swer.

CHAPTER XVII.

Governor Morris is superseded by Governor Denny. The new Governor complimented on his Arrival. His first Speech a Continuation of the old System. Parts of his Instructions communicated. A short Comment upon them. A Message to the Governor. The Governor's AnA Bill prepared for striking the Sum of sixty thousand Pounds for the King's Use, to be sunk by an Excise. A Conference on the said Bill. The Assembly's Answer to the Governor's Objections. The Governor's Message signifying that he would not give his Assent to it. Resolutions of the Assembly. A new Bill prepared and passed. A brief Apology for the Conduct of the Assembly on this Occasion. A Remonstrance voted. Conclusion; with a Testimonial of Commodore Spry, in Behalf of the Assembly.

THIS was the last parley between the assembly of Pennsylvania and Mr. Morris, who makes so notable a figure in their list of governors. Captain Denny, his successor, was at hand; and therefore he did not think it worth his while to compose a reply, which he might reasonably suppose nobody would think worth reading. Change of devils, according to the Scots proverb, is blithsome!

"Welcome ever smiles, And Farewell goes out sighing,"

says Shakspeare.

The whole province seemed to feel itself relieved by the alteration of one name for another. Hope, the universal cozener, persuaded them to believe, that the good qualities of the man would qualify the governor. He was received like a deliverer. The officious proprietary mayor and corporation, more than once already mentioned, made a feast for his entertainment; and, having invited the assembly to partake of it, they also were pleased to become forgetful enough to be of the party.

That the said assembly should congratulate him on his arrival and accession (though the term is a royal one) was, perhaps, no more than a decent and respectful compliment; and that they should augurate, from the excellence of his character, that his administration would be excellent, a fair and candid inference. But that they should find six hundred pounds at that time in their treasury to present him with, as an initiation fee, may be matter of surprise to all readers of their votes alike. Tired they might be of opposition; pleased to find some pretence for relenting; but how they should find money, where no money was, would be beyond conjecture. The order, therefore, on their treasurer for that sum could only be considered as a present mark of their good will, and an obligation on the House to provide, in some future money bill, for the discharge of that order.

Compliments over, government began. And, in the new governor's very first speech, the province was given to understand, "that the French encroachments on the Ohio, which his Majesty, in his declaration of war, had assigned as the principal cause of his entering into a just and necessary war, were within the limits of it, [which the province could never yet be convinced of;] and that therefore it was particularly incumbent on them to exert themselves in the support of such

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*Had the French Fort really been within the bounds of the grant to the proprietor, that would not have made the support of the war more particularly incumbent on the assembly of Pennsylvania, than on any other neighbouring government, equally affected and incommoded by its situation. For the country was as yet uninhabited; the property of the soil was in the proprietors, who, if it could be recovered from the French, would demand and receive exorbitant prices for it of the people. They might as justly be told, that the expense of his law-suit with the proprietary of Maryland, for recovering his right to lands on that frontier, was particularly incumbent on them to defray.

measures as had been, or should be, concerted for carrying on the same with vigor; the state of the frontiers too, the devastations, cruelties, and murders committed there, and the horror they excited in him, made as good a topic in his hands, as the back counties and the back inhabitants had done in his predecessor's; nay, those very back inhabitants are brought forward in the next paragraph; and, what is more, left naked and defenceless to a savage and merciless enemy, by an immediate disbanding of the provincial troops, which, as before, was represented as unavoidable, unless fresh supplies were quickly raised for their support."

In short, if Mr. Morris had made the speech himself, he could not have carried on the thread of government with more consistency; for, as to the douceur at parting contained in these words, "Let unanimity and despatch prevail in your councils, and be assured I will deny you nothing that I can grant, consistent with my duty to his Majesty, and the rights of the proprietaries," it amounted to no more than this, Do as my masters the proprietaries would have you, and I will say nothing to the contrary!

It is not to be conceived, that men of such long experience in the affairs of the province (so the members of assembly were characterized by their new governor) could be one moment at a loss for the meaning of his speech, or what was to be apprehended in consequence of it.

They had voted a supply of forty thousand pounds before Mr. Morris was superseded. They did not sit, as usual, in the afternoon of the day the speech was delivered; and, though in the next day's deliberation they dropped the former bill, and ordered in another with a blank for the sum, they adjourned the day following, without doing any business at all; nay, though quick

ened the next following with a message, accompanied with an extract of a letter from Lord Loudoun, as also several other letters and papers, (among the latter, one containing a letter from Colonel Armstrong, concerning some secret which was to be kept a secret still,) they demurred both that and three days more, before they came to any farther resolution; and then they agreed upon an address, by way of answer to his speech, in which, after a paragraph or two of compliment, they dryly gave him to understand, 1st, "that, from the very nature of their frontier, which was so extended that it in a manner covered the three lower counties, Maryland, and New Jersey, and consisted of dispersed settlements, the horrors he talked of could not be prevented; 2dly, that, as it was in a better state of defence than that of any of the neighbouring colonies equally near the enemy, they could not but hope the inhabitants would be equally safe; and 3dly, that, as great unanimity did prevail in their councils, they should, as far as lay in their power, consistent with their just rights, enable the governor to afford the people the continuance of that protection they so much stood in need. of," &c.

They also accompanied the said address with the following message; which was obviously of the nature of a postscript, calculated to contain the business purposely omitted in the letter it belonged to.

"May it please the Governor,

"As soon as we heard and considered the governor's speech, and before we received his message with the letter from Lord Loudoun, we resolved to give a sum of money for his Majesty's service; demonstrating, by that readiness, that we are not insensible of our duty to the best of kings, nor of the necessity of enabling the

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governor, at this critical conjuncture, to protect the people committed to his care.

"As former grants of this kind have been long delayed, or rendered ineffectual, by means of latent proprietary instructions, not communicated to us till we had spent much time in vain in forming our bills, we would now humbly request the governor to lay before us full copies of such of his instructions as relate to money bills of any kind, with the preambles or other parts that contain the reasons of such instructions; that we may, if possible, avoid all occasions of delay in affairs so important, and that our judgments may be informed of the equity or necessity of rules to which a conformity is required.

"From the governor's candor, and sincere desire to facilitate and expedite, by every means in his power, what is necessary to the public welfare, as well as from the reasonableness of the thing in itself, we have no doubt that he will favor us in granting this request."

The assembly was civil; the governor was artful. As he would not grant all that was asked, he resolved to be as forward as possible in performing as much as he designed. Thus, on the very day their request was made, he laid the instructions in question before them; being the eleventh, twelfth, and twenty-first articles of the proprietary instructions.

Of these, the first regards the interest money arising from the provincial bills of credit, and the money to be raised by excise; and, having by advance asserted a joint intention in the said proprietaries, and the House of Representatives, to have it applied for the public service, proceeds to ground upon that joint intention a title to an equal power over it; then forbids the governor to give his assent to any bill or act of assembly for emitting, reëmitting, or continuing any paper