of the government I have the honour to represent, that it will be duly applied to the purposes for which it was granted.'

The governor, however, dissatisfied still, because disappointed and defeated, first evaded the assembly's demand of the restitution of their bill according to custom, and then refused it, saying, "That it was a bill of so extraordinary a nature, that he thought it his duty to lay it before his majesty, and should keep it for that purpose."

- He also informed them by message of intelligence he had received, that the French had fitted out fifteen sail of the line, with which they were sending out six thousand land forces, and that the king's ministers were not in the secret of their destination; yet as they were bound for America, and could not be ignorant that Pennsylvania was both a plentiful and defenceless country, he thought it his duty to call upon them to enable him to put it into a posture of defence, by establishing a regular militia, and providing the necessary stores of war.

This message was dated April 3d, and yet on the 8th following he advised them to make a short adjournment, because he was to receive the governors Shirley and De Lancey, that evening, and was to accompany them to Annapolis, there to confer with general Braddock, and the governors Sharpe of Maryland, and Dinwiddie of Virginia; after which, it was probable, he should have several matters to lay before the assembly; but, as a parting stroke, he called upon them to make some provision for Scarroyady, before mentioned, and his young men, which they did not without some wholesome hints, that they had been long enough already a charge to the province; that there were proper lands where, and it was a proper season when, they might both hunt, and plant their corn, by which they might provide for themselves; and that as to the Indian treaty they had been required to make provision for, the governor could not expect they could come to any immediate resolution, till they had received the necessary information concerning it.

It was in this manner they parted. The adjournment they made was only to the 12th of May, and yet the governor

both complained of that term as too long, and said he should call them sooner if there was occasion. When they met, they gave the governor notice as usual, and that they were ready to receive whatever he had to lay before them. The governor's answer was, that he had nothing to lay before them at present but the German bill; a bill, that is to say, recommended by the governor himself, from the notorious ne cessity of it, for preventing the importation of German or other passengers or servants in too great numbers in one vcssel, and for preventing the spreading of contagious distempers, imported by or together with them, &c. This had been prepared by the house at their last sitting, and sent up to the governor; had been returned with amendments by him; some of these amendments had been adopted: and then the bill had been again sent up, with a desire from the house, that the governor would be pleased to pass the same as it then stood. This he had not been pleased to do, but on the contrary had referred it to the consideration of his council, by whose advice he had been determined to adhere to his amendments; under which declaration it was now again sent down to the house; who having appointed a committee to draw up a message to the governor, representing the inconveniencies to be apprehended from the said amendments, and agreed to that message, on the report of the same, came to a resolution of adjourning on the morrow to the first of September.

To say this message was of the most pathetic, rational, and interesting kind, is to say the least that can be said of it: it explained the evil to be remedied, and the consequences to be apprehended from a continuance of it, in the most affecting terms; it demonstrated, that the amendments insisted upon by the governor were calculated to deprive it of all its vigour and utility; that in effect the province was to be as much exposed to the same nuisances and dangers as ever, and what gave the most offence of all, by the following paragraph the inhabitants were led to the very source of so crying a grievance.

'By our charters, and the laws of this province, the whole legislative power is vested in the governor and the representatives of the people; and as we know of no other negative upon our bills but what the governor himself has, we could wish he had been pleased to have exercised his own judgment upon this our bill, without referring the consideration of it to a committee of his council, most of them such, as we are informed, who are, or have lately been, concerned in the importations, the abuses of which this bill was designed to regulate and redress."

Now, which ever party was in the right, can it be said, that the king, or the supply for his service, or any one of the points in the preceding session agitated, had any concern in the rise, progress, or issue of this controversy has it not been already observed, to the honour of the assembly, how cautiously and prudently they had avoided whatever could tend to widen the breach on any of these heads? is it not fresh before us, that, even for want of provocation, the governor himself was forced both to part with them, and meet them again in peace. And yet having declared as we have seen, that he had nothing to communicate to them, consequently nothing to ask of them, other than what related to this German bill; did he take the hint from hence to treat them by message in the following extraordinary manner, viz. 'Gentlemen,

"When I summoned you together on the 17th of March last, I was in hopes you would bring with you inclinations to promote the public service, by granting the supplies expected by the crown, and by putting this province into a posture of defence; but I am sorry to find, that neither the danger to which this country stands exposed, nor his majesty's repeated and affectionate calls, have had any weight with you.

"The bill you sent me for striking twenty-five thousand pounds, was of a more extraordinary nature than that I refused my assent to in the winter sessions, as it gave general Braddock a power over no more than five thousand pounds, and subjected the remaining twenty thousand, and all the sur

plus of the excise, for eleven years to come, to the disposition of some of the members of your house, and to the assembly for the time being.

"The offering money in a way, and upon terms that you very well knew I could not, consistent with my duty to the crown, consent to, is, in my opinion, trifling with the king's commands, and amounts to a refusal to give at all; and I am satisfied will be seen in this light by my superiors; who, by your bill above-mentioned, which I shall lay before them, and by the whole of your conduct since you have been made açquainted with the designs of the French, will be convinced, that your resolutions are, and have been, to take advantage of your country's danger, to aggrandize and render permanent your own power and authority, and to destroy that of the crown. That it is for this purpose, and to promote your scheme of future independency, you are grasping at the disposition of all public money, and at the power of filling all the offices of government, especially those of the revenue; and when his majesty and the nation are at the expence of sending troops for the protection of these colonies, you refuse to furnish them with provisions and necessary carriages, though your country is full of both, unless you can, at the same time, encroach upon the rights of the crown, and increase your own power, already too great for a branch of a subordinate dependant government, so remote from the principal seat of power.

'You have, gentlemen, by a vote of your own house, without the consent of the government, empowered a committee of your members to borrow money upon the credit of the assembly, and to dispose of the same to certain uses in that vote mentioned. You have also, by votes and resolves of your own house, created bills or notes of credit, made payable to the bearers thereof, to the amount of fifteen thousand pounds, which you have issued in lieu of money, and they are now circulating in this province, without the approbation of the government. You have denied me access to your journals, and refused me copies of your minutes. And you have printed and published the secretary of state's letters to

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me signifying his majesty's commands, not only without my consent, but contrary to an order I had issued to the prin ters, expressly forbidding the publication of those letters.

6 Whether you have a right to the exercise of such extraordinary powers, his majesty and his ministers will judge, before whom it is my duty to lay your proceedings as soon as I can come at them, and to whom they will appear the more dangerous, as neither they nor you can know but a future assembly may use those powers against the government by which they are protected.

"While I had any the most distant hopes of your coming into 'measures that might promote the public service at this critical conjuncture, I suffered some parts of your conduct to remain unobserved upon; but as I am now convinced, from the whole tenor of your behavior, and from your message of yesterday, notifying your intentions to adjourn till September next, without granting the necessary supplies, that you have no design to contribute any thing towards the defence of this country, I thought it right to be no longer silent those heads. upon

'Gentlemen, when the bill to prevent the importation of the Germans, &c. was under my consideration, I took such advice upon it, and made such amendments to it, as I thought would best answer the public purposes, and put that trade upon such a footing as to prevent the many abuses that had been practised in it, and at the same time secure this city and province against the coming in and spreading of infectious distempers. How far the bill, as proposed by you, or amended by me, would, or would not, have answered those ends, was a matter proper to be considered at a conference, which you might have desired if you had thought proper, as it is the only means of bringing a bill to perfection, when the branches of the legislature differ in opinion concerning any amendments proposed to it; but instead thereof, you have sent me a message filled with unjust reflections upon the amendments proposed by me, and plainly designed to represent me, as having no regard for the health or safety of the inhabitants of this country; in doing which, I cannot think