he had nothing to communicate. This concert upon one side, produced concert on the other. The governor replied, as had been foreseen, "that, if he had had any business to lay before the House, he should have done it before that time." And being then made acquainted with the proposed time of adjournment, which was till the 1st of December, he said, It was very well.

The House, therefore, having first resolved to continue the supplies granted by the former assembly to the Indians on their frontier, adjourned accordingly, having sat but four days.

CHAPTER XII.

The Assembly being reconvoked, the Governor informs them, that a Party of French and Indians had passed the Mountains, and demands a Supply. Petitions from various Quarters presented to the Assembly. Depredations of the Indians. Sixty Thousand Pounds granted, to be struck in Bills of Credit, which the Governor refuses. A new Message, reporting, that the Susquehanna Indians had offered their Service to the Province. Two Messages from the Assembly to the Governor; the first concerning Peace with the Indians, and a Money Ball; the other concerning the Susquehanna Indians Bill for regulating the Indian Trade.

FIFTEEN days of this adjournment were also suffered to elapse, as if all danger and apprehension were at an end. But then the governor, being armed at all points, summoned them to meet him, with all the circumstances of alarm and terror his imagination could furnish.

Intelligence (probably the same intelligence contained in the two letters communicated by his secretary to the Speaker) that a party of French and Indians, to the number of fifteen hundred, as he was informed, had passed the Allegheny Hills, and having penetrated as far as the Kittochtiny Hills, within about eighty miles of Philadelphia, were encamped on the Susquehanna, was the business he had to impart to them; and, from his manner of imparting it, he seemed more delighted than shocked with the recital. "This invasion," said he, "was what we had the greatest reason to believe would be the consequence of General Braddock's defeat, and the retreat of the regular troops. [Why did they retreat then from the actual seat of war? Was the wild country on the Ohio better worth defending than Pennsylvania? Was any projected acquisition of more importance to the public than the

preservation of such a country? Did not this very governor talk of the plenty of the province and its defenceless state, from time to time, almost in the style of invitation, as if he meant to bespeak the very event he was now expatiating upon? And is not he more to be upbraided for suffering those troops to be recalled, if he did no more, without making the strongest remonstrances against it, than the assembly who besought their protection. And if it should appear from his whole conduct, that he desired nothing more ardently than that such an event should happen; and that his principal endeavour was, to improve it when it did happen to proprietary purposes, at the expense of the fortunes, liberties, and lives of the inhabitants, with what abhorrence must we reflect on the pains taken in this speech, to aggravate the calamitous state of the province, and to place it to the account of those, who had in a most signal manner deserved the thanks, not only of the Pennsylvanians, but also of all the friends and lovers of liberty and virtue distributed through the British empire?]

"Had my hands been sufficiently strengthened," (so he proceeded) "I should have put this province into such a posture of defence, as might have prevented the mischiefs that have since happened." A dose of venom apparently prepared and administered to poison the province; if the governor might have been their saviour, and was not, for want of proper powers, the assembly, accused as having withheld them, were to be considered as public enemies. To be treated as such could not but follow. The populace are never so ripe for mischief as in times of most danger. A provincial dictator he wanted to be constituted; he thought this would be the surest way of carrying his point; and, if the Pennsylvanians had taken so frantic

a turn, they would not have been the first, who like the flock in the fable, had, in a fit of despair, taken a wolf for their shepherd.

But to return. "That the Delaware and Shawanese Indians had been gained over by the French, under the ensnaring pretence of restoring them to their country," constituted his next inflammatory. And then, in order to magnify his own merits, he farther suggested, "that he had sent the same intelligence, both to the King's ministers, together with a representation of the defenceless state of the province, and to the neighbouring governments, that the latter might be at once prepared to defend themselves and succour them; that, the back inhabitants having upon this occasion behaved themselves with uncommon spirit and activity, he had given commissions to such as were willing to take them, and encouragement to all to defend themselves, till the government was enabled to protect them; but that they had complained much of want of order and discipline, as well as of arms and ammunition; and he was without power, money, or means to form them into such regular bodies, as the exigency required, &c. That the designs of the enemy could only be conjectured from their motions and numbers; and that from those and the known circumstances of the province, it was reasonable to apprehend, they had something more in view, than barely cutting off and destroying some of the frontier settlements." And for a conclusion he summed up his lords the proprietaries' will and pleasure, as follows;

"His Majesty and the proprietaries having committed the people of this province to my charge and care, I have done, and still shall very readily do, every thing in my power to fulfil that important trust; and to that end, I think it my duty to call upon you to grant

such supplies of money as his Majesty's service, at this important and dangerous crisis, may require, and to prepare a bill for establishing a regular militia, exempting such as are conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms, it being impossible, without such a law, though large sums of money should be raised, to prevent confusion and disorder, or conduct matters with any degree of regularity.

"As the enemy are now laying waste the country, and slaughtering the inhabitants, there is no time to be lost. I therefore think it necessary upon this occasion to inform you, that I am ready and willing to consent to a law for emitting any sum in paper money the present service may require, if funds are established for sinking the same in five years; but I cannot think it consistent either with the powers of my commission, or the duty I owe the crown, to pass any bills of the same or a like tenor of those I have heretofore refused. And I hope you will not waste your time in offering me any such bills, as you must know, from what has passed between me and the late assembly, and the information I now give you, it is not in my power to consent to; and I earnestly recommend it to you, to afford in time that assistance which your bleeding country stands so much in need. of."

So that in case they would not wave their privileges in the manner prescribed, and protect the proprietary estate gratis, their country might bleed to death if it would; for they were not to be permitted to make use of their own money their own way, to save it.

One act of Parliament* there is, and one only, which not only admits, that governors and deputy

* 11 and 12 of William III. Cap. 12.