more than the one half of the common tion; between them and the people. To these points, this paragraph only answers, that the people are able enough to pay these expences with. out the assistance of the proprietaries. This likewise seems to be starting a new question, and one that is beside the present purpose; for though it were true that the people are able to pay, it does not follow that they should therefore pay unjustly, nor is it likely that they will be pleased and satisfied with so doing, for such a reason. The proprie. taries are likewise able to pay, they have revenue enough, but they do not think this a sufficient reason even to pay a part; why then should it be thought sufficient to induce us to pay the whole? the charge contained in this paragraph, "that the application was only an attempt to induce the weakest of the people to imagine the house had an uncommon regard to their interests, and were therefore the most proper persons to be continued their representatives at the ensuing election;" your committee think an absolute mistake, and unsupported by the least degree of probability. For there had not been for some years, nor was there expected to be, nor has there since been, any contest at elections between the proprietary and popular interests; nor if there had, would it have been necessary to take such measures, the proprietaries having, of late years, no formidable share of the people's love and esteem. Nor was the supposed address in fact made to the people; for the representation has never yet been published; nor were the votes containing those resolutions published till after the election was over. Nor is the situation of an assembly-man here so advantageous, as to make it worth his while to use artifice for procuring a re-election; for when the smallness of the allowance, the expence of living, the time he is absent from his own affairs, and other inconveniences are considered, none will suppose he can be a gainer by serving the public in that station. 7. Wherefore, on this occasion, it is necessary that we should inform the people, through yourselves, their representatives, that as, by the constitution, 7. But whether assembly-men may or may not expect any gainful advantages from that station, we find our chief governors informing us in our consent is necessary to their laws, at the same time that they have an undoubted right to such as are necessary for the defence and real service of the country; so it will tend the better to facilitate the several matters which must be transacted with us, for their representatives to shew a regard to us and our interest: for, considering the rank which the crown has been pleased to give us in Pennsylvania, we shall expect from the people's representatives, on all occasions, a treatment suitable thereto; and that, whilst we desire to govern the province according to law only, they should be as careful to support our interests, as we shall always be to support theirs. pretty plain terms, in the seventh paragraph, that they themselves are not without such expectations from theirs; they tell us, "their consent is necessary to our laws, and that it will tend the better to facilitate the matters which must be transacted with them, for the representatives to shew a regard to their interest.” That is, as we understand it, though the proprietaries have a deputy here supported by the province, who is or ought to be fully impowered to pass all laws necessary for the service of the country, yet, before we can obtain such laws, we must facilitate their passage, by paying money for the proprietaries, which they ought to pay, or in some other shape make it their particular interest to pass them. We hope, however, that if this practice has ever been begun, it will never be continued in this province; and that, since, as this very paragraph allows, we have an undoubted right to such laws, we shall be always able to obtain them from the goodness of our sovereign, without going to market for them to a subject. Yet however easy it may be to understand that part of this paragraph which relates to the proprietaries interest, your committee are at a loss to conceive why, in the other part of it, the people are to be acquainted, "that the crown has been pleased to give the proprietaries a rank, and that they expect from the representatives a treatment suitable thereto.” We cannot find on perusing the representation in question, that it contains any treatment unsuitable to their rank. The resolve of the house was, that to prevent dissatisfaction on all sides, they should be requested, in the most reasonable and most respectful manner, to agree upon a proportion of Indian charges to be paid by them and the province according to justice; and it may be submitted to the judgment of all impartial persons, whether the representation drawn in pursuance of the resolve, was not both reasonable in itself, aud respectful in the manner. It was not, as the proprietaries represent it, an address to the public. It is not to this day made public. It was a private application to themselves, transmitted to them through the hands of their governor. Their true interest (which they will always find to consist in just, equitable, and generous measures, and in securing the affections of their people) was consulted in it; and one suitable means proposed to obtain that end. As to rank, the proprietaries may remember, that the crown has likewise been pleased to give the assemblies of this province a rank; a rank which they hold, not by heredita ry descent, but as they are the voluntary choice of a free people, unbribed, and even unsolicited. But they are sensible that true respect is not necessarily connected with rank, and that it is only from a course of action suitable to that rank they can hope to obtain it. 8 We are truly concerned, that you lay us under the necessity of acquainting the public with the state of the revenue of the province; you have in part, done it already, by acknowleging the amount of the excise to be three thousand pounds a year. The interest of the paper money, as we conceive, is more than that sum, which makes the common revenue of the province above six thousand pounds a year; the annual expence of government for a series of years (ineluding Indian charges) amounts to little more than half that sum; the interest is paid by people who, no doubt, find greater advantage in the use of the money than the interest they pay for it, otherwise they would not be so solicitous to be admitted to borrow as they always have been. That interest money therefore cannot, with any propriety be called a tax laid on the province, or a burden on the inhabitants. The excise itself is not a general tax, to which all the inhabitants must contribute, as it is paid by such only who buy wine and spirituous liquors, under certain quantities; so that many peo ple pay nothing of that tax. Of all this revenue, about four hundred pounds a year bas, on an average, for twenty years past, (and great part of that time during war) been expended in presents to the Indians, and charges on their accouut; which we cannot conceive to be a large sum, in proportion to the revenue of the province, for so great and important a service as that of keeping the united nations of Indians in the interest of Great Britain; we believe every disinterested person will 8. Your committee are quite surprized at the concern the proprietaries are pleased to express in their eighth paragraph, on their being, as they say, laid under a necessity of acquainting the public with the state of the revenue of the province; as if the state of that revenue had ever been a secret; when it is well known, and the proprietaries themselves know, that the public accounts are yearly settled, stated, printed, and published by the assembly, and have been so for these thirty years past. Whatever private reasons the proprietaries may have to make a secret of their revenue, we know of none to make one of the revenue of the province, nor has it ever been attempted. Their following observations, concerning the nature of our taxes, and the distinction between general and particular taxes, seem to your committee not so just and accurate as might be expected; for we cannot conceive, that the willingness of people to subject themselves to the payment of interest or excise, by taking money on loan, or consuming spirituous liquors, makes either the one or the other less a tax. The manner of laying a tax, the easy method of levying it, and the benefits arising from the disposition of it, may all tend to induce people to pay it willingly; yet it is still a tax. And indeed all taxes ought, upon the whole, to produce greater good to a people, than the money kept in their pockets could do; in such case, taxes are no burdens; but otherwise think the sum very small, and, from the manner of its being raised, not at all burdensome to the people; besides which, had not half that money been expended on these accounts, it is most certain all the same excise would have been paid. they are. Taxes, seemingly particu» lar, are also more general than they are often supposed to be: the laboring man must live: excise the materials of his subsistence, and he generally finds means to get more for his labour. After estimating our whole pre sent revenue, as if it had been the same for twenty years past, and would certainly continue, though the proprietaries know it depends on temporary acts near expiring, the renewal of which is at best dubious, they conclude that four hundred pounds a year for Indian expences is a small sum, and that we are under no necessity of being frugal, on this account, of the public money. This four hundred a year is the sum that they find has been paid on an average for twenty years past, and they take no notice of its being a growing charge, and that for the four last years before the representation, it amounted to near twelve hundred a year, which we conceive disinterested persons will think a very large sum; and although the same excise might have been raised, if not half that money had been expended, it does not seem to us to follow, that the proprietaries ought not to have paid their just proportion of it. If the sum be small, their proportion of it must have been smaller; and the money so saved might have been applied to some other use, beneficial to the public; or have remained ready in the treasury for any emergency. 9. The whole sum paid, in twenty years, for Indian services, is not more than, on a common computation, our family has paid, in the same time, for duties and excises here, for the support of his majesty's government; and which we choose to mention, in answer to that part of your representation, wherein you, unadvisedly, publish to the world, that our estate in America, is exempted from the burdens borne by our fellow-subjects in Great Britain; such matter might much more properly have been avoided; and at the same time that we shew you, that we do pay all other taxes here, that on land only excepted, we must advise you to be very careful, not to put people here in mind of that single exemption. Several proposals 9. On the ninth paragraph your committee will only observe, that the people of Pennsylvania do likewise pay duties and excise for the support of his majesty's government; and other taxes, which, considering their ability, are perhaps proportionably equal to those paid by the proprietary family, or any other subjects in England, We pay indeed as much as an infant colony can well bear, and we hope and believe the justice of a British parliament will never burden us with more. The proprietaries exemption was not published till now at their own instance. It was made use of as a private motive to themselves only, in the represen tation. have been made for laying taxes on North America, and it is most easy to fore see that the self-same act of parliament that shall lay them on our, will also lay them on your estates, and on those of your constituents. 10. On enquiry, we have reason to believe that the interpreter's bills of charge against the province, have always been allowed and paid; and where his accounts have contained blank articles for his services, he has been asked what would sa-tisfy him, and the same has been allowed. We suppose the instances alluded to, wherein the assembly did not fully satisfy him, must have been such as the proprietaries were concerned in by the purchase of lands, and a part might accordingly be left for them to pay. We believe our assemblies always have been, and we hope always will be, ready to acknowlege gratefully any services rendered to the public by the proprie. taries; and not merely to acknowlege them, but to make adequate returns. 10. We cannot allow that you have always paid your interpreter to his satisfaction, because we know we have charged ourselves with gratifications to him, when the assembly has refused to pay him what he thought his services deserved; and we make no doubt be can remember such instances; bowever, with respect to any expences of that sort, and many others bere, we entered into them without any expectation of being repaid, and should think it far beneath us to send the accounts of them to the house of representatives, as your agent, employed by yourselves, might do for the expences incurred by him. What we might reasonably expect, is, a thankful acceptance of our endeavours to serve the public; and if you do not think proper to make even that return, we shall, nevertheless, be fully satisfied with the consciousnesss of having rendered the province all the services in our power. 11. Whether the monopoly of lands, in favor of the proprietary, was established by the royal grant, or by acts of assembly, or by both, your committee do not think it material at this time to dispute, since the reasoning in the representation remains the same, viz. that those in whose favor such monopoly was erected, ought at least to bear a part of the expence necessary to secure them the full benefit of it. 11. We do not conceive that any act of assembly does, or can establish, what you call a monopoly in us for the purchase of lands; we derive no right or property from any such law. It is under the king's royal charter that we have the sole right to make such purchases; and it is under that same charter, that every settler has a right, through us, to the estate he possesses in the province. The act itself, which you seem to allude to, acknowledges this right to be so granted to us by the charter, and is only declaratory thereof to the people, advertising them of a certain truth, that they are liable according to the laws of Great Britain, to penalties for contravening such right. 12. Your assertion that treaties for land are made at a less expence to us, 12. In the twelfth paragraph, three things appear somewhat extraordi |