solved to adhere to their adjournment, adjourned accordingly.

In the beginning of March, however, the governor thought fit to re-assemble them, and assigned the arrival of general Braddock, the necessity of considering what he had to propose without delay, and making the provisions expected by his majesty for the service in time, as his reasons for so doing. In the same message he also acquainted them, “That he had issued a commission to a number of men acquainted with the country, to form a plan of opening roads from the inhabited parts of the province westward towards the Ohio, at the requisition of Sir John St. Clair, quarter-master-general, to facilitate the march of the troops, conveyance of provisions, &c. and also to prepare an estimate of the expence, which he called upon them to provide for; also, to be enabled to take such a part in the measures proposed by the eastern governments for the maintenance of his majesty's just rights, &c. as became the honour and interest of a province circumstanced like theirs. Having then premised, that it was said, the large supply of provisions furnished to the French from these colonies, not Pennsylvania in particular, which he acknowledged had little concern in that unnatural trade, had enabled the enemy to support their forces in America, he informed them, he had given the officers of the customs preventive orders in relation thereto; and added, that he made no doubt of their joining with him in a law to make those orders more effectual. The desire of the eastern governments, that Pennsylvania would join with them in their operations to frustrate the schemes of the French, made his next topic; and he grafted a hope upon it, that they would enable him to take such part as became the honour and interest of a province, circumstanced like theirs. The establishment of a post between Philadelphia and a place called Winchester, at the desire of general Braddock, was what he recommended next; and that again was followed by another desire of the same general's, that the quotas for the common fund of the several provinces, recommended by the secretary of state, might be lodged in the hands of a

treasurer, subject to his demands, in order to expedite business; and the general being perfectly disinterested, as also willing to account for his disbursements, he hoped they would put it in his power to return him a satisfactory answer; and for a conclusion, he recommended vigour, unanimity, and dispatch, that the happy opportunity put into the hands of the colonies by his majesty's paternal care, &c. might not be lost."

That there was no retrospect in this message was some recommendation of it; but the merit of this forbearance lasted no longer than till the afternoon of the very same day, when the house was artfully perplexed with two messages more, which could not but revive the memory of past dissentions, and consequently the ill humour they had produced. The first contained a reprimand for their having printed Sir T. Robinson's letters, communicated to them without his, the governor's, privilege or consent, and a caution against the publication of them; and an intimation, that though he had letters and other papers relating to his majesty's service to communicate to them, he did not think it safe to do it, without proper assurances that the contents should remain a secret. The second being nearly as short, and rather more extraordinary, shall be given in his own words:

'Gentlemen,

'On the tenth of January last, I demanded, by the secretary, a copy of the minutes of your proceedings, which you promised to send me; but not receiving them, I did, on the twenty-ninth of the same month, by letter to the speaker, again demand them, and have frequently, by the secretary, reiterated my request, but could not obtain a sight of them till the twelfth instant, above two months after your rising, and then only a part of them were sent me in print, and I have not yet seen the whole of them.

'The keeping your proceedings thus a secret from me, I take to be a very unconstitutional and extraordinary measure, liable to a construction that I do not choose at present to put upon it, but only to acquaint you that I expect you will order your clerk to attend me every night with the mi

nutes of the day, that I may know what is done and doing in your house, and be able in time to lay the same before his majesty and his ministers, who expect to be regularly informed of the measures taking by the legislatures of the colonies.'

Both were answered the next day in substance thus, “That they were humbly of opinion, such letters as those in question, containing the commands of the crown, ought generally to be inserted in their minutes as being the foundation of their proceedings, and what might be necessary for their justification; that those letters were communicated without the least caution to keep the contents a secret; that the latter, which was the most material of the two, was a circular letter which had been sent in effect to all the provinces and colonies in North America, and of which the substance, as they were informed, had been printed in the speeches of several governors to their assemblies; that the design, of sending two regiments from England, and raising two more in America, was no secret, having been avowed even in the London Gazette; that the governor himself had given very full and particular abstracts of those letters, in his messages which had been printed in their own gazettes long before the house adjourned, and passed without objection; that they were, therefore, surprized at the exceptions started now to the insertion of them in their minutes, and, no single inconvenience to result from it having been pointed out, were not inclined to expunge them; that knowing not what assurances of secresy would be satisfactory, they could only say, that whenever it should appear to the house to be necessary for the king's service, or the public good, to keep any matters laid before them secret, proper measures, they doubted not, would be taken for that purpose." Proceeding then to what related to the governor's demand of a copy of their minutes, they adjoined, "That they had ordered the said minutes to be printed with all convenient speed, and, when finished, that a copy should be delivered as required; that as soon as they could be copied and revised by a committee of the house, they were put to press; and that the governor had been sup

plied with a copy of the greatest part of them even before they were finished; that it had been the constant practice of the house to have their minutes so revised, and to postpone the said revisal till after the rising of the house; and that till this was done, no copies had ever been given out, unless of special votes on special occasions; that the principal matters contained in these minutes were generally to be found in the governor's speeches or messages, and the answers of the house; and that these, together with such votes as were most material, were, for the most part, immediately printed in the newspapers, that the rest was chiefly matter of form; that, therefore, as it would be inconvenient to the house to make up and perfect their votes daily, so as to send a copy to the governor, as they saw no public service concerned in it, nor knew of any right in the governor so peremptorily to demand it, they were not inclined to alter their ancient custom; that his charge of taking extraordinary or unconstitutional measures to keep their proceedings a secret from him, was void of any real foundation; that as to the construction put by the governor on their conduct, they neither knew nor could guess what it was; that whatever it was, they had rather it had been spoken plainly, than insinuated, because they might then have known how to justify themselves; that, however, being conscious of the firmest loyalty to the crown, and the most upright intentions to the people they represented, they were not very apprehensive of any great prejudice from such insinuations; that reflecting on the weight and importance of the matters laid before them in the morning message, which, moreover, so earnestly pressed them to unanimity and dispatch, they could not but be surprized at receiving messages of so different a kind in the afternoon, and which could only tend to produce division and delay, &c.And that, therefore, they humbly intreated the governor to suspend those his irritating accusations and novel demands till a season of more leisure, and that he would permit them to proceed, without any farther interruption, on the business. for which he had been pleased to call them together."

Not to be diverted, however, from the pursuit he was in by this caution, he sent a letter to the printers for the assembly (one of whom was a member) forbidding them to publish the secretary of state's letters; and ordered his secretary to inspect the journals of the house from the 17th to the 20th of March then current, both inclusive, and to take a copy thereof. Upon the former of which measures they resolved, that the said letters had been properly inserted; that the house had by sufficient reasons shewn, that the expunging those letters was both improper and unnecessary; that the right of directing what should, or should not be inserted in the minutes of the house, was solely in the house; and that the governor had not, nor could have, any right to interfere therein and they ordered the printer to proceed with the publication of their minutes as they then stood; and with regard to the latter, they informed the governor by message, "that when their minutes should be revised and printed after the end of the session according to long continued custom, a fair copy should be presented to the governor; but that till then they hoped the governor would excuse them if they did not permit any body to inspect them, or any copy of them to be taken."

Here this little ruffle ended: and while it was yet subsisting, the governor informed the house, as a secret which he recommended to them to keep so, "that governor Shirley, with the concurrence of his council and assembly, having, among other measures, formed a design to build a fort near Crown Point, within the limits of his majesty's territories, had sent commissioners to this and other governments, to solicit their contributions to the same undertaking; that the said governor had written to him fully upon this head, that he should communicate his letter to them, that they might see what was expected from the province; that Mr. Quincy, his commissioner, was actually arrived, and had made his application to him; and that he heartily recommended it to them to grant the necessary supplies for that important

service."