muft they not be the most unjust and dishonest of Men? The Affeffors, it is true, are chofen by the People; they always were fo by our Laws; and let a Man's Eftate be ever fo great, he has but one Vote in the Choice of them But have the Proprietaries no Friends in their Province? What is become of all their Dependants and Expec tants; thofe in Place, or hoping for Places; the Thousands in their Debt ; the Mortgagors at their Mercy? Will none of thefe, out of Love, or Hope, of Fear, vote for honeft Affeffors, that may take Care the Proprietary is not oppreffed by the Weight of an unjust Tax? Could the Affembly be certain, that the whole People were fo wicked, as to join in chufing and trusting Setts of difhoneft Affeffors, merely to wrong the Proprietary? Are there no Laws in the Province against Perjury? Are not the Affeffors by Law to be fworn or affirmed to affefs themfelves and all others impartially; and have they not always been chofen as Men of Note for Probity and Juftice? What a dark Prospect mult a Man's own Heart afford him, when he can from thence form fuch Ideas of the Hearts of a whole People! A People famous throughout the World, for the Justice and Equity of their Laws, the Purity of their Manners, their Humanity and Hofpitality to Strangers, their Affection to their late honoured Proprietary, their Faithfulnels in their Manufactures and Produce, and Uprightness in all their Dealings! and to whofe Virtue and Industry these very Gentlemen owe all their fent Greatness! pre The Proprietaries are pleafed farther to fay, That the Laying Taxes on the real • Value of the Fee-fimple, and the Sale of Land for the Payment of Taxes, are con trary to the Laws and Statutes of Great-Britain. Your Committee cannot find that any Laws or Statutes were ever made in Great Britain to regulate the Mode of laying Taxes in the Plantations; and if there are none fuch, our Bill could not be contrary to what never exifted. In Virginia the Taxes are laid on Slaves, and paid in Tobac co; and every Colony has its own Mode of Taxation, fuited to its own Circumftances, almost all different from each other as well as from that used in England. But different from, and contrary to, we conceive to be diftinct and different Things; other wife many of our Laws, even those which have been approved at Home, and received the Royal Affent, are contrary to the Laws of England.- -But as we faid before, the Laws of England themselves, make Lands liable to pay Debts in the Colonies; and therefore to fell them, or a Part of them, to pay publick Debts, is not contrary to, but conformable with, the Laws of England. But the Proprietaries cannot find that the Quitrents referved to the Crown----in any of the other American Colonies, have ever been taxed towards the Railing any Supplies granted in thofe Colonies; and indeed thofe Quitrents are generally fo fmall (meaning the King's Quitrents, we fuppofe, for their own furely are large enough) that little or no Land Tax would be due or payable on them, if arifing in Great'Britain, &c.' If your Committee are rightly informed, the King's Quitrents in the other Colonies, are applied to publick Purpoles, generally for the Service of the Colony that raises them. When our Proprietaries fhall think fit to apply those arising here in the fame Manner, we believe no Affembly will attempt to tax them. The Smallness of the Parts, we cannot conceive to be a good Reason for not taxing the Whole, Where every Man worth lefs than Twenty Shillings a Year is exempt from Taxes, he who enjoys a Thousand a Year might, as well as our Proprietaries, plead to be excufed, for that his Income is only Twenty Thousand Shillings, each of which Shillings is far within the Sum exempted by Law. In the whole, tho' what arifes from each Eftate be no great Sum, their Quitrents must amount to a very great Revenue j and their speaking of them in the diminutive Terms of very small Quitrents or Acknowledgments, is only to amule and deceive. They are Property; and Proper ty fhould pay for its own Prefervation. They ought therefore to be taxed to the Defence of the Country. The Proprietaries indeed fay, a Land Tax was unneceffary, as there are many other Ways of raising Money. They would doubtless chufe any Way in which their Eftate could not be included. But what are thofe many other Ways? Britain, an independent State, can lay infinite Ducies, on all foreign Wares, and im ported Luxuries. We are fuffered little foreign Trade, and almost all our Superfluities are lent us from Britain itself. Will the permit us to difcourage their Importation by heavy Impofts? or to raife Funds by taxing her Manufactures A Variety of Excifes and Duties ferve only to multiply Offices and Officers, and to make a Part of the People pay for another Part who do not chufe to pay. No Excife or Duty, was ever a fair and equal Tax on Property. The faireft, as the Proprietaries themselves have acknowledged, is a Poundage on all real and perfonal Estate, according to its Value. We We are now to hear of the Generofity of the Proprietaries, who, as they fay, were fo far from defiring not to contribute to the Defence and Support of His Majefty's Rights and Dominions, that immediately on the firft Notice of the Defeat of General Braddock, they had fent over an Order upon their Receiver-General, to pay • Frve Thoufand Pounds as a free Gift towards the Defence of the faid Province. We may presume to afk, why, when they knew the Affemblies were continually worried to give Money, and the Bills in which it was offered as conftantly rejected; why did they not unmanacle their Governor, and at the fame Time fet an Example of Zeal for the common Caufe by a generous Gift on their Part, before they heard of that Defeat? Why not as foon as they knew he was fent to America? Why not on Washington's Defeat, or before his firft Expedition, as foon as ever their Province was attacked, and they learnt that the Enemy had built a Fort in it? But the Truth is, the Order was fent, not immediately on the News of Braddock's Defeat; the Date of the Order will show that it was a Month after that News arrived in England. But it was immediately after they had Advice, that the Governor had refused a Grant of Fifty Thousand Pounds to the Crown for the Defence of the Proprietaries Province, because their Eftate was taxed in the Bill, alledging Restrictions from them on that Head; against which all the World exclaimed, and an universal Odium was falling on their Heads, and the King's Wrath juftly dreaded; then it was, that the boafted Order iffued. And yet, as foon as their Fears fubfided, it was fincerely repented, and every underhand Step taken to get the Act, in which their Gift was fixed, difapproved at Home; tho' if they had fucceeded, when the Bills emitted were abroad, and in the Hands of the Publick, many of the poor Soldiers, who had received them in Pay for their Services, would have been ruined, and Multitudes of others greatly injured. `And after all, this Free Gift, to be immediately paid, is not yet paid, though more than a Year is eJapfed fince the Order was given; -- and Contracts, entered into by the Commiffioners in Confidence of receiving that Money, are yet unfatisfied, to the Loss and Difappointment of many, and great Detriment to the Service. However, if we will have a Land Tax, they are pleafed to form a Bill for us, or at leaft to direct what Claufes fhall be in, and what fhall not be in it, thus violating the most effential Right of the Commons in a British Conftitution !----and with this particular Injunction, that the Tax fhall be laid for no more than one Year; and fhall not exceed Four Shillings in the Pound on the Income; which, eftimating Eltates at twenty Years Purchase, is about a Fifth of a Twentieth, or, in plainer Words, a hundredth Part of the Value. Perhaps this may be well enough in Times of Tranquility; but when a Province is invaded, muft it be given up to the Enemy, if a Tax of the hundredth Penny is not sufficient to fave it? Yes, that is our prefent Situation ; for the Proprietaries Inftructions are, it feems, unalterable. Their Governor is bound to obferve and inforce them, and must see the King's Province perifh before his Eyes, rather than deviate from them a fingle Tittle. This we have experienced within a few Days, when Advantage being cruelly taken of our prefent unhappy Situation, the proftrate Condition of our bleeding Country, the Knife of the Savages at her Throat, our Soldiers ready to mutiny for want of Pay and Neceffaries, our People fying in Despair from the Frentier for want of Protection, the Affembly was compelled (like Solomon's true Mother) to wave her Right, to alter our Money Bills, abridge our free Grant to the Crown by one Half, and, in fhort, to receive and enact a Law not agreeable to our Judgments, but fuch as was made for us by the Proprietary Inftructions, and the Will and Pleasure of the Governor's Council; whereby our Conftitution and the Liberties of our Country are wounded in the most effential Part, and even violated and destroyed. We have Reason to confide, however, in the Justice of our Sovereign and a British Parliament, that this Tyranny shall not long fubfift; and we hope no Time will be loft in making the proper Application. In fine, we must fay, in Juftice to the Houfe, that the Proprietary's Charge against the Affembly, as being inclined by their Authority to tax the Proprietary Estate 4 disproportionately, &c. is, to our Knowledge, groundiefs and unjut. They had as little Inclination as Authority to wrong him. They have not, it feems, Authority enough to oblige him to do Juftice. As to their Inclination, they bear, every one of them, and maintain, the Character of HONEST MEN. When the Proprietaries fhall be truly willing to bear an equitable Part of the Publick Burden; when they fhall renounce their exorbitant Demand of Rent as the Exchange fhall then be; make Reftitution of the Money which they have exacted from the Affemblies of this Province, and fincerely repent of their Extortion, they may then, and not till then, have fome Claim to the fame NOBLE TITLE. The 431 The Proprietaries have for a long Series of Years made a great Secret of the Value of their Eftate and Revenue By Accident the following authentic Paper is fallen into our Hands, and will ferve as a Ground-work, on which the Reader may be enabled to form fome Idea of the Value of that Eftate in Penfylvania. It is a Copy of an original Paper drawn by Mr. Thomas Penn bimfelf many Years ago, and endors'd r 2 3 My Eftimate of the Province, T. PENN. "E S TIM AT E. 2 Penfylvania Curr. LANDS granted fince my Arrival are very near 270,000 1,850 Acres, of which not 10,000 have been paid for ; The old Rent, 4207. a Year Sterling, at ditto, is 4 Lands granted between Roll and the firft Article are 570%. a Year Sterling, which at 20 Years Purchase, and 165 per Cent. is 5 To the Difference between 420% and 5701. for Arrearages "of Rents which may be computed at half the Time of the "other Arrearages, that is 11 Years at 165 per Cent. "6 Ferries let on fhort Leafes, the Rents being 401, a Year are "worth 7 Lands fettled in the Province for which no Grants are yet "paffed, except a few fince the above Account was taken, "not less than 400,000 Acres, which at £. 15 100 a mounts to "The Rent at an Half-penny an Acre is £. 833 6 8 a "Year Sterling, reckon'd as above is 15,246 18,810 00 1 Coneftogoe, 65 M. from the City, 13,400 Acres, at 401. per H. "4 Highlands, 35 5 Spring-tow.37 750 3,500 6 Vincent's, 40 Richland's '35 9 About 20 Tracts in the feveral Counties, mostly goo Acres each; reckon'd 10,0co at 40%. 1,035 150 Lot in the Bank at the North End of the Town, 200 Feet at 3. 600 ** 10 A Front and Bank Lot between Vine and Sniffafras Street, } 13 Penfylvania Curr. Brought over £; 217,725 100 Bank Lot between Cedar and Pine Street, 204 Feet at 3 1. 12 Front Lot on the Side of Cedar Street "13 Ditto between Cedar and Pine Street " 14 Bank Lot between the fame Streets Marth Land near the Town 25 102 160 40 3 2 600 Acres at 37. 16 Ditto 200 Acres, at 1. Sterling Rent, and 165 per Cent is on "Lands within the Draft of the Town, at least 500 Acres 250 nearest Delaware, at 151. per Acie "250 nearest Schuylkill, at 10l. per Acre "17 Omitted.Streiper's Tract in Bucks County, 35 Miles; 5,000 Acres at 251. 18 The Rents of the above Manors and Lands being 77,072 "Acres at a Half-penny per Acre. 612 #306 0 0 20 Years Purchase, " and 165 per Cent. Exchange, is The Government to be calculated at no less than was to haye been paid for it, viz. 11,000 7. at 165 per Cent. is In this Calculation no Notice is taken of the Thirds referved "on the Bank Lots (a Copy of the Patents J. Penn has by "him to fhew the Nature of them *) and nine Tenths of "the Province remains undifpofed of. "Three Fifths of all Royal Mines is referved in the Grants, " and in all Grants fince the Year 1732. One fifth Part of *all other Mines, delivered at the Pits Mouth without "Charge is also reserved. No Value is put on the Proprietor's Right to efcheated "Lands; and, befides thefe Advantages, feveral Offices " are in the Proprietor's Gift of confiderable Value. ❝ Befides feveral other Offices of lefs Value. These are only} "gueffed at." The above Paper has no Date, but by fundry Circumftances in it, particularly there being no Value put on the Thirds of the Bank Lots, because they were not then fallen in; and by the Valuation put on the Lands (which is very different from their prefent Value) it must have been drawn while Mr. Thomas Penn refided in Pen fylvania, and probably more than Twenty Years ago: Since which Time a vaft Ad dition has been made to the Value of the Referued Lands, and a great Quantity of Land has been difpofed of, perhaps equal to all preceding. We must therefore add to the above Sum of £. 252,122: 2:0. the following Articles, viz. By thefe Patents, at the end of 50 Years the Proprietor was to have One Third of the Value of the Lots and the Buildings, and other Improvements erected on them. Penfylvania Curr. Brought over £. 252,122 2 0 1. For the increased Value of the Lands of the Coneflogoe Ma nor now valued at 400l. per Hundred Acres, and in the above Eftimate valued only at 40 l. per Hundred, the the faid increafed Value being 360 l. per Hundred, on 13,400 Acres, ཕར་ 2 For the increased Value of Gilbert's Manor, now worth 400l. per Hundred Acres, 3. For Ditto on Springfield Manor, now worth 500 1. per Hundred Acres, x 4. For Ditto on Highland's Manor, now worth 350l. per Hun dred Acres, 5. For Ditto on Springtown, now worth 400 l. per Hundred Acres,? 6. For Ditto on Vincent's Manor, now worth 300l. per Hundred Acres, 7. For Ditto on Richland's now worth 450 1. per Hundred Acres, 9. For Ditto on the 20 Tracts, now worth 300l. per Hundred Acres, 8. For Ditto on Springetsbury, &c. at least } 36,500 0 0 53,000 0 0 } 43,500 a a 26,000 0 2,685 0 0 14.} ·5,060 o a 10,200 0 0 18,750 the? 9. For Ditto on all the Articles of Lots from No. 9 to 14. For the Thirds of the Bank Lots and Improvements on them, Thus far for the prefent Value of what was then estimated, But fince that Time, very great Quantities of Land have been fold, and feveral new Manors laid out and referv'd; one of which, viz. that of Conedoguinet is faid to contain 30,000 Acres: The Quantity fold fince the Eftimate, must be at least equal to what was fold before, as the People are doubled, and the Manors probably equal in Quantity: We may therefore fuppofe, that a fair Eftimate of the Lands fold, Rents and Manors referved, and new Towns laid out into Lots, fince the above Estimate, would be at leaft equal to it, that is another Tenth, and amount alfo to 573,697 2: 0. 15,000 37,280 o 573,697 2-0 573,697 2 a Carried over £. 1,147,394: 4:0 3* The Lots of Land within the Plan of the Town were originally promis'd to be given to the Purchasers of Land in the Country. But that has been long fince difcontinued; and for many Years paft the Proprietor has shut the Office, and forbid his Agents even to fell any more of them; intending to keep them all, till he can let them out on high Ground Rents, or on Building Leafes. 500 Acres divided into Houfe Lots, and difpes'd of in this Manner, will alone make a vast Estate. The old Proprietor likewife in his Plan of the City, laid out five large Squares, one in each Quarter, and one in the Centre of the Plan, and gave the fame to the Inhabitants for publick Ufes. This he publish'd in all his Accounts of the Country, and his Papers of Invitation and Encouragement to Settlers; but as no formal Deed or Conveyance of thofe Squares is now to be found, the prefent Proprietor has refum'd them, turn'd them again into private Property that the Number of his Lots may be increas'd; and his Surveyor General in his lately publish'd Plant of the City, has conceal'd all thofe Squares by running intended Streets over them. A Proceeding equally odious to the People, and difhonourable to the Family! For li |