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quiesce in it. But the proprietary's affairs calling him to reside in England, and the quit-rents, then but few, being all wanted to support him there, a lieutenant-governor became necessary, and also a support for that lieutenant, as the proprietary, through the necessity of his affairs, was unable to support him. The public-house licences and other licences and fees were pitched upon for this second support, and by perpetual laws were given to the governor for the time being. But governors, a sort of officers not easily satisfied with salary, complaining that these were insufficient to maintain suitably the dignity of their station, occasional presents were added from time to time; and those at length came to be expected as of right, which, if conceded to, and established by the people, would have made a third support. Our situation at this time is, that the present proprieta- . ries claim, and enjoy the quit-rents (which were the first support) as part of their private estate, and draw them to England where they reside, remote from their government, supplying their place here by a lieutenant. The lieutenant takes and enjoys the licence money, and other perquisites, which were the second support, and though he has from thirty shillings to three pounds for writing his name only (the secretary being paid six shillings besides for the licence and seal) says, they are only moderate fees in consideration for business done. And now if we do not regularly give those additional presents, which were only the marks of our good will, and tokens of the satisfaction we had in a governor's administration; every thing else that a governor enjoys is forgot, and we are charged both at home and abroad with the heinous crime of presuming to withhold the support of government. Thus we see how soon custom may become a law, how thirsty a thing power is, and how hard to be satisfied. "Claims, as the governor says, will never be wanting," and if the people will give "whenever they are required" to give, they may soon be "stripped of every thing they have a right to enjoy."

The governor is pleased to acquaint us, that all the fees and perquisites of this government do not amount, communibus annis, to more than a thousand pounds, meaning, as we suppose, sterling money. This the governor enjoys fully and freely, and we never interfere in his disposition of it, any more than in the proprietaries disposition of the quit-rents. We think this a handsome support for a governor; and though he calls it only moderate fees for business done; yet if he can earn one thousand pounds sterling a year in such fees, the business must certainly be a good one.

On our saying that some proprietaries and governors of petty colonies assume more prerogatives and immunities than ever were claimed by their royal master, the governor grows warm in behalf of the proprietaries, and demands with all the air of a person conscious of being in the right, what instances can you give of that assuming behaviour in your proprietaries? we answer, the present instance; for the king does not claim an exemption from taxes for his private estate, as our proprietaries do. Have they ever claimed any right or prerogatives not granted them by the royal charter, or reserved by that of their father? yes, the right of be

ing exempt from taxes for their estate in Pennsylvania, when all their fellow-subjects (for the proprietaries are subjects, though the governor seems to disdain the term) both in England and America, not excepting even the lords and commons of parliament, are now obliged to undergo a tax for the recovery of part, and defence of the rest of that very estate. This right is not granted them by the royal charter, nor could it be reserved by their father's charter. Can you lay to their charge one instance of injustice or severity? This is an act of injustice and severity, to insist that the people shall not be allowed to raise money for their own defence, unless they will agree to defend the proprietary estates gratis. If this be complied with, and the war continues, what shall hinder them another year, when the fifty thousand pounds is expended, to require, that before we are allowed to raise another sum for the same purpose, we shall agree not only to defend their lands, but to plough them: for this their lieutenant may allege the แ usage and custom" in Germany, and put us in mind, that we are chiefly Germans. Who can assure us, that their appropriated lands, so long kept untenanted and idle, are not reserved in expectation of some such fortunate opportunity? can other instances, in answer to the governor's uestions be necessary? if he thinks it discreet to insist on more, they may soon be at his service.

We are then desired to turn our eyes on our own conduct, and charged in high terms with "taking upon ourselves great and mighty powers; dispensing with positive laws, and claiming a right of disposing of all public money, a right of keeping our proceedings a secret from the crown, with, as the governor is pleased to say, many others, unknown to an English constitution, and never heard of in the other plantations." A round charge, but not more easily made than answered. The governor allows, "that we have all the powers and privileges of an assembly, according to the rights of the free-born subjects of England, and as is usual in any of the king's plantations in America;" and we neither claim nor practice any but what is usual in some or other of them. We claim no right of dispensing with laws. The right of disposing of our own money, we think is a natural right, and we have enjoyed it ever since the settlement of the province, and constantly been in the exercise of it in every instance, except perhaps in a few, where, on extraordinary occasions, we have chosen to make special appropriation by a particular law. It is also possessed and practised by several. other assemblies. We have moreover the right of disposing of the present revenue by positive laws, which have received the royal assent. This natu ral and legal right, as we contend it is, was never denied us, or called in question, as we know of, but by our present proprietaries. Their ever hearty friend, the late governor's father, who had lived many years among us, and was skilled in our laws, in a solemn speech, recorded in our minutes, men. tions this as one of our civil rights, among the other happinesses of our constitution, with which he was thoroughly acquainted. Our inserting therefore in the bill a clause, that the governor should have a voice in the disposition of the money intended to be raised, was partly in consideration

that the proprietary was, by the bill, to contribute in proportion to his estate, and to avoid unseasonable disputes; but since we are daily more and more convinced that the governor is no friend to our country, and takes a pleasure in contriving all possible methods of expence, to exhaust our funds, and distress our affairs (of which the present exorbitant demand of five thousand pounds, besides what we have already paid, for cutting a road, an undertaking he engaged us in on a computation of its costing eight hundred pounds, and which if this be due must cost us about an hundred pounds per mile) it will become us to be more particularly careful how our public money shall be expended, when the greatest sums which can be raised upon this young colony must fall so far short of what may become absolutely necessary for our common security.

That we claim a right of keeping our proceedings a secret from the crown, another of the governor's groundless accusations, has been twice refuted, and is yet a third time courageously repeated; though all the province knows that our votes and proceedings are every year printed and published, and have been so for these thirty years past and more. Equally groundless are the [many others] which the governor forbears to particularize. Could he have thought of one that had the least apparent foundation, he would not have spared to mention it.

Plans and schemes of aggrandizing ourselves the governor has often charged us with, and now repeats the charge. He affects to consider us as a permanent body, or some particular order of people in the state, capable of planning and scheming for their own particular advantage, distinct from that of the province in general. How groundless this must be, is easily conceived, when it is considered, that we are picked out from among the people by their suffrages, to represent them for one year only; which ended, we return again among the people, and others may be, and often are chosen in our places. No one of us knows a day before the election that he shall be chosen, and we neither bribe nor solicit the voters, but every one votes as he pleases, and as privately as he pleases, the election being by written tickets folded up and put into a box. What interest can such a body have, separate from that of the public? What schemes can a set of men, continually changing, have, or what plans can they form to aggrandize themselves, or to what purpose should they have or form them? If the little power allowed us by the constitution was fixed in our particular families, and to descend to our heirs, as the proprietary power does in their family, we might then be suspected of these aggrandizing plans and schemes, with more appearance of probability. But if any of us had such schemes, the want of a single vote in any election might totally disconcert them, there being no tenure more precarious than that by popular esteem or favor.

The governor next considers what we have said relating to the act for raising county rates and levies, and is pleased to say, that 'he does not see why the proprietary estate in each county is not benefitted in common with other estates, and by the same means. That the proprietaries estate

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should be excused in a county rate, at least so far as that rate is levied for the payment of assemblymen's wages, appears to us equitable; for it would seem unreasonable to tax an estate to defray their expences, if the pos essor had no vote in choosing a representative in that house. But we conceive it is widely different in a provincial tax, where the common interest and se curity of all are concerned; and yet if the proprietaries should purchase estates which have usually been taxed by the county rate and levy act for that purpose, we presume those estates ought to continue to pay their assessments. It was the opinion of the solicitor general in king William's time, that the lords had no right to vote in the elections of a commoner, because they were not contributors to the expences of a knight of the shire or burgess; and they were not contributors to that expence, because they were of another house. But if they purchased lands which were, be. fore such purchase, chargeable with those expences, those lands should, notwithstanding that purchase, continue chargeable therewith by law; although before the act, the lands the lords were seised of, or purchased, were excused from that charge. But though such lands were excused from these rates, will any one from thence allege, that the lords are exempted from paying the national taxes? as for the rest of the expences provided for by that act, we thought, as the proprietary cultivated no lands in any of the counties, but let them lie for a market, he had probably no sheep that might suffer by wolves, poultry by foxes, or corn by crows and blackbirds, &c. and therefore might reasonably be excused from those taxes that were to raise money to destroy such vermin. But on farther consideration, we are willing to give up that point to the governor, and agree that their estates may on other considerations be équally benefitted; concluding withal, that they ought therefore equally to pay. For as to the conditions of consent, the governor mentions, they are merely imaginary, though the governor speaks of them with the same apparent assurance as if he had the contract between the then governor and assembly under hand and seal in his possession. The exempting proviso in that act, the governor says, is 'de. clarative of the rights of the proprietaries station, of which the people in general might be ignorant.' Be it so then, and let us see what are the words: Provided also, that the proprietary and governor's proper estate shall not be liable to be rated or assessed, by virtue of this act.' We submit. Their estate must not be taxed by virtue of that act, for the purposes intended by that act: 'tis the right of their station, it seems. But is this a reason why they should not be taxed by any other act, for any other purposes, or by another act for the same purposes, when it shall become reasonable and necessary?

There is in the same act, an exemption from the same tax, of all 'unsettled tracts or parcels of land,' belonging to any person whatsoever. Is this too, declarative of the right of such landholders station, and does it expressly declare, that those gentlemen are not liable to taxes?' if so, why did not the governor object to that part of our bill likewise, which proposes to tax all located lands, on this occasion, whether settled or un

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settled. Those plain words, the proprietary estate shall not be liable to be rated by virtue of this act, must be stretched on the rack before they can be extended, as the governor extends them, to a general declaration, that the proprietary estate is not liable to taxes.' But he is a dextrous disputer, and can at pleasure change the meanings of the plainest words, and make them signify more or less, as it suits his purpose. As, for another instance; we had asked this question, whether, supposing the proprietary estate to be taxed, it would be equitable that he should have a negative in the choice of the assessors, since that would give him half the choice, though he were to pay perhaps not a hundredth part of the tax? the governor eagerly lays hold of these very loose and uncertain words [‘though he were to pay perhaps not a hundredth part'] which are introduced merely for the argument sake, and construes them into a determination of what would be the proprietaries proportion, which he is pleased to agree to, by telling us, 'I think with you that the proprietary tax would not be more than a hundredth part of the whole,' when 'tis plain we had no thought at all of fixing any proportion to be paid by the proprietary estate, or any other estate, being destitute of the proper informations, and having by the bill left that matter to the commissioners and assessors, who were to have before them the constables returns, and to be sworn, or solemnly affirmed, to do equal justice, after informing themselves of the value of estates in the best manner they could, by all the means in their power. But had we mentioned thousandth or ten thousandth part, we make no doubt the governor would have been complaisant enough to think with us in that particular, though we should differ in every thing else.

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The governor cannot easily conceive,' he is pleased to say, that a negative upon a choice is half that choice, or indeed any part of it. We think a negative may be in effect more than half the choice, and even amount to the whole, if it be repeated till there is no choice left but that which the possessor of the negativing power chooses. The peers of Great Britain have no vote, nor can they intermeddle in the election of a commoner; and yet the commons claim it as a fundamental right to subject their estates to taxes by a bill, the whole of which the lords must either refuse or pass. And that august body, who contribute so largely to the public stock, acquiesce in it as a sufficient security for their estates. But our proprietaries are unhappily of different sentiments, and cannot think themselves safe, unless their whole estate here be entirely exempted, and the burden of defending it become an additional weight to the taxes on our mother country, and on the freemen of this and the neighbouring colonies.

The governor is grievously offended at an expression in our message, that we have in our bill allowed him a share in the disposition of the fifty thousand pounds; and thunders over us in a storm of angry questions, ‘Is it from you, gentlemen, that I derive the right of governing this province, or from your allowance that I have a voice in the legislature? are you the sovereign disposers of power? have you the right to give and take away at

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