The next day the House sent up their reply, which was as follows;

"May it please the Governor,

"The House have repeatedly offered the governor bills for granting considerable sums to the King's use, to which he has refused his assent, being restrained by the proprietaries, as he says, from passing any bills in which their estate is to be taxed towards its defence. We know of no equitable way of raising such large sums as are now necessary, but by a general tax on all estates, real and personal. We have voted another sum of forty thousand pounds, to be raised in that manner, and are preparing a new bill to lay before the governor for that purpose. But, as we are, and must be still, of opinion, that the proprietary estates ought to be taxed in common with those of their fellow subjects in all the rest of the King's dominions, for their common defence, we cannot omit a clause of that kind in our bill, without injustice to the King's other subjects, ourselves, our constituents, and posterity; and we believe, that an equal number of men, of any sect, nation, name, or party, among us, will never be chosen to represent the province, who would be of a different sentiment in this particular.

"In the mean time, we earnestly request the governor would use his influence with the proprietaries' receiver-general, to induce him to pay the remaining sum of near three thousand pounds, yet behind, of their contribution of five thousand pounds, which by law was to have been immediately advanced, but is still withheld from the commissioners, to the injury of the poor soldiers, whose pay is in arrear for want of that money, the fifty-five thousand pounds we granted by the said bill for the King's use being expended.

"We are sensibly affected with the distressed state of our frontier inhabitants; though we apprehend they are in a much better situation than those of the neighbouring provinces, who are equally near the enemy; and we hope they may be rendered still more secure, by a vigorous exertion of the force now on foot for their protection and the annoyance of the enemy.

"The other matters recommended to us by the governor, we will take into consideration, and hope we may be able to do therein whatever ought to be expected of us."

VOL. III.

64

Q Q

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Governor Morris is superseded by Governor Denny.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

*

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