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fented to raise the Money intended for his Majefty's Ufe in the Manner by you propofed. And have prolonged the Currency of the Bills of Credit, to be fiffued in Virtue of the Bill now under Confideration, as far as I can think confiftent with my own Safety. 1 And, as the Fund to be established upon the Foot of my propofed Amendment will be more than fufficient to repay the Sum granted by the Bill, *I can fee no Reafon for extending the Act of Excife longer than four Years beyond the Date of its prefent Limitation; or for burthening the People 5 unneceffarily with a Tax that poffibly may not be 'wanted.'

And these propofed Amendments reftored Unanimity to the Houfe. For, whereas they had been divided many Ways in the Course of the Bill, they now acted with one. Will and one Voice, in rejecting That concerning the Excife, which manifeftly took its Rife from Proprietary Confiderations only; and, for the Sake of which, either the Service of the Publick was to be neglected, or the Province to give up its Underftanding. The Latter exceeded the Power of Perfuafion; and the Former they left those to answer for, to whom it belonged.

Their Reply to the Governor on this Occafion was as follows: The Houfe are not inclined to enter Sinto any Difpute with the Governor on the Subject f. of his proposed Amendments to the Money-Bill; as the Reprefentatives of the People have an undoubted Right to judge, and determine, not only ' of the Sum to be raised for the Use of the Crown, but of, the Manner of railing it.

The Governor, in his Meffage of the Nineteenth it of February, was pleafed to tell us, "That, if the "House fhould be of Opinion that there will be "a Neceffity to ftrike a farther Sum in Bills of Cre

dit, to defray the Charges of raifing Supplies for his Majesty's Service in this Time of imminent "Danger,

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Danger, and would create a proper Fund or Funds, "for finking the fame in a few Years, he would con"cur with us in paffing a Law for that Purpose, thinking himself fufficiently warranted fo to do in "Cafes of real Emergency."

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On this Affurance the House have prepared a Bill, ⚫ and prefented it to the Governor, to strike the Sum of • Ten Thousand Pounds, to give the fame to the King's Ufe, and to fink it by an Extenfion of the Excife Act for a farther Term of Ten Years. The Governor will be pleafed to confider, that his Predeceffor, to whom the mentioned Inftruction was given, did afterwards pafs an Act of the fame Kind, extending the Excife Act ten Years (now near expired) for a • Grant of Five Thousand Pounds only; and we never • heard that he incurred the Royal Displeasure for fo doing. As the Sum we grant is double, we had no Expectation that our propofing the fame Term would have been deemed extravagant. The Governor thinks four Years fufficient; but, as the Reprefentatives are beft acquainted with the Circumftances of the People, and muft themselves, as a Part of the People, bear a Share of all Burthens laid upon them, it seems not reasonable to suppose they will lay fuch Burthens unneceffarily. They now offer Ten Thousand Pounds to the Crown, and propofe a Manner of raifing it, that they judge most eafy and convenient for the People they reprefent: And, if the Governor thinks fit to refuse it, meerly ⚫ from an Opinion that a shorter Term for finking the • Bills would be more easy for the People, we cannot but fuppofe, that, fince the Meffages in which he fo warmly recommended this Affair to us, he has, on farther Advices, or better Confideration, changed his Sentiments of the Importance of the present Occasion for Supplies, and doth not now think the Danger fo imminent, or the Emergency fo great or fo real, as he then apprehended it to • be.'

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They also intimated at the fame Time, That, it being an inconvenient Season for the Members to be absent from their refpective Homes, they defired the Governor to let them know his Refult as foon as poffible.

And upon the next Day but one this Result came; and proved to be of a Nature altogether extraordinary. Having charged the Affembly with laying down a Pofition in their laft Meffage derogatory to the Rights of Government; in maintaining, That the Reprefentatives of the People have an undoubted Right to judge and determine, not only of the Sum to be raised for the Ufe of the Crown but of the Manner of raising of it, he first acknowledges that Right, and then whistles it away, by arguing, it was not an exclufive Right; one Half of the Legislative Powers being vested in the Governor. After which he goes on to fay, That he had neither objected to the Sum, though he wished it had been larger and more feasonably granted, nor to the Manner of raising it, though he could have alfo wifhed it had not been by compelling him to depart from the Letter of his Majefty's Inftruction, but only to the Extenfion of the Fund, whereby the Money is proposed to be repaid, to an unneceffary Length, by which a Tax was to be laid and continued upon the People without the least apparent Neceffity: And that he was forry to find, they were not fatisfied with a Fund by which the 10,000l. granted to his Majefty would be repaid in the easiest Manner in fix Years, and leave a Surplus of several Thousand Pounds in their Hands to be difpofed of as they thought fit; and that, for the faid 10,000l. fo granted, they were defirous of obtaining more than three Times the Sum for themfelves: That the Example of any former Governor was not to be a Rule for him: But that, however, if they would inlarge the Sum given for his Majefty's Ufe, he would extend the Time for repaying it in the fame Proportion already allowed in his Amendment, which he fhould not otherwise recede from: That it was poffible more might

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might be concealed under this folicitude for fo long an Extenfion of the Excife than they were willing fhould be discovered:-And here a Paragraph occurs, which does indeed make a Difcovery, and which will be of fingular Ufe to the intelligent Reader through the whole Courfe of the Controverfy, viz. It is

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well known, that by the Laws now in Force, the 'public Money is folely in the Difpofal of the Affembly, without the Participation of the Governor; nevertheless, while thefe Acts, by which Money was raised, were of fhort Duration, the Governor had now and then an Opportunity of obliging the Affembly in a very effential Manner by a Renewal of those Acts, and thereby of making himself acceptable to them; but to extend them to fuch an unreasonable Length of Time as you now defire, might be to render him in a great Measure unneceffary to them during the Continuance of those Acts, but upon Terms very disagreeable to himself, as well as injurious to his Conftituents: To this Condition therefore I will not be the Means of reducing any Succeffor of mine; and this Circumftance is of no fmall additional Weight with me to adhere to my • Amendment.' He then defires them to obferve, That the Queftion between them, is not, which is best acquainted with the Circumftances of the People? but whether it was reasonable to burden them with an unneceffary Tax: Affures them, they are exceedingly mistaken if they really fuppofed he had either changed his Sentiments with Refpect to the Importance of the prefent Occafion for Supplies, or that he was lefs apprehenfive of the Dangers the Province was then expofed to from the Invafion of a foreign Power than before: Makes a Merit of having gone farther in his Condefcenfions to please them, than he was warranted to do, by the King's Inftruction, unlefs they made an Addition to the Supply, by extending their, Currency a Year longer than the utmoft Term allowed to the Eastern Governments by the late Act of Parliament: Adds, that he well knew the State of their Funds,

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Funds, and that the Loan-Office itself, were the Money duly collected, was able to furnish a much larger Sum than the Sum granted upon this important Occafion, independant of the Intereft hereafter to accrue, &c. That fuch being the favourable State of their Finances, in declining to do what his Majefty fo juftly expected from them, merely because he, the Governor, would not wholly depart from his Inftruction, they became more justly chargeable with a wanton Difregard of his Majefty's Commands, than he could poffibly be with the Lukewarmnefs imputed to him, which he had the greatest Deteftation of: And with a Mixture of Perfuafion and Menace, he came to a Conclufion as follows, Let me therefore, Gentlemen, recommend to your ferious Attention, a Review of your Conduct upon the prefent Occafion, and if you fhall find that you have been too precipitate in the Refolution contained in your Meffage, let me intreat you to rectify it before it be too late; for, as I must be obliged foon to lay this whole Tranfaction before his Majefty, it would give me the greatest Pleasure that • both you and I might receive his gracious Approbation of our Services. But if, contrary to my. Hopes, you fhould ftill perfift in refufing to accept of my Amendment, and the Bill fhould by that Means be loft, I cannot but apprehend fome unhappy Confequences to the Province from your extraordinary Behaviour.'

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There is, one would think, a magical Power in Government capable not only of altering, but even reverfing the Forms, Colours, and Effences of Things: To common Sense it seems evident, that the People give, and the Governor refufes to accept: And that the faid Governor by avowing Proprietary and DeputyGovernment-Reafons for fuch his Refufal, avows, that the King's Service and the People's Safety are but fubordinate Confiderations-But our own Eyes are not to be trufted it feems None of this is foIf the People do not do all that is required of them, and

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