thony Palmer, Thomas Lawrence, Samuel Hasell, William Till, Abraham Taylor, Robert Strettell, James Hamilton, Benjamin Shoemaker, Joseph Turner, Lawrence Growdon, and Thomas Hopkinson. William Logan, son of James, was then appointed, to take a seat at the next meeting. This was held on June 6, Thomas having meanwhile embarked, and Anthony Palmer as eldest councillor became President. He had come from Barbados forty years before, having been a merchant there, and, it would appear, a sea captain. He was a Churchman, and lived in considerable style. On his plantation in the Northern Liberties, from which, it is said, he came to the city in a barge, he started a town, to which he gave the name of Kensington. At this time the dominion of the Penns was the granary of America; Philadelphia the supply port for provisions for any fleet operating above the Spanish Main. So whenever there was a war, an embargo was laid, from which the traders suffered. But now the trade with the other British possessions was nearly at a standstill from privateers in the bay. Landing parties burned plantations in the Lower Counties, and the city was in terror lest some French or Spanish man-of-war would make its way up the unprotected river, and have the place at its mercy. The Assembly was appealed to in vain to do something for defence. No militia law could be passed, had the Assembly been ever so willing, for, with no Governor, there was no power of legislation. Money, it had not, and while controlled by Quakers, it would not undertake obligations for such purposes. Benjamin Franklin, who for some years had been Clerk of the Assembly, and also Deputy Postmaster-General under ex-Governor Spotswood, of Virginia, wrote a pamphlet called Plain Truth, and suggested an association for defense at a town meeting. About 1,200 persons present enrolled themselves. Altogether about 10,000 names came in from the whole province. A battery was established where, sixty years afterward, the United States started its navy yard (foot of Prime street, Philadelphia). Franklin and other prominent citizens went over to New York with a request from the Council, and induced Governor Clinton to let them have eighteen cannon. Franklin started a lottery for the battery; and James Logan spent 60l. in tickets, ordering any prizes that he might draw to be devoted to the cause. A motion was carried in the fire company, in which were many Quakers, to appropriate money for a fire engine, and the mover of the motion and the rest of the committee bought a fine cannon, that being what the warlike members meant by a "fire engine." The 7th of January, 1747-8, was a day of fasting and prayer. Application was made to the Admiralty for a British man-of-war to cruise in the bay. The Otter sloop, Capt. Ballet, was sent, through the endeavors of the Proprietaries in London, but met with a very large vessel on the way, fought for four hours, and was so much weakened as to have to be repaired before attempting any service. Although the plan of the military association, whereby, among other features, the men elected their officers, and these were not under the command of the acting Governor, was irregular, the attendance was so constant and the drilling so careful that it was the opinion of most strangers that Pennsylvania had the best militia in America and one of the best furnished batteries of its size on the continent. By a treaty held at Lancaster in July, 1748, the Twightees dwelling on the Wabash were brought into alliance with Pennsylvania, and the Shawanees no longer with Chartier were received back into favor. A preliminary treaty of peace was signed at Aix-la-Chapelle on April 19, 1748, acceded to by Spain on June 17, and a definitive treaty at the same place on October 7, subsequently acceded to by Spain, Austria, etc. James Hamilton, of Bush Hill, in the Northern Liberties, who had been mayor of Philadelphia, and was a member of the Governor's Council, a son of the former Attorney-General, received, while sojourning in London, the Proprietaries' commis sion as Lieutenant-Governor, and arrived at home in November, 1748. He was the only inhabitant of the province appointed to that office after the death of Penn, in whose lifetime, moreover, Lloyd and Markham at his second appointment were the only ones. So the new Lieutenant-Governor was hailed with pleasure; but he had a dispute with his first Assembly. It passed a bill for the issuing of 20,000l. in bills of credit. The instructions sent in 1740 by the British Ministry having forbidden the Governor to pass any act for that purpose without a clause suspending its operation until the royal assent should be given, Hamilton proposed an amendment to that effect; whereupon the Assembly unanimously resolved that it would be "destructive of the liberties derived to them by the royal and provincial charters," the charter of Charles II having expressly authorized the legislature of the province to enact laws which should remain in force five years or until the King repealed them. Hamilton remained firm, considering that these instructions were contemplated in the bond of £2,000 which he had given on his taking office; and Ryder, exAttorney-General of England, afterwards gave an opinion sustaining him. On August 22, 1749, Hamilton purchased for the Proprietaries from the Six Nations a tract bounded by the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers, extending from the Blue mountains to a line running from the mouth of Lackawaxen creek to the mouth of Mahanoy Creek. York county, including what is now Adams, was formed in 1749, and Cumberland, lying west and southwest of it, in 1750, Berks and Northampton in 1752. On May 15, 1750, Lord Chancellor Hardwicke decided the case brought by the Penns against Lord Baltimore in 1737, saying that from the mighty interests involved "it was worthy the judicature of a Roman Senate rather than of a single judge." He found that, in making the agreement of 1732 for settling the boundaries, Lord Baltimore was neither surprised nor imposed upon nor ignorant. There was no mistake as to the intention of |