"In February, 1747, John Fisher obtained a proprietary patent for the lands above mentioned. But by the accounts then exhibited to him, and which he paid, he was charged on Job's right one hundred and forty-one pounds, four shillings, and eight pence, which is sixty-seven pounds, eight shillings, and a penny more than the above account; and also was charged on Cooper's right, seventy pounds, eighteen shillings, and eleven pence, which is twenty-four pounds, three shillings, and three pence three farthings more than the above account of Cooper's. So that, by the two accounts, it is supposed he has paid ninety-one pounds, eleven shillings, and four pence three farthings more than could legally be received from him.

"The reasons of such great difference in the accounts are as follow, viz.

"1st. That interest has been charged on the consideration money for Job's land, for ten years and eighteen days, before the land was surveyed.

"2d. That quit-rent has also been charged for that time at 85 per cent.

"3d. That the principal and interest to the time of warrant and survey were added together, and that interest was charged for that total to the time the patent was granted.

"4th. That interest has been charged on the consideration money for Cooper's land, for five years ten months and eight days before the land was surveyed.

"5th. That quit-rent has also been charged for that time at 85 per cent.

"6th. That the principal and interest to the time of warrant and survey were added, and interest charged for that total to the time the patent was granted, which is compound interest."

To these remarks of the accountant we shall only add, that the price of exchange between Philadelphia and London is not fixed, but rises and falls according to the demand for bills; that eightyfive per cent, charged for the exchange in this account, is the highest exchange that perhaps was ever given in Pennsylvania, occasioned by some particular scarcity of bills at a particular time; that the proprietor himself in his estimate reckons the exchange but at sixty-five, which is indeed near the medium, and this charge is twenty per cent above it. That the valuing the currency of the country according to the casual rate of exchange with London is in itself a false valuation, the currency not being really depreciated in proportion to an occasional rise of exchange, since every necessary of

life is to be purchased in the country, and every article of expense 'defrayed by that currency (English goods only excepted), at as low rates after as before such rise of exchange; that, therefore, the proprietor's obliging those who purchase of him to pay their rents according to the rate of exchange is unjust, the rate of exchange including withal the risk and freight on remitting money to England; and is, besides, a dangerous practice, as the great sums to be yearly remitted to him put it in the power of his own agents to play tricks with the exchange at pleasure, raise it at the time of year when they are to receive the rents, by buying a few bills at a high price, and afterwards lower it by refraining to buy till they are sold more reasonably.

By this account of the receiver-general's, it appears we have omitted two other articles in the estimation of the proprietary estate, viz.

For the quit-rents of lands many years before they are

For the interest of the purchase money many years be

fore the purchases are made! .

On what pretence these articles of charge are founded, how far they may be extended, and what they may amount to, is beyond our knowledge; we are, therefore, obliged to leave them blank till we can obtain more particular information.

No. III.

REFUTATION OF ANONYMOUS ABUSES PUBLISHED AGAINST THE INHABITANTS OF PENNSYLVANIA.

ALTHOUGH We have not in this work taken particular notice of the numerous falsehoods and calumnies which were continually thrown out against the assembly and people of Pennsylvania, to keep alive the prejudices raised by the arts of the proprietary and his agents; yet, as we think it will not be deemed improper to give the reader some specimen of them, we shall on that account, and as it affords additional light concerning the conduct and state of that province, subjoin a paper printed and published here in September, 1757, by a gentleman, who had the best opportunities of being

Any other proof,

acquainted with the truth of the facts he relates. indeed, of their authenticity can scarce be thought requisite, when it is known, that since that time no one has ever offered to publish the least thing in contradiction; although before, scarce a week elapsed without the newspapers furnishing us with some anonymous abuse of that colony.

"To the PRINTER of The Citizen, or General Advertiser.

“SIR,

"In your paper of the ninth instant, I observe the following paragraph, namely; The last letters from Philadelphia bring accounts of the scalping the inhabitants of the back provinces by the Indians; at the same time the disputes between the governor and the assembly are carried on to as great a height as ever, and the messages sent from the assembly to the governor, and from the governor to the assembly, are expressed in terms which give very little hopes of a reconciliation. The bill to raise money is clogged, so as to prevent the governor from giving his consent to it; and the obstinacy of the Quakers in the assembly is such, that they will in no shape alter it; so that, while the enemy is in the heart of the country, cavils prevent any thing being done for its relief. Mr. Denny is the third governor with whom the assembly has had these disputes within a few years.'

"As this paragraph, like many others heretofore published in the papers, is not founded in truth, but calculated to prejudice the public against the Quakers and people of Pennsylvania, you are desired to do that injured province some justice in publishing the following remarks; which would have been sent you sooner had the paper come sooner to my hands.

"1. That the scalping of the frontier inhabitants by the Indians is not peculiar to Pennsylvania, but common to all the colonies in proportion as their frontiers are more or less extended and exposed to the enemy. That the colony of Virginia, in which there are very few, if any, Quakers, and none in the assembly, has lost more inhabitants and territory by the war than Pennsylvania. That even the colony of New York, with all its own forces, and a great body of New England troops, encamped on its frontier, and the regular army under Lord Loudoun posted in different places, has not been able to secure its inhabitants from scalping by the Indians; who, coming secretly in very small parties, skulking in the woods, must sometimes have it in their power to surprise and destroy travellers.

or single families settled in scattered plantations, notwithstanding all the care that can possibly be taken by any government for their protection. Sentinels posted round an army, while standing on their guard, with arms in their hands, are often killed and scalped by Indians. How much easier must it be for such an enemy to destroy a ploughman at work in his field!

"2. That the inhabitants of the frontiers of Pennsylvania are not Quakers, were in the beginning of the war supplied with arms and ammunition by the assembly, and have frequently defended themselves and repelled the enemy, being withheld by no principle from fighting; and the losses they have suffered were owing entirely to their situation, and the loose, scattered manner in which they had settled their plantations and families in the woods, remote from each other, in confidence of lasting peace.

"3. That the disputes between the late and present governors and the assembly of Pennsylvania were occasioned and are continued chiefly by New Instructions from the proprietors to those governors, forbidding them to pass any laws to raise money for the defence of the country, unless the proprietary estate, or much the greatest part of it was exempted from the tax to be raised by virtue of such laws, and other clauses inserted in them, by which the privileges long enjoyed by the people, and which they think they have a right to, not only as Pennsylvanians, but as Englishmen, were to be extorted from them, under their present distresses. Quakers, who, though the first settlers, are now but a small part of the people of Pennsylvania, were concerned in these disputes only as inhabitants of the province, and not as Quakers; and all the other inhabitants join in opposing those instructions, and contending for their rights, the proprietary officers and dependents only excepted, with a few of such as they can influence.

The

"4. That, though some Quakers have scruples against bearing arms, they have, when most numerous in the assembly, granted large sums for the King's use (as they express it), which have been applied to the defence of the province; for instance, in 1755 and 1756, they granted the sum of fifty-five thousand pounds to be raised by a tax on estates real and personal, and thirty thousand pounds to be raised by excise on spirituous liquors; besides near ten thousand pounds in flour, &c. to General Braddock, and for cutting his roads, and ten thousand pounds to General Shirley in provisions for the New England and New York forces, then on the frontiers of New York; at the same time that the contingent expenses of government, to be otherwise provided for, were greatly

and necessarily enhanced. That, however, to remove all pretence for reflection on their sect, as obstructing military measures in time of war, a number of them voluntarily quitted their seats in assembly in 1756; others requested their friends not to choose them in the ensuing election, nor did any of that profession stand as candidates or request a vote for themselves at that election, many Quakers refusing even to vote at all, and others voting for such men as would and did make a considerable majority in the House, who were not Quakers; and yet four of the Quakers, who were nevertheless chosen, refused to serve, and writs were issued for new elections, when four others, not Quakers, were chosen in their places; so that of thirty-six members, the number of which the House consists, there are not at the most above twelve of that denomination, and those such as are well known to be for supporting the government in defence of the country, but are too few, if they were against such a measure, to prevent it.

"5. That the bill to raise money, said, in the above article of news, to be so clogged as to prevent the governor from giving his assent,' was drawn in the same form, and with the same freedom from all clogs, as that for granting sixty thousand pounds, which had been passed by the governor in 1755, and received the royal approbation; that the real clogs or obstructions to its passing were not in the bill, but in the abovementioned proprietary instructions; that the governor having long refused his assent to the bill, did, in excuse of his conduct, on Lord Loudoun's arrival at Philadelphia, in March last, lay his reasons before his Lordship, who was pleased to communicate them to one of the members of the House, and patiently to hear what that member had to say in answer, the governor himself being present; and that his Lordship did finally declare himself fully satisfied with the answers made to those reasons, and give it as his opinion to the governor, that he ought immediately to pass the bill, any instructions he might have to the contrary from the proprietors notwithstanding; which the governor accordingly complied with, passed the bill on the 22d of March, and the money, being one hundred thousand pounds for the service of the current year, has been ever since actually expending in the defence of the province. So that the whole story of the bill's not passing, the clogging of the bill by the assembly, and the obstinacy of the Quakers preventing its passage, is absolutely a malicious and notorious

falsehood.

"6. The assertion of the news-writer, that, while the enemy is in the heart of the country, cavils prevent any thing being done