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2. For that this exemption from taxes arising from the nature of government, is enforced by a positive law in this province, which expressly declares, that the proper estates of the proprietaries shall not be liable to rates or taxes.

3. For that the proprietaries, by their governor, having consented to a law for vesting in the people the sole choice of the persons to assess and lay taxes in the several counties, without reserving to themselves, or their governor, any negative upon such choice, and this concession being made with an express proviso, that the proprietary estates should not be taxed, it will be very unreasonable to empower such persons by a law, without ther previous consent, to tax their estates at discretion.

4. For that it is contrary to the constant practice and usage in this and all the proprietary governments upon this continent, so far as I have been informed, to lay any tax upon the lands or estates of the proprietaries, exercising the government by themselves or their lieutenants.

For these reasons principally I made the amendments, relating to the proprietary estate, to your bill for giving fifty thousand pounds to the king's use, and I hope, gentlemen, they will be sufficient to induce you to agree to those amendments. Were the proprietaries now upon the spot, I know their love and affection for this country to be such, that they would do any thing in their power for its preservation and safety; but as they are not here, I have, on their behalf, proposed to give lands west of the Allegheny mountains, without any purchase-money, and free from the payment of quitrents for fifteen years to come, and then not to exceed the common quit-rent in this province. The particular quantity proposed as an additional encouragement for each officer and soldier, is expressed in a message to you upon that head.'

And the next day but one the assembly rejoined, “That the intention of the bill was not to hurt or incumber (it being as little in their power or intention to hurt or incumber the estates of their constituents, as in the governor's to hurt or incumber the proprietary estate) but to free it from hurt

and incumbrance; the worst of incumbrances, the neighborhood of so mischievous an enemy, who, as they had been repeatedly told by the governor, had taken actual possession of some part, and laid claim to a much greater part of the proprietaries' country; they could not conceive how the giving a part to save the whole, and, in the proprietary's case, not only to save the whole, but to render it of double or treble value, could properly be called hurting or incumbering an estate; that if the argument had any force, it had the same force in behalf of the people; and, consequently, he ought in duty to reject both parts of the bill for the same reason; that for their parts, happening to think otherwise, they had laid the tax as cheerfully on their own estates as on those of their constituents."

"That the proposed grant of lands, for the encouragement of military adventurers, west of the Allegheny mountains, without any purchase-money, was as absolutely irre concileable with the letter of the proprietary proviso in his, the governor's commission, as his assent to the tax upon their estate could be represented to be; that if their love and affection for their country was such, that if they were on the spot, they would do any thing in their power for its preservation; and if the governor, presuming on that love and affection, thought himself at liberty to dispense with so positive a prohibition, it might be asked, why could he not venture to do the same in one instance for the same reason as in the other? and if the grant of lands would be valid, notwithstanding such prohibition, why would not his assent to the bill be the same? that this magnified offer had in reality been proposed only to make the taxing of the proprietary estate appear less reasonable; that it was in effect an offer of amusement only, good lands not being so much as specified; and as good as the best there, being to be had in Virginia (where quit-rents were but two shillings, whereas the common quit-rents in Pennsylvania were four shillings and two pence sterling) without purchase-money, and with the same exemption of that quit-rent for fifteen years to come, so that the encouragement so graciously offered to those adventu

rers to recover the proprietaries' lands out of the hands of the enemy, was at the bottom no better than a proposal to reward them with a part of the lands they were so to recover, at more than double the price demanded in the neighbouring province, without any of the risque they were in the present case to be exposed to.

"That the governor being vested by the royal charter itself with all the powers granted thereby, for the good and happy government of the province, was in full capacity to pass the law in question, the proprietaries having no authority to restrain those powers; and all such restraints having been already considered and declared as null and void."

"That they did not propose to tax the proprietary as governor, but as a fellow-subject, a land-holder and possessor of an estate in Pennsylvania, an estate that would be more benefitted by a proper application of the tax than any other estate in the province; that the proprietary did not govern them, that the province, at a large expence, supported a lieutenant to do that duty for him; that if the proprietary did govern them in person, and had a support allowed him on that account, they should not have thought it less reasonable to tax him as a land-holder for the security of his land; that they, the representatives of the people, were also allowed wages for their service in assembly; and yet the governor, they insinuated, would hardly allow it to be a good reason why their estates should therefore be tax free; that it was scarce to be supposed the proprietary could, from the nature of his office, derive higher pretensions than the king himself; and yet that the king's tenants were, by every land-tax act, impowered to deduct the same out of their rent; and that the king's receivers were obliged, under severe penalties, to allow of such deductions; but that this was not the first instance by many, in which proprietors and governors of petty colonies have assumed greater powers, privileges, immunities, and prerogatives, than were ever claimed by their royal master, on the imperial throne of all his extensive dominions."

"That the positive law of this province hinted at by the governor as exempting the proprietaries' estates from taxes, was no other than the law for raising county rates and levies, which were in the same act appropriated to purposes for which the proprietaries could not reasonably be charged (as wages to assembly-men, rewards for killing wolves, &c.) not a general, constitutional law of the province; that by a posi tive law, the people's representatives were to dispose of the people's money, and yet it did not extend to all cases in government; that if it had, amendments of another kind might have been expected from the governor; seeing, that, in consideration of the purposes of the grant, they had allowed him a share in the disposition, and that he, by his last amendment, proposed also, to have a share in the disposition of the overplus, if any."

"That they begged leave to ask, whether, if the proprietary estate was to be taxed as proposed, it would be equitable for the owner to have a negative in the choice of assessors, since that would give him half the choice, in lieu, perhaps, of a hundredth part of the tax; that as it was, he had officers, friends, and other dependants, in every county, to vote for him, in number equal to the proportionable value of the share of the tax; that if the proprietary shrunk at the injustice of being taxed where he had no choice in the assessors, they again asked, with what face of justice he could desire and insist on having half the power of disposing of the money levied, to which he would not contribute a farthing; that there was great impropriety in saying the proprietary estate was by this act to be taxed at discretion, seeing the assessors were to be upon their oaths or solemn affirmations, which gave the proprietary as good security for equity and justice as any subject in the king's dominions."

"That as to the governor's plea, deduced from usage and custom, they alleged, usage and custom against reason and, justice, ought to have but little weight; that the usage of exemptions in cases where the proprietary estates could not be benefitted by a tax, was not in point; that if it was, so far as regarded the estates of persons exercising government by

themselves or lieutenant, it could not include the estates of proprietaries, who not only did not exercise government by themselves, but would moreover restrain their lieutenants from exercising the just powers they were vested with by the royal charter."

And their last paragraph was at once so cogent and pathetic, that it ought to be given in their own words, which cannot be amended. To wit:

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'On the whole, we beg the governor would again calmly and seriously consider our bill, to which end we once more send it up to him. We know that without his assent the money cannot be raised, nor the good ends so earnestly desired and expected from it be obtained, and we fear his resolution to refuse it. But we entreat him to reflect with what reluctance a people born and bred in freedom, and accustomed to equitable laws, must undergo the weight of this uncommon tax, and even expose their persons for the defence of his estate, who, by virtue of his power only, and without even a colour of right, should refuse to bear the least share of the burthen, though to receive so great a benefit! with what spirit can they exert themselves in his cause, who will not pay the smallest part of their grievous expences? how odious must it be to a sensible manly people, to find him who ought to be their father and protector, taking advantage of public calamity and distress, and their tenderness for their bleeding country, to force down their throats laws `of imposition, abhorrent to common justice and common reason! why will the governor make himself the hateful instrument of reducing a free people to the abject state of vassalage; of depriving us of those liberties, which have given reputation to our country throughout the world, and drawn inhabitants from the remotest parts of Europe to enjoy them? liberties not only granted us of favor, but of right; liberties which in effect we have bought and paid for, since we have not only performed the conditions on which they were granted, but have actually given higher prices for our lands on their account; so that the proprietary family have been doubly paid for them, in the value of the lands,

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