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

currency, unless the whole of the interest money arising therefrom should be disposed of only to the very purposes to be specified in such act, or, where that could not be conveniently done, by the joint concurrence of governor and assembly for the time being. And the same prohibition is also extended to all excise laws, except the disposition of the money to be raised by them is also appropriated in the same manner.

The second, having admitted that a reasonable and moderate quantity of paper money tended greatly to the benefit of the province, as well as to the trade of Great Britain, and that the dangers of depreciation arose only from an over-great quantity, authorizes and empowers the governor discretionally, on proper inquiry made, and proper assurance obtained of the real utility of such a measure, to make an addition to the present currency of forty thousand pounds more; provided strict regard was had to all the limitations specified in the instruction foregoing; and also, that effectual care was taken, that all rents and quit-rents, due to the said proprietaries, should be always paid according to the rate of exchange at the times of payment between the cities of Philadelphia and London, by some sufficient provision in the very act itself, or some separate act, as was done in the 12th of the present King, when the farther sum of eleven thousand one hundred and ten pounds five shillings was issued.

And the third related to the proprietary estate; concerning which it asserted and maintained, 1st, That the said estate never had been taxed. 2dly, That, over and above such exemption, several acts were passed, giving to the said proprietary a support by duties and other impositions. 3dly, That, since the expiration of those laws, no aid had been given to the proprietaries, as such; notwithstanding which, they had,

on several occasions, shown their regard to the public service, by voluntarily and cheerfully expending several considerable sums of their own money for the advancement thereof, although no provincial tax had been laid upon the people within their time, till the last year; so that, not having any reason to suspect the assembly would deviate so much from the ancient usage, as to pretend, by any act of theirs, to charge their estate with the burden of any taxes, they had therefore given the preceding governor no particular instructions on that head. 4thly, That the assembly, taking occasion of the troubles of America, had represented them in a very untrue light, as unwilling to assist the public by contributing to the defence of the country, though no application had been made to either of them for that purpose. 5thly, That the bill they had prepared and sent up for raising fifty thousand pounds for the King's use, by a tax of twelve pence per pound, and twenty shillings per head, was a bill of a most unjust and extraordinary nature; inasmuch as the estates of the proprietaries were not excepted, but, on the contrary, the assessors were to acquaint themselves with, and procure, the amount of their estate in quit-rents, and in the same manner as other estates were assessed and taxed in the respective counties, by virtue of the said bill; as the said twelve pence were laid on the whole value or fee-simple of every estate, which, supposing the same computed at twenty-five years' purchase only, was a quarter part more than the whole gross rent, without allowing for any charges or repairs; as it was contrary to the royal charter, which required land-tax bills, as well as other bills, to be consonant to reason, the laws, statutes, and rights of the kingdom, &c., not repugnant to them; as so heavy a tax was not necessary to be laid for the raising such a sum, which might

have been raised many other ways; as calculated for the purpose of putting it in the power of persons wholly chosen by the people to tax their estates up to their full value, and to ease other persons, by taxing them so lightly, as only to make up what might afterwards be wanting to complete the said sum; as the taxing of unimproved lands, yielding no rent or profit to the owner, was highly unreasonable, and contrary both to the practice of Great Britain, and the laws and statutes thereof; as, according to the best inquiries they could make, neither the quit-rents reserved to the crown, or the proprietaries of any other colonies, had ever been taxed towards the raising any supplies granted in those colonies, quit-rents in general being indeed so small, that little or no land-tax would be payable out of them, even in Great Britain, where land-taxes are annual; and as the grantees and owners of such farms and plantations, out of which such very small acknowledgments were reserved to them, did, in case of a land-tax, pay for the value of such their said farms. 6thly, That, though their deputygovernor did refuse his assent to the bill, on the assembly's refusing to exempt their estates, they were so far from desiring not to contribute to the defence and support of his Majesty's rights and dominions, that, immediately on the first notice sent them of Braddock's defeat, they sent over an order to their receiver-general, to pay out of the arrears of their quit-rents the sum of five thousand pounds, as a free gift towards the defence of the province, desiring all disputes might cease, and that the governor and assembly would join together in measures to oppose the common enemy. 7thly, That the said sum of five thousand pounds, so by them given, was, according to their belief, twenty times more than the tax upon all their estates there, if 65

VOL. III.