'As the several governors in all the king's provinces and colonies in North America will receive, by this conveyance, a letter to the same effect with this which I now send you, they will be prepared at the same time to obey his majesty's commands. And I am to direct you to correspond with all, or either of them, occasionally, as you shall find it expedient for the general service.'

It is plain by the general drift of this letter, that it related equally to every governor and every government of North America: and yet the governor of Pennsylvania did his best to narrow the application of it to Pennsylvania only. These are his words: 'you will observe by the secretary of state's letter, that it is his majesty's pleasure we should contribute as far as we can to the having about three thousand men in readiness to enlist; that we should provide a quantity of fresh provisions for the troops, and necessaries for the officers that may have occasion to travel by land; that the orders to be issued by the commander in chief for quartering the soldiers, and impressing carriages, should be carried into exact execution; and that all necessaries should be provided for such troops as shall arrive, or be raised within this government.→→→ His majesty expects, that as the several articles above-mentioned are of a local and peculiar nature, and arising entirely within this government, that the charge thereof should be defrayed by his subjects within the same.'

To both these messages the assembly immediately applied themselves, to prepare suitable answers; and, beginning with the first, among other things said, 'We have the misfortune to differ in opinion from the governor, after considering the case maturely as it now lies before us; nevertheless, we do assure him, that though in a matter of small importance we might not, perhaps, be very tenacious of our own sentiments; yet, in this case, our all is concerned, and if we should not. act becoming the rights our birth, as Englishmen, intitles us to, we might appear unworthy of the regard we have already experienced, and have good reason to hope for hereafter, from a British parliament.'

'It appears that the case, as stated to the attorney-general,

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regards only emissions of bills of credit on common and ordinary occasions; and, in our opinion, very little, if at all, affects the present bill: and it is remarkable, that there is not the least notice taken of the act for granting five thousand pounds for the king's use, which governor Thomas passed without a suspending clause, by extending this very excise act for ten years, which we have now again extended for the same term of years only, and loaded it with a grant of twenty thousand pounds.

'As colonel Thomas gave his assent to that act after the receipt of the additional instruction, which the governor has now sent down with our bill, and as we presume he has no other or later instructions from the crown, though he has since received the royal approbation, we hope he will not think himself more restricted by it, than the gentleman to whom it was immediately directed; who has never suffered in his honour, that we know of, or incurred the king's displeasure for giving his, assent to that bill, and at this time. holds a government of great importance under the immediate powers of the crown.

'Governor Hamilton, we find, entered into bonds and penalties (among other things) that he shall from time to time, and all times, hereafter, so long as he shall continue lieutenant-governor of the said province, observe, perform, and obey all such directions and instructions, which now are, or shall at any time be given, or sent to him, by his majesty, his heirs, and successors, or from any person or persons, now acting, or that hereafter shall act, by authority from his. majesty, his heirs and successors, and pursuant to, and for the putting in execution the several acts of trade and navigation, relating to the plantations, &c. which bond, or bonds of the like tenor, we presume our governor may have entered into before he received the royal approbation: and yet our late governor seems clearly in his reasoning with former assemblies, to have acknowledged he thought himself at liberty to pass acts of the tenor of our present bill for granting money for the king's use; and never offered a suspending clause, notwithstanding his bonds to the crown, but

whether he might, or might not, be safe in passing a bill of the kind mentioned in his state of the case, could regard himself only, and does, by no means, determine the rights we claim under the royal charter. And we have the pleasure to assure the governor, we have been credily informed that the board of trade, about a year ago, stated a question to the attorney and solicitor-general, with respect to the validity of this instruction of a suspending clause, over governments claiming particular rigs by charter; to which they have not yet given any answer, that we can learn. And we know, that notwithstanding two bills extending the royal instructions over councils and assemblies in America had been attempted in parliament without success, and a third bill was brought in with the same clause, yet it could not obtain a passage there. And we are informed, that a noble friend to liberty and the rights of the British subject, a member of that house, exposed this third attempt so fully, upon the second reading of the bill, that the clauses on this head objected to were dropt without a division in the committee. And until such acts of parliament shall be obtained, which we have good reason to hope will never be imposed upon us, the governor must agree with us, that it is our duty to defend the rights and privileges we enjoy under the royal charter.

'As in the present case, we are not bound by any acts of parliament, and are certainly clear of the act limiting the eastern colonies, both as to the force and the intention of it, we hope the governor, from his known abilities and good will to the prosperity of this province, will immediately discern the difference between this bill and acts of assembly creating bills of credit on common and ordinary occasions. What force royal instructions may have on bills of credit passed on common and ordinary occasions is not immediately before us, and may be considered at a proper time. But we hope the governor, notwithstanding any penal bond he may have entered into, will, on reflection, think himself at liberty, and find it consistent with his safety and honour, to give his as sent to this bill, which may, at this time, be of such great service to the British interest in America.

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'But if we should unhappily still differ in opinion, notwithstanding these reasons, and such as have been offered by our former assemblies, we must be obliged, as our last resource, to apply to the crown for redress, or to the lords of trade, or our proprietaries, as the case may require; in which, we doubt not, the governor will favour us with his assistance. And in order to furnish ourselves with every thing necessary for our own vindication, and that this case may appear in its full light, we entreat the governor will be pleased to inform us, whether the royal instruction is the only impediment; or whether he has any farther instructions from our proprietaries, which influence him in refusing his assent to our bill? and, if he has, that he would be pleased to lay those instructions before us for our consideration.'

And the answer to the second was as follows:

"The undoubted proofs his majesty has ever given of his gracious and paternal affection for all his subjects, however distant from his royal presence, and the fresh marks we have now before us of his care and regard for the welfare and security of his subjects in North America, excite in us the warmest returns of duty and gratitude; and we hope we have fully testified, that we have nothing more at heart, in all our deliberations, than to answer the reasonable expectations of the crown from this young but loyal colony. We have cheerfully passed a bill for granting twenty thousand pounds for the king's use, which now lies before the governor for his approbation, and we hope will answer all the purposes recommended to his care by Sir Thomas Robinson's letter of the 26th of October last.'

It was now the governor's turn; and the reader must recollect his former declarations, in order to wonder enough at his introductory paragraph, which was as follows:

'Gentlemen, when your bill for striking twenty thousand pounds, &c. was before me, I duly considered the dangerous circumstances in which the province was involved; and the absolute necessity of speedy measures to remove the French from their encroachments, and this induced me, instead of adding a cause to suspend the force of the act till his majes

ty's pleasure could be known, to send it back to you, that you might frame such a one as I was at liberty to give my consent to ; and at the same time to signify to you, that I would agree to the striking any sum the present emergency might require, provided funds were established for sinking the same in five years, that being the term prescribed by an act of parliament for regulating paper-money in the eastern governments; and I thought the reason of that act extended here, though the force of it did not; and I hoped that I should be excused, if I so far relaxed the instruction upon the present occasion, as to act agreeable to the rule laid down by parliament for the neighbouring governments, and I am sorry, for the sake of the public, to find by your message, that you have so far misapprehended me, as to conceive that I intended to insist on the suspending clause in this dangerous situation of affairs, which the words of my message do in no wise import, and that upon the whole, you refuse to accede to the reasonable measures I proposed.'-Proceeding then to Ryder's opinion; he would not allow, it regarded only common and ordinary emissions: said, that if governor Thomas was never censured for dispensing with the instruction, it was because the transaction itself had never been made known to his majesty or his ministers; that the fact mentioned by them, relating to the case laid by the lords of trade before the attorney and solicitor-general, was quite unknown to him; that, however, when they should report their opinion, and his majesty should think fit to issue different instructions, he should endeavour to pay the proper obedience; that the debates in parliament, &c. had little connection with the matter then before them; that though the parliament did not agree to give a general sanction to all instructions from his majesty, yet the instruction in question having been the result of addresses from both houses, it could not be doubted but they would support their own act; that he joined with them in opinion, that the only method to have the validity and force of the same finally determined would be by an application to his majesty, and was desirous they should lay the whole affair before his majesty's ministers; that being,