Speed you call together one general Assembly for the enacting of Laws for the joint and mutual Good of the whole province.... 14. You are to choose in the passing of Laws, that the Stile of enacting the same be by the Governor, Council and Assembly and no other; You are also, as much as possible, to observe in the passing of all Laws, that whatever may be requisite upon each different matter be accordingly provided for by a different Law, without Intermixing in one and the same Act such things as have no proper relation to each other, and you are more especially to take care, that no Clause or Clauses be inserted in or annexed to any Act, which shall be foreign to what the Title of such respective Act imports; and that no perpetual Clause be made part of any temporary Law; and that no Act whatsoever be suspended, altered, continued, revived or repeated [repealed] by general Words, but that the Title and Date of such Act so suspended, alter'd, continued, revived or repealed be particularly mentioned and expressed in the enacting part. 15. And whereas several Laws have formerly been enacted in several of Our Plantations in America, for so short a time, that the Assent or refusal of Our Royal predecessors cou'd not be had thereupon before the time, for which such Laws were enacted, did expire; You shall not for the future give Your Assent to any Law; that shall be enacted for a less time than two Years, except in the Cases hereinafter mention'd. And you shall not re-enact any Law to which the Assent of Us or Our Royal predecessors has once been refused, without express Leave for that purpose first obtained from us, upon a full Representation by you to be made to Our Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, in order to be laid before Us, of the reason and necessity for passing such Law, nor give your Assent to any Law for repeating any other act pass'd in your Government, whether the same is [has] or has not received Our Royal Approbation, unless You take care that there be a Clause inserted therein suspending and deferring the Execution thereof until Our Pleasure be known concerning the same. 16. And whereas great Mischiefs do arise by the Frequent passing Bills of an unusual and extraordinary Nature and Importance in Our Plantations, which Bills remain in force there from the time of enacting until Our Pleasure be signified to the contrary; We do hereby Will and require you not to pass or give your Consent hereafter to any Bill or Bills in the Assembly of our said Province of unusual and extraordinary Nature and importance, wherein Our Prerogative, or the Property of Our Subjects may be prejudiced, or the Trade or Shiping of this Kingdom any Ways affected, until you shall have first transmitted to Our Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, in order to be laid before Us, the Draught of such a Bill or Bills, and shall have receiv'd Our Royal Pleasure thereupon, unless you take care in the passing of any Bill of such Nature as before mentioned, that there be a Clause inserted therein, suspending and deferring the Execution thereof untill Our Pleasure shall be known concerning the same. . . . 21st It is Our express Will and Pleasure, that no Law for raising any imposition on Wines or other strong Liquors be made to continue for less than one whole Year, and that all other Laws made for the supply and Support of the Government shall be indefinite and without Limitation, except the same be for a temporary Service, and which shall expire and have their full effect within the time therein prefixt. . . 23. Whereas several Inconveniences have arisen to Our Governments in the Plantations by Gifts and Presents made to Our Governors by the general Assemblies; you are therefore to propose unto the Assembly at their first meeting after your Arrival, and to use your utmost Endeavour with them, that an Act be passed for raising and settling a publick Revenue for defraying the necessary Charge of the Government of Our said Province, and that therein Provision be particularly made for a competent Salary to yourself. . . 28. You are to transit Authentick Copies of all Laws, Statutes and Ordinances that are now made and in Force which have not yet been sent, or which at any time hereafter shall be made or enacted within the said province. . 29 And you are upon all Occasions to send unto Our Commissioners for Trade and plantations only, a particular Account of all your proceedings and of the Condition of Affairs within your Government. . . CHAPTER IV ROYAL GOVERNOR AND REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY THE provincial governor, as Franklin said, had two masters: by virtue of his commission he was the agent of the Crown and the guardian of imperial interests; yet he was also the executive head of the provincial government and dependent upon local support. In all but four of the colonies the governor depended for his salary on grants of the assembly. In Georgia alone he was paid by the Crown. In Virginia and Maryland he was supported by permanent grants; in North Carolina, his salary was derived from quit-rents. The century-long struggle between Crown and Parliament was repeated in many ways in the colonies in the half-century before the Revolution. Pitching upon the old maxim that a redress of grievances must precede a grant of supplies, the colonial assemblies extorted legislation repeatedly by withholding the governor's salary. The encroachments of the assemblies upon the executive and the evils incident to these colonial practices are vividly set forth by Thomas Pownall, at one time governor of Massachusetts and later of South Carolina. 8. The Points at Issue between the Colonies and the Crown.1 The King's commission to his governor, which grants the power of government, and directs the calling of a legislature, and the establishing courts, at the same time that it fixes the governor's power, according to the several powers and directions granted and appointed by the commission and instructions, adds, "and by such further powers, instructions, and authorities, as shall, at any time hereafter, be granted or appointed you, under our signet or sign manual, or by our order in our privy council." It should here seem, that the same power which framed the commission, with this clause in it, could also issue its future orders and instructions in consequence thereof: but the people of the colonies say, that the inhabitants of the colonies are entitled to all the privileges of Englishmen; that they have a right to participate in the legislative power; and that no commands of the crown, by orders in council, instructions, or letters from Secretaries of State, are 1 Pownall, Administration of the Colonies (1765), 39-47 passim. binding upon them, further than they please to acquiesce under such, and conform their own actions thereto; that they hold this right of legislature, not derived from the grace and will of the crown, and depending on the commission which continues at the will of the crown; that this right is inherent and essential to the community, as a community of Englishmen: and that therefore they must have all the rights, privileges, and full and free exercise of their own will and liberty in making laws, which are necessary to that act of legislation, uncontrouled by any power of the crown, or of the governor, preventing or suspending that act; and, that the clause in the commission, directing the governor to call together a legislature by his writs, is declarative and not creative; and therefore he is directed to act conformably to a right actually already existing in the people, &c. . . . Every subject, born within the realm, under the freedom of the Government of Great Britain, or by adoption admitted to the same, has an essential indefeasible right to be governed, under such a mode of government as has the unrestrained exercise of all those powers which form the freedom and rights of the constitution; and therefore," the crown cannot establish any colony upon or contract it within a narrower scale than the subject is entitled to, by the great charter of England." The government of each colony must have the same powers, and the same extent of powers that the government of Great Britain has, and must have, while it does not act contrary to the laws of Great Britain, the same freedom and independence of legislature, as the parliament of Great Britain has. This right (say they) is founded, not only in the general principles of the rights of a British subject, but is actually declared, confirmed, or granted to them in the commissions and charters which gave the particular frame of their respective constitutions. If therefore, in the first original establishment, like the original contract, they could not be established upon any scale short of the full and compleat scale of the powers of the British government, nor the legislature be established on any thing less than the whole legislative power; much less can this power |