confirmed by a Law paffed in the fourth Year of the late Queen ANNE, for afcertaining the Number of Members of Affem. bly, &c. which enacts, in the Words of the Charter, That the Reprefentatives chosen and met according to the Directions of that Act, fhall have Power to chufe a Speaker, and other their Officers; and fhall be Judges of the Qualifications and Elections of their own Members, fit upon their own Adjournments, appoint Committees, prepare Bills in order to pafs into Laws, impeach Criminals, and redrefs Grievances; and shall have all other Powers and Privileges of Affembly according to the Rights of the Free-born Subjects of England, and as is ufual in any of the Queen's Plantations in America. The Houfe of Commons then do claim, by the Law and Ufage of Parliament, the Right of determining their own Elections, and confequently, and neceffarily, the Right of the Electors to vote; and in virtue of this Right it appears by the Journal of the Houfe of Commons, Vol. XIII. Page 326, that no Peer of the Realm hath any Right to give his Vote in the Election of any Member to ferve in Parliament. The fame was again unanimoufly refolved in the Beginning of the fixth and laft Parliament of King WILLIAM III. with an additional Refolve, That for any Ch. Com. Jour. H. Com. Lord |