lawyer's remark on governing by such instructions, Misera est servitus, ubi jus est vagum aut incognitum ; that, therefore, it would be in vain for them to search for other ways, or frame other bills; and that here the matter must rest till his Majesty should be graciously pleased to relieve them; since, with the governor, they could no otherwise hope to end their unhappy divisions, than by submitting to one part or the other of the miserable alternative mentioned by him, either not to have a privilege worth disputing about, or be deprived of a country to dispute it in."

But though this answer was, in every particular, conformable to the sense of the House, and was afterwards printed in the Appendix to their proceedings, they declined making use of it; and that for the present reported by the committee was to the effect following; to wit, "That the bulk of the governor's long message consisted of groundless charges and calumnies, which, having been repeatedly refuted, might be safely left to themselves; that, though they had prepared a full answer to the rest, yet, as there were now some hopes of an agreement with him in the money bill, which was the principal business of the session, they submitted it to the House, whether it would not be more consistent with their prudence and moderation to suppress it; that there being, however, one or two new charges brought against the assemblies of that province, it might be proper to take some notice of them; that the first of these was, that they contemptuously treated the proprietary offer of four hundred pounds for erecting a place of strength on the Ohio, and of one hundred pounds per annum towards its support; that this contemptuous treatment was not specified, but might be explained by a passage out of the Brief State, [a proprietary pamphlet,] where it is said, 'The House refused

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this proposal a place in their minutes;' that the fact was, however, otherwise; that the said proposal appears in several pages there specified; and that nothing farther than what is there could properly be made a part of those records; and the reason thereof is then assigned in the following narrative, which, for various reasons, deserves to be made a part of this discourse.

"The late Governor Hamilton, after sending the message of the 13th of August, 1751, requested a private meeting with some of the members of that House, but without any authority from the assembly.

"At this meeting Governor Hamilton offered, on behalf of the proprietaries, four hundred pounds towards building such a house upon or near the Ohio, (but not a syllable of maintaining or supporting it.) The Indians were so far from pressing our engaging in it, that instructions were drawn by this government to require it of them, at a treaty held by G. Croghan, in May, 1751, and they evidently showed themselves apprehensive such an attempt might give umbrage to the French, and bring them down the Ohio, with an armed force, to take possession of those lands. And about two years afterwards, these very Ohio Indians, at the treaty held at Carlisle, in October, 1753, say to our government, I desire you would hear and take notice of what I am about to say; the governor of Virginia desired leave to build a strong house on Ohio, which came to the ears of the governor of Canada, and we suppose this caused him to invade our country.'Treaty, p. 8. The same sentiments appeared among the Six Nations, at the Albany treaty; That the English and French were only contending which of them should have their lands.' The reasoning made use of by the members at this private conference with the late governor was, that the land where they proposed to

build it was claimed by the crown, and was very probably beyond the limits of Pennsylvania; that at least it would be beyond the reach of our laws, as appeared by the people already settled on Juniata, just beyond the North Mountain; that this, instead of healing, might create irreconcilable breaches with our Indians, considering what sort of people would probably reside there; that the Indians had never heartily requested it, nor did it seem to be their interest so to do; and if they had requested it, as they were in subjection to the Six Nations, it would be necessary to have their assent; that this precipitate act would probably create a jealousy in the French, and give them some pretence of an infraction of the treaty of Utrecht on our part, and might finally engage the British nation in a war with France. These, and many other reasons, were urged at that private conference, as several of those members apprehended, to Governor Hamilton's satisfaction. And it appears by George Croghan's journal, that those Indians neither did, nor did they think they could, give leave to build a house on the Ohio, without the express consent of the Six Nations; and accordingly they took two months to acquaint the Onondago council with this transaction, and then to send us word, which they never complied with.

"It appears further, by the assembly's message to Governor Hamilton, on the 21st of August, 1751, taken from the informations of Conrad Weiser, and Andrew Montour, that the request, inserted in George Croghan's journal as made by the Indians at Ohio to this government, to erect a strong trading-house in their country, as well as the danger it is there said they apprehended from the attempts of the French, was misunderstood or misrepresented by the person the governor confided in for the management of that treaty.'

But it may be unnecessary to pursue this inquiry into an affair wherein George Croghan thought himself unkindly, if not unjustly, sacrificed to private ends, as is well known to such as were acquainted with this affair, and appears in the letters and other papers sent by himself to some of the members of that assembly."

Coming then to the other new charge, namely, that the assembly would not admit, that the French encroachments were within the King's dominions, they maintain that this charge is as ill-founded as the other; "For," say they, "though the House never took upon them to ascertain the bounds of the King's dominions, they never directly or indirectly denied those encroachments to be within them." They then proceeded to examine the extracts from the council minutes sent by the governor, in proof that money bills had been amended by former governors. They demonstrated in ten several instances, those extracts had not been fairly represented. And they concluded in these words; "Were all these to be deducted from the list, it would appear that there are but few instances in our journals of proper money bills amended by the governor, and the amendments agreed to by the House; this is no more than was acknowledged by the preceding assembly, in their message of the 29th of September, where they say, that in a very few instances their predecessors might have waved that right on particular occasions, but had never given it up."

Scarce had the House agreed with their committee in laying aside, for the present, the first of these answers, for the reasons assigned in the second, than certain inhabitants of Philadelphia, joined with others of the county of Chester, in all twenty-nine persons, thought themselves at liberty to assail the House in person with a petition, desiring, that the governor and

the House would unite in the fear of God, &c. And as the minute taken of this strange incident (which followed the Philadelphia remonstrance in much such a manner as the legion-letter followed the Kentish petition before referred to) will serve at once to show the ferment which then prevailed in the province, and yet how far the people in general were from desiring to be preserved against the incursions of the enemies, at the expense of their constitutional liberties; it is here inserted, to wit;

"The Speaker told them, that it was well known this House was composed of members chosen without any solicitation on their parts, to be the representatives of the people, and guardians of their liberties; that the whole powers the House were invested with, were derived from the people themselves; and that, as the House had hitherto, so they should still continue to discharge the high trust reposed in them, to the best of their understanding and abilities; and then asked them, whether they desired that the House should give up any rights, which, in the opinion of the House, the people were justly entitled to. Some of the petitioners, in behalf of the whole, answered, No; they were far from requiring any thing of that kind; all they wanted was, that some expedient might be fallen upon, if possible, to accommodate matters in such a manner, as that the province might be relieved from its present unhappy situation. To this the Speaker replied, that nothing could be more agreeable to this House than a harmony between the two branches of the legislature; and that, as the governor had yesterday evening sent down a message, intimating that the proprietaries are now disposed to contribute a sum of money towards the common security of the province, there was a great probability that all controversies on that head were at