proprietary, not royal instructions, were indeed the only obstacles to the public service.

But we anticipate. The assembly did not stop here; but unanimously came to such resolutions, and grafted such an address upon them, as, notwithstanding some few inaccuracies, must ever do as much honor to their understandings, as justice to their cause, and the noble principles it was founded upon.

With a reference to the conduct of their predecessors in former assemblies, and the success of their honest endeavours for continuing to them the invaluable blessings they enjoyed under their charters, derived from the royal clemency and goodness, and the justice and benevolence of their founder, they set out; and declared themselves sufficiently animated by their examples to pursue faithfully the same path, which they had trod before them.

Having then glanced at the governor's evasion of his promise concerning his proprietary instructions, and the papers which had passed between the proprietaries and the assembly, as the ground of their proceedings, they inserted the unanimous resolutions they had come to, which were as follow, viz.

"That it is the opinion of this House, that the late governor, who was, we presume, as much bound by the additional instruction to Colonel Thomas, in 1740, as our present governor is or can be, has clearly admitted in his reasonings with our last assembly, that it was an absurdity too glaring to suppose, that any government would voluntarily tie up the hands of its subjects from serving it by such means as they are able, in cases of great emergency;' and that Colonel Thomas, in passing the act for granting five thousand pounds for the King's use, in the year 1746, by extending the excise act for ten years, was so far from

acting contrary to the instruction he had received from the Lords Justices in 1740, that the very contrary was evident;' and, that the said instruction was not binding upon him from passing a bill in cases of great emergency, of the same tenor with our bill for granting twenty thousand pounds for the King's use, which our governor has now been pleased to refuse his assent

to.

"That it is the opinion of this House, that the governor is undoubtedly bound by proprietary instructions, and that they may be, and we believe they really are, or some of them are, such as, independent of the royal instruction, limit or restrain him from passing acts, which, by the royal and provincial charters we have an undoubted right to offer, and which he has, or ought to have, full powers to give his assent to, as governor of this province.

"That it is the opinion of this House, that these proprietary instructions, or some one or more of them, is, or are, the principal, if not the sole, obstruction to the passing our bill for granting twenty thousand pounds for the King's use, in this time of imminent danger to the British interest in North America." Adding, "May it please the governor, these resolutions, which are forced from us, we have entered into with the utmost reluctancy; and, in support of them, or any other part of our present conduct, we conceive it our indispensable duty to conduct ourselves precisely within the bounds of sincerity and sober reason, and to avoid every thing that is not in our opinion necessary to our own just vindication."

Yet more to manifest their ingenuity, they declared, in the next place, their readiness to retract the whole or any part of these resolves, on being convinced by a sight of the governor's proprietary instructions, which

it was still in his power to communicate, that they had entertained a wrong opinion of them; but then, till that should be the case, they presumed the governor himself could not but allow, that they had good reason to say, they were under a necessity of making their humble application to the crown in support of their civil and religious liberties; and to think, as it was most natural they should, that, if this could have been done, it would have been done; as also, that the governor, at their request, would have concurred with them in an address to the proprietaries in support of their charter, as it regarded the royal instructions only; and that, on the contrary, as circumstances were, their apprehensions of the proprietary instructions, and the operation of them in defeating the bill by which they proposed to demonstrate their readiness and cheerfulness in answering all the reasonable expectations of the crown, could not but be well grounded; so that it was with extreme concern they found their governor, who was, or ought to be, set over them for their protection, endeavouring to represent them in a light they detested and abhorred.

"The governor is but in the beginning of his administration," said they; "and if, when he received the proprietaries' commission, he was, 'in a great measure, a stranger to our constitution,' we apprehend he still continues a stranger, not only to our constitution, but to the inhabitants, if he does not certainly know, that the King has not a more loyal people among all his subjects, than the inhabitants are, and have ever been, since the first settlement of this province; nevertheless they are convinced they ought not to be governed by proprietary instructions in opposition to their charter, which is, in our opinion, the foundation and sanction of our civil and religious liberties; and especially if

these instructions must be secreted from them, and by that means the whole country left without any known rule of their conduct. And it surprises us extremely, that a request of this House, respectfully addressed to the governor, that he would be pleased to lay before us those instructions, or such part of them as might relate to the immediate service of the crown, and to the preservation of this his Majesty's colony, in order that we might examine how far they interfered with that allegiance the proprietaries themselves, and all of us, owe to the crown, or with the privileges granted by our charters, should be represented by our governor as an act, that might have a tendency to alienate the affections of the people of this province from his Majesty's person and government, and thereby greatly obstruct the measures he is taking at a vast expense, for the preservation and protection of his subjects upon this continent.' That thus contending for the rights granted us by the royal charter, which is the known rule of our conduct, should have a tendency of that kind, under a King who has been graciously pleased to declare, 'that nothing in this world can give him so much pleasure as to see his subjects a flourishing and happy people,' is so foreign from our thoughts, and we trust will be so foreign to every impartial construction, that we may safely leave it without any further remarks of our own. But, if it should have a tendency to alienate the affections of the people from being bound by private proprietary instructions, the blame is not with us, who have never been consulted upon them; and, if we had been consulted, should have thought ourselves obliged to declare, that we have a great dislike to proprietary instructions, and that, so far as they are against the prerogatives of the crown, or an infringement of our charter, they are illegal and void in themselves."

They then cite Sir William Keith's declarations concerning proprietary instructions before inserted; and at the same time intimate, that he was the first governor who gave bond for the performance of them. In answer to that part of the proprietary instructions which the governor had so cheerfully laid before them concerning a militia, &c., they begged leave to say,

that, as it requires money to be levied upon the people for providing arms and stores of war, and building magazines, we are of opinion it may be time enough to deliberate upon it, when we are informed how far he is at liberty by his instructions to pass our bills; and whether himself, or the representatives of the people, are the proper judges of the manner of raising such moneys. And, when these our civil and religious rights are secured, we cannot doubt all will rise up as one man in behalf of our King, our country, and our charters, according to our several stations and abilities."

Coming then to the governor's state of their revenue, they show he was as much a stranger to that as to the people and the constitution; and that, instead of having fourteen or fifteen thousand pounds in Bank, they could not have above seven thousand pounds; as also that, what with the very large sums they had paid for the support of government, and for Indian and other expenses, their treasury and loan-office were almost quite exhausted. After which they proceed as follows; "But, admitting the governor's computation in all its extent, if twenty thousand pounds, as he is pleased to inform us, will go but a very little way to raise and maintain such troops as he may think necessary, and without which we had better, in his opinion, do nothing at all, how can the inconsiderable sum we have any power over, answer his demands, though we should ruin the persons now outstanding in our loan