vernor, for governor Phipp's letter and the other informations referred to upon this occasion; which they did by express message; and that having been told by him in answer to that call, that he had orders from the secretary of state not to lay before the house any papers but such as he pleased, they should apply to him for a sight of such orders.

They did so, and were again refused; he signifying that such orders being intended for his own government, he thought it improper to communicate them; and in the name of the secretary of state, vouching, as he himself had done before, that messages from him were a sufficient foundation for them to proceed upon; but withal recurring to what he had also of fered in his former message, namely, to communicate to their speaker, or a few of the house, such parts of the information he had received from the eastward as his majesty's service required.

his reply said such a sum might have been mentioned as what it would cost in some men's private opinion; but not upon an estimate of the commissioners, nor what had been as such sent to him. Adding, “that though they had numbered the making the road among their meritorious acts, they had in effect done it out of fear of having proper representations made of their conduct at home, and of an armed force being used to oblige the inhabitants to do this necessary work; that he had persuaded the general to compound for one road instead of two, to contract even that to two thirds of the breadth, and not to carry it so far by many miles as directed by the quarter-master-general; by which great savings were made to the province, and thanks instead of complaints were due to him, and rewards to the coinmissioners who had served the province in so hazardous a task so well; that he had never made such a demand as five thousand pounds, nor could it have been made by any one, because the accounts were not come in; and that now they were come in, the charge did not amount to three thousand pounds, which was not extravagant, considering the distance and ex

But this not proving satisfactory to the house, all proceedings on this head were for some days at a stand; and the interval was filled with a continuation of the animated controversy, which in the preceding session had so highly exasperated the two branches of the legislature against each other, and which ne-pedition' required in the work." ver had been either revived, or caused, if the governor and his employers had not preferred their own private views, to all the moral and equitable obligations of government.

When the assembly had sat nine days, and now remained in a sort of suspense, not choosing to inflame on one hand, and willing to hope the governor would find reasons to abate of his unreasonable stiffness on the other; came down a long message by way of answer to the assembly's paper of August 19; and, sufficiently exasperated thereby, that body, now at the point of dissolution, resolved to acquit themselves with as much spirit as if they had been immortal.

To the appendix the reader must be again referred for both pieces; they cannot, they ought not to be suppressed; they are too long to be here inserted entire, and to abridge them, at least that of the assembly, would be to maim one of the most lively pieces that liberty ever inspired or controversy produced. See Appendix A.

The assembly in their answer could not be so full in their own justification, and, consequently, in refuting the governor, as they might have been, because the necessary documents happened at that time to be mislaid. But when those documents were recovered, they did themselves ample justice, by reprinting the most material in an appendix to their minutes.

And among them was a letter from the said commissioners to the governor, which was communicated, together with one of the governor's own, (to the committee of assembly, at that extraordinary crisis, appointed to act on behalf of the whole, and other members then called in to their assistance) by his secretary; in which was the following express clause: "the expense of making the road thirty feet wide, and the principal pinches twenty, will make an expense of about eight hundred pounds." This letter was dated April 16th; and the committee having, in the name of the house, undertaken to defray the expense of both roads, the work went on accordingly. In another letter from the same commissioners, dated May 3d, it is said, “both roads will leave little of one thousand five The assembly had (very truly) charged the hundred pounds, for it is impossible to tell governor with contriving all possible methods what unexpected occurrences will arise," &c. of expense to exhaust their funds and distress the house, now sitting, resolved to persevere their affairs; and had given in proof the ex-notwithstanding, and notwithstanding the loss orbitant demand made upon them for cutting of their bill, which made their compliance the road for the use of the army; an enterprise which they tell him they had undertaken at his instance, on a computation of its costing only eight hundred pounds. The governor in

Such a reference then to the subject matter of both as will just serve to keep us a sort of historical connexion, is all the use to be made of them in this place.

more difficult. Another estimate, dated fifteen days after this, signified, "that the expense of opening both roads would be little under two thousand pounds." Thus three estimates

hundred and fifty, engaged, equipt, and sent | present is now all arrived, and shall be forward in a few days after the demand, and all at Wills's creek many days before the army was ready to march? with what face then of probability can the governor undertake to say, "That had we in time opened the proper roads, raised men, and provided carriages, and necessary provisions for the troops, we might now have been in peaceable possession of fort Du Quesne?"

equally divided to-morrow between sir Peter Halket's subalterns and mine, which I apprehend will be agreeable to the committee's intent. This I have made known to the officers of both regiments, who unamimously desire me to return their generous benefactors their most hearty thanks, to which be pleased to add mine,' &c. And sir Peter Halket, in his of the twenty-third of May, says, The officers of my regiment are most sensible of the favours conferred on the subalterns by your assembly, who have made them so well-timed, and so handsome a present. At their request and desire I return their thanks, and to the acknowledgments of the officers, beg leave to add mine, which you, I hope, will do me the favour for the whole to offer to the assembly, and to assure them, that we shall on every occasion do them the justice due for so seasonable and well-judged an act of generosity.' There are more of the same kind, but these may suffice to show that we had

el, and repeated charge, that we had refused the proper, necessary, and timely assistance to an army sent to protect the colonies,' we alleged, that we had supplied that army plentifully with all they asked of us, and more than all, and had letters from the late general, and other principal officers, acknowledging our care, and thanking us cordially for our services.' If the general ever wrote differently of us to the king's ministers, it must have been while he was under the first impressions given him by the governor to our disadvantage, and before he knew us; and we think with the governor, that if he had lived, he was too honest a man, not to have retracted those mistaken accounts of us, and done us ample justice."

"The governor is pleased to doubt our having such letters as we mentioned; we are therefore, in our own vindication, under a necessity of quoting to him some parts of them; and will show him the originals whenever he shall please to require it. The general's secretary, in his letter of the 10th of May to one of our members (who, in pursuance of a resolve of the house for the service of the army, waited on the general at Frederic, and there occasionally undertook the furnishing of wagons, which he performed with the assistance of some other members of the committee, and for that, and other services to the troops, resome hand in what was done,' and ceived the thanks of the house at his return) that we did not, as the governor supposes, desays, You have done us great service in the viate from the truth, when, in our just and neexecution of the business you have kindly un-cessary vindication against his groundless, crudertaken; and indeed without it, I don't see how the service could have been carried on, as the expectations from Maryland have come to nothing.' And again, in his letter of May the fourteenth, The general orders me to acquaint you that he is greatly obliged to you, for the great care and readiness with which you have executed the business you undertook for him.. At your request he will with pleasure discharge the servants that may have enlisted in the forces under his command, or any others for whom you may desire a discharge; and desires that you would, for that purpose, send him their names.' And again, in his letter of May the twentieth, I have only time to thank you once more, in the name of the general and every body concerned, for the service you have done, which has been conducted throughout with the greatest prudence and most generous spirit for the public service. The general's own letter, dated the twenty-ninth of May, mentions and acknowledges the provisions given by the Pennsylvania assembly [though the governor will allow us to have had no hand' in it,] and says, Your regard for his majesty's service, and assistance to the present expedition, deserve my sincerest thanks,' &c. Colonel Dunbar writes, in his letter of May the thirteenth, concerning the present of refreshments, and carriage horses sent up for the subalterns, I am desired by all the gentlemen, whom the committee have been so good as to think of in so genteel a manner, to return them their hearty thanks.' And again, on the twenty-first of May, Your kind

What is still more unlucky for the governor, his secretary writing to the said commissioners with all the authority he could depute to him, April 25, 1755, makes use of these very words, "What sir John St. Clair says is so far true, that had the army been ready now, and retarded by delays in matters undertaken by this province, all the mischiefs thence arising would have been justly chargeable on this province; but I am much mistaken, if they can within a month from this date, get their artillery so far as your road."

In the same letter he also says, "Surely the flour will be delivered in time; or great blame may be laid with truth, at the door of the commissioners." Not the province; and, indeed, the flour was actually delivered so soon and so fast, that the general had not even provided storehouses and shelters sufficient to

secure it against the weather, to which great | ment of the service; not only without the quantities of it lay exposed in Maryland after concurrence of the governor, but in spite of the delivery of it there.

What spirit this gentleman (the governor) was possessed with, had been a question. The assembly would not allow him to have the spirit of government; he himself maintained, that if he had had enough of the spirit of submission, (terms generally held irreconcileable) his government would have been more agreeable to the province. But now it can be a question no longer.

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his endeavours to render them odious by all the means of prevention his wit, his malice, or his power could help him to. In what manner, the following unanimous resolutions will specify.

"That when application is made to this house by the governor, for something to be done at the request of another government, the letters and papers that are to be the foundation of our proceedings on such application, ought to be, as they have been by all preceding governors, laid before the house for their consideration.

The last period of the governor's message was the very quintessence of invective. "In fine, gentlemen, said he, I must remind you, that in a former message you said you were "That a sight afforded to the speaker, or a a plain people that had no joy in disputation. few of the members, of papers remaining in But let your minutes be examined for fifteen the governor's hands, cannot be so satisfactoyears past, not to go higher, and in them will ry to the rest of the house, nor even to the be found more artifice, more time and money speaker, and such members, as if those papers spent in frivolous controversies, more unparal- were laid before the house were they might leled abuses of your governors, and more un-receive several distinct readings, and be subdutifulness to the crown, than in all the rest of his majesty's colonies put together. And while you continue in such a temper of mind, I have very little hopes of good, either for his majesty's service, or for the defence and protection of this unfortunate country."

And in the reply of the assembly his own artillery was turned upon him as follows: "The minutes are printed, and in many hands, who may judge, on examining them, whether any abuses of governors and undutifulness to the crown are to be found in them. Controversies indeed there are too many; but as our assemblies are yearly changing, while our proprietaries, during that term, have remained the same, and have probably given their governors the same instructions, we must leave others to guess from what root it is most likely that those controversies should continually spring. As to frivolous controversies, we never had so many of them as since our present governor's administration, and all raised by himself; and we may venture to say, that during that one year, scarce yet expired, there have been more unparalleled abuses' of this people, and their representatives in assembly, than in all the years put together, since the settlement of the province. "We are now to take our leave of the governor; and indeed, since he hopes no good from us, nor we from him, 'tis time we should be parted. If our constituents disapprove our conduct, a few days will give them an opportunity of changing us by a new election; and could the governor be as soon and as easily changed, Pennsylvania would, we apprehend, deserve much less the character he gives it, of an unfortunate country."

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ject to repeated inspection and discussion till they were thoroughly understood; and all danger of mistakes and misconceptions through defect of attention, or of memory, in one or a few persons, effectually prevented.

"That great inaccuracies and want of exactness have been frequently observed by the house in the governor's manner of stating matters, laid before them in his messages; and therefore they cannot think such messages, without the papers therein referred to, are a sufficient foundation for the house to proceed upon, in an affair of moment, or that it would be prudent or safe so to do, either for themselves or their constituents.

"That though the governor may possibly have obtained orders not to lay the secretary of state's letters, in some cases, before the house, they humbly conceive and hope that letters from the neighbouring governments, in such cases as the present, cannot be included in those orders.

"That when an immediate assistance to neighbouring colonies is required of us; to interrupt or prevent our deliberations, by refusing us a sight of the request, is a proceeding extremely improper and unseasonable.

"But a member of this house producing a letter to himself from the honourable Thomas Hutchinson, Esq. a person of great distinction and weight in the government of Massachusetts-bay, and a member of the council of that province, mentioning the application to this government for provisions, and the necessity of an immediate supply; and it appearing by the resolution of the council of war, held at the carrying place, on the twenty-fourth past' (an abstract of which is communicated to the That, however, they might still continue speaker, by the honourable Thomas Pownal, to act on the same maxims, and continue to Esq. lieutenant-governor of the Jerseys) that deserve the same confidence, they proceeded the army will be in want of blankets and other to contribute all they could to the advance-clothing, suitable to the approaching season;

and this house being willing to afford whatsoever, then, he thought, and not altogether assistance may be in their power, under their unjustly, their passions might be of service to present unhappy circumstances of an exhaust- him, though their reason could not; and the ed treasury, and a total refusal by the go-event will show, that, provided he might atvernor of their bills for raising money, re- tain his ends, he could be very indifferent solved, about the means.