might be justly charged with doing what would be not only unprecedented and absurd, but what would infallibly secure the end aimed at by the governor, to wit, exempting the proprietaries from taxation; that as to the expedient of assessing the proprietary estate by commissioners instead of assessors, they did not see the necessity of it; that the lords of parliament had, in the year 1692, proposed a like amendment to a money-bill, but finding it could not be carried, had dropped it then and never revived it since; that it was one of the most valuable rights of British subjects to have their money-bills accepted without amendments, a right not to be • given up without destroying the constitution, and incurring greater and more lasting mischiefs than the grant of money can prevent; that of the twenty amendments offered by the governor to the fifty thousand pounds bill of the last assembly, the present assembly had admitted every one of them that was of any consequence into the present bill, merely for the sake of avoiding all dispute, except that of exempting the proprietary estate; and even that had been so modified as they imagined no objection could remain; that they found however, in this instance, how endless it was to admit such changes seeing the governor now wanted to amend his own amendments; add to his own additions, and alter his own alterations; so that, though they should now accede to these, they could not be sure of being ever the nearer to a conclusion; that, as the passing the proposed separate bill was equally inconsistent with the governor's construction of the prohibitory clause in his commission, which he seemed now to have got over; so they hoped he would not, for the sake of a mere opinion, concerning mode and propriety, any longer refuse a bill of so great importance to his majesty's service, and even the proprietary estate, going daily to ruin, as well as the relief of the province; and that the same implicit confidence in his majesty's goodness, which induced him to pass such a bill in any shape, might also encourage him to believe, that any little impropriety, 'if any there was, would be graciously passed over; that, if there could be any

doubts, which was most affected with the miseries of the province: they, who were most of them natives of it, and who had all of them their estates there, or he, a stranger among them; a consideration of the many bills they had offered in vain for its relief, and their earnest endeavours to give such great sums to that end, would solve them all; and that, upon the whole, the house adhered to their bill without amendments; because it was a money-bill; because the whole sum was granted to the crown, and to be paid out of the pockets of the subject; and because it was in their judgments a reasonable one. Lastly, they made it their request, that since, at such a time as that, disputes and contentions › between different parts of the government could not but be extremely prejudicial both to the king's service and the welfare of the country, they might be thenceforth laid aside; and that the governor by passing this just and equitable bill would lay the foundation of such an agreement as might conduce to the general benefit of all concerned, and prevent the necessity they should otherwise be under, of making an immediate application and complaint against him to their sovereign.'

They accompanied this message with certain extracts from the journals of parliament, concerning the claims of the lords and the perseverance of the commons in rejecting them; they also, in a separate message, applied for information concerning the Shawanese affair before-mentioned; and in a farther message they apprized him, 'That their treasury was quite exhausted by the heavy expences lately incurred, and that they knew of no way of raising money so expeditiously as that proposed by the bill then before the governor. After which they subjoined the following expressions, "It is true, the money intended to be struck, may not be current before the thirty-first of December; but as that is not more than six weeks, there is no doubt but that labour, service, and any thing else that money can purchase among us, may be had on credit for so short a time, if the bill passes; and in consideration of the necessity of affording timely assistance to the distressed inhabitants in the back counties, we sincerely

hope, and once more earnestly intreat, that the governor will no longer refuse or delay his assent to it."

At this time the house had a militia bill under their consideration, framed in compliance with the request of sundry petitions they had received, setting forth, 'that the petitioners were very willing to defend themselves and country, and desirous of being formed into regular bodies for that purpose, under proper officers, with legal authority:' the bill therefore was, as the title expressed, 'for the better ordering and regulating such as are willing and desirous of being united for military purposes.' It gave these the powers they desired, without compelling others who might be conscientiously against bearing arms. In which respect it conformed with the governor's particular recommendation often repeated.

This bill was sent up to him on the twenty-first; and, at the same time, the house called upon him for his result on the bills already before him.

Nothing is more true, than, that the more clearly and unanswerably you convince a man that he is in the wrong, the more you exasperate him against you; and never was any truth more strongly illustrated than this appears to have been in the person of this high and mighty governor. He could not forgive the assembly, because they had put him out of conceit with himself: and the poorer he found himself in arguments, the more strongly his passions excited him to make use of invectives. Invective became his only resource then; and the little power he had over himself, yet farther shewed how unfit he was to be a governor.

Having pronounced his proposal to the assembly to be a reasonable one, and declared himself no less astonished than grieved, that they should reject it; and, more especially, as their best argument for so doing was founded on a new and lofty claim of privilege, he endeavors both to prove the novelty and account for the assumption of it, by saying, 'It had never been heard of, till towards the close of Mr. Hamilton's administration, and that the assembly being then pressed on the subject of defence, first introduced and have

pro

since continued their claim: either wholly to avoid giving money for warlike purposes, or to arrogate unwarrantable powers to themselves.' To certain extracts from the minutes of the council, sent together with this message to them, he then referred for his proofs, that the governor's right to amend money-bills was never till then questioned; and after upbraiding them, in his way, for risking the rejection of so important an act, on account of the proprietary exemption, resolved all their reason for adhering to what he called, the indirect and perplexed method of their bill, into their sovereign pleasure to have it so. The same paragraph contained also some strange insinuations, 'That, not daring to trust their cause on its own bottom, they had chosen to blend both bills together, that they might have a better chance of having their chief governor and his estate subjected to their mercy.' And what with his implicit confidence, that the crown, in the common method, would neither pass that, or any other law for the sake of the greatest sums, if the prietary claim to an exemption was just in itself; and what with his foresight of manifest inconveniences that might ensue from a total rejection thereof (which he himself had nevertheless persevered in doing). The next paragraph is hardly to be decyphered at all, except that in the close of it, he attempts to justify his own uncommon method, by saying, 'he had separated the two parts of the bill, that the province might be served either way; [which the assembly had been altogether as provident of before.] Any absurdity in this method he professed himself unable to discover; and the good-natured construction put upon it by them, of his intending to secure an infallible exemption to the proprietary estate thereby, he said he should leave among the rest of the groundless charges against him.' Condescend he did, however, to offer one amendment more, which, according to him, was to reconcile all: namely, by the addition of the following words to the exemption clause proposed to be added to the first bill, to wit: 'The estates of the honorable Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, esquires, excepted; which shall be taxed in the manner directed by a particular law, passed or

to be passed for that purpose.' Not willing, however, to rest the controversy here, he proceeded to declare, 'that their extracts from the journals of parliament proved nothing to the purpose for which they were quoted; the constitution of England and the constitution of Pennsylvania being no way similar; that how many soever of his former amendments they had admitted, their leaving out the most material one, made the proposal of a separate bill a necessary expedient: so that they had no reason for bursting out into such a lofty strain of rhetoric concerning his amending his amendments, &c. That as to the number of money-bills he had rejected, they were but five in all, and all rejected for sufficient reasons, [such as we have seen!] and that, if they were disposed to relieve their country, they had many other ways, to which he should have no objection.' Proceeding then to the personal topic, and his being treated as a stranger, he takes a retrospect of their conduct, with an intent to shew, that they had treated Mr. Hamilton, though a native, with as many abuses as they had treated him; and here occurs a paragraph or two which must be inserted verbatim, viz.

'And here, was I inclined to go beyond my own times, I might begin with reminding you how contemptuously you treated the proprietary offer of four hundred pounds, for erecting a place of strength on the Ohio, together with an offer of one hundred pounds per annum towards its support; which offers were made at a time, when your concurrence would probably have prevented many of the calamities we now groan

under.

'I might also observe, that when Mr. Hamilton first called upon you, pursuant to his majesty's orders, to grant such supplies as would enable him to draw forth the strength of the province, and to repel force by force, you would not admit that the French encroachments and fortifications on the Ohio were within our limits, or his majesty's dominions; thereby seeking an excuse to avoid doing what was required of you.'

He had also the disingenuity to mention the late defeat of his majesty's forces, in express terms as having happened,