The Consideration for smart Money, usually paid by His Majesty & private Ships of War to those who are maimed or wounded in Engagements with the Enemy, ought to be estimated & are allowed in this Port Articles: For Loss of a Leg or Arm For Loss of an Eye For Loss of a joint Mr. Ogle's Letter was read & order'd to be enter'd: "Sir: £150 90 30 "ANNAPOLIS, 31st May, 1748. "Our Assembly has now been sitting for three Weeks, and the Lower House came to a Resolution sometime ago not to make any allowance for the Indians. This I deferr'd giving You an Account of as the Gentlemen of the Council, out of their great Inclination to promote this Service, flatter'd themselves that We might have been able to induce them to change their Sentiments; But as we now begin to despair of doing any thing to the purpose, I give You this Notice, very much to my mortification, having done every thing in my power to have answer'd your reasonable Expectations. I am, "S Your most obedient humble Servant, "ANTHONY PALMER, Esq." “SAM. OGLE. A Message from the House by two Members that the Representatives were met according to Summons & ready to receive what the Council has to lay before them. They were told by the President that he wou'd send a Message in the Afternoon. Abraham Wiltbank, Commander of one of the Government Pilot Boats, bringing advice that he had been for a Day or two off of the Capes & met with no Enemie's Vessels-the Embargo was taken off. At a Council held at Philadadelphia, Friday, 10th June. PRESENT: The Honoble. ANTHONY PALMER, Esq., President. Samuel Hasell, Abraham Taylor, Robert Strettell, Joseph Turner, Thomas Hopkinson, Esqrs. Council were read & approv❜d. The Minutes of the preceding Captain Ballet applied to the Board for an Assistant, setting forth that he shou'd not be of sufficient force to protect the Trade if Capt Masterson shou'd not be in a Condition to come to his assistance. The Captain was told there was now a Message before VOL. V.-18. the Assembly on this Subject, to which they had not yet given their answer. The Secretary inform'd the Board that the present Surveyor General, Mr. William Parsons, finding his Health decline, desir'd leave to resign his Office, & Mr. Nicholas Scull being thought the properest Person to succeed him, his Commission was ordered to be made out. A Petition from Alexander Ure, under Sentence of Death for Murther, was read, praying a Reprieve for twelve Months. The Council not having yet received the Report of the Judges the Consideration thereof is postpon'd. The Secretary is order'd to remind the Speaker of the several Orders issued by the Council for the safety of the Province & City, and of the Expence that will accrue thereon, & to know of him if it be necessary to send a particular Message to the House on this Subject. At a Council held at Philadelphia, Saturday, 11th June, 1748. PRESENT: The Honoble. ANTHONY PALMER, Esqr., President. Samuel Hasell, Robert Strettell, William Logan, Abraham Taylor, Esqrs. The Minutes of the preceding Council were read and approv'd. A written Message from the Assembly was deliver'd by two Members to the President before the Board met, who at the same time said they were directed to inform the Council that the House inclin'd to adjourn to the time of their last adjournment, if there was no further Business to lay before them. The President told them they shou'd receive an answer when the Council met. The Message was read in these words: A Message to the President & Council from the Assembly. "May it please the President & Council: "That we refused to grant Money in the manner You have sometimes thought proper to apply for it is very true, & yet we think the Charge You are pleas'd to make against us in your last Message, of our having hitherto refus'd to grant Money for the protection of the People and the Trade of this Province,' is too generally expressed. That Government ought to be honourably supported, & that we ought to contribute towards it proportionably to our Circumstances, have been both our Sentiments & Practice; And the 'protection of the People & the Trade of the Province,' we look upon as principal Parts of the Duty of those by whom this Support is received; And wherever those in whose Hands the Executive Powers of Government have been or now are in discharge of what they conceive to be their Duty, are or shall on any Emergency be put to an Expence for the Good of the Province which the Assemblies have or hereafter shall judge reasonable, as we remember no Instances past, so we believe not any such will hereafter happen wherein a suitable Provision will not be made in the support of Government. "We would not from hence be understood to encourage your putting the Province to any extraordinary Expence at this time, and particularly in hiring and fitting out a Ship of War, which we think unnecessary, & which, from the Estimate You were pleas'd to send us, amounts to near £1,000 Month, besides the Risque and Repairs of the Vessel; a Burthen we now think, as formerly we have thought, too heavy for the Province to bear." "The answer You are pleas'd to give to this objection consists only in poiuting out the Consequences You are pleas'd to suppose may attend the blocking up our Ports, &c. But in the Judgment You form on this Occasion you seem to consider the Province independent; as neither intitled to nor having reason to expect any other Protection or Defence but such as it is able to provide for itself. If this were really the Case, the Dangers You apprehend might be better grounded-it being evident that were the whole Province to exert themselves to the utmost of their abilities, it would not be sufficient to protect them against such a force as might possibly come against them. "The late Attempts appear by the Depositions you were pleas'd to lay before us, to have been made by three Privateers who did not come altogether, And if an additional Ship of War was necessary in that Case, is it not possible that double the number of Privateers may come, and will not by the same reasoning a double number of Ships of War be necessary? Is the Province able to bear such an Expence? Or is it reasonable to suppose that when by the favour of the Crown one Vessel is station'd among Us, and the assistance of another enjoin'd if it shall become necessary, that it was not intended to relieve the Province from a Burden it was judged unfit to bear? Can it be prudent to strain our Circumstances and load the Province with so heavy an Expence after the Provision thus made for us? And might not the making such farther Provision deprive the Province of the Vessel which by the Lenity of the Government is already provided for guarding our Coast & protecting our Trade free from any Expence to us? "In times of War it is not to be expected but that losses will happen; the Channel of England we suppose hath been as well guarded of late as ever, and yet as we are informed not less than 5 out of 6 Vessels which Sailed from this Port within the space of 15 Months last past have been taken, & but one of them on our Coast The Estimate You have been pleased to make of the Losses which lately happen'd is in our opinion much too large. Two of those Vessels (one of which was the most valuable of those lately taken), were taken at a distance from our Capes, and this might have been the Case if a Ship of War had been Cruizing there. "On the whole, as You are pleased to inform us that most of the Privateer (we suppose all) are gone off, that the Ship of War in our Port will soon be fit for Service, and that You have dispatch'd an Express to Virginia in order to procure the Hector Man-of-War to join her, if the Commander of that Ship be, as we are told he is, instructed to assist the Otter when it is necessary, there is no reason to doubt but he will Comply with his Instructions, and this on the present occasion is all that appears to us necessary. And we must, therefore, desire to be excused when we declare that we cannot concurr in opinion with You that it is at this time necessary a Ship of War shou'd be fitted out by this Province. " "Sign'd by Order of the House. "4th Mon. 11th, 1748." “JOHN KINSEY, Speaker. While the Message was reading a second Message was deliver'd by two Members from the Assembly that the Country Members were impatient to be gone, & desir'd to have the Council's answer as soon as possible. A Member of Council coming in the Message was order'd to be read again, but before this cou'd be done two Members came with a third Message, that the House having for some time finished all their business & determin'd to adjourn, they were impatient for the Council's answer. They were told that the Message was so lately deliver'd that the Board had not time to consider it, to which one of the Members reply'd they might have had it sooner if the Council had sat sooner. The Board conceiving themselves ill used by these frequent Messages coming so quick after one another, & that the House was not in temper to stay till a proper answer cou'd be made to their Message, which appear'd at first Sight exceeding faulty & full of false reasoning, concluded to send the Secretary to tell them that after what the House had said in their Message, they think it will be to no purpose to say any thing further to them. The Secretary inform'd the Board that he had deliver'd to the Speaker what was given him in Charge yesterday, & he frankly declar'd that there was no manner of occasion for a Message with respect to Expences already accrued or that shou'd accrue on the Orders the Council judg'd necessary to give for the Publick Safety. Mr. Kinsey as Chief Justice waited on the Council & related the proceedings of the Court of Oyer & Terminer, whereby it appear'd that Alexander Ure liv'd in an illegal manner with another Man's Wife, & the People frequently threw Stones on his House top, & that in the night time that in particular stones were thrown by McGinnis or his Company that very Night, & that Ure in a passion having his Gun loaded with a Ball, fir'd at McGinnis in the Dark, & lodg'd the Ball in his Neck, so that he dyed immediately. In regard there was but a slender Board it was thought proper to postpone the consideration of Ure's Petition till another time. At a Council held at Philadelphia the 14th June, 1748. PRESENT: The Honoble. ANTHONY PALMER, Esqr., President. Thomas Lawrence, Samuel Hasell, Robert Strettell, Esqrs. The Minutes of the preceding Council were read & approv'd. The Board taking into consideration the last written Message from the Assembly, and the repeated importunate verbal Messages following it, that the House was determined immediately to adjourn if the Board had no other Business to lay before them, &c., and their adjourning accordingly before the Board had an opportunity of reading, considering, & replying to the said written Message, unanimously Resolved, That it was never understood in this Province that the Salaries voted to Governors for their Support were intended to be laid out in protecting & Defending the People & Trade of the Province, otherwise those Salaries ought to have been much larger in time of War than in time of Peace, which has not been the Case; and as the Council receive no such Salaries tho' they bear an Equal share of all Taxes in proportion to their Estates, it is unreasonable to expect they should if they were able advance out of their private Fortunes such Sums of Money as may be requisite on any emergency to be expended for the Publick Safety, upon no better Security than the belief of the present Assembly that future Assemblies, if they shall judge it reasonable, will probably repay them. Resolved, That there is no probability that others will be induced to advance their Money to the Government for publick Service on so uncertain, obscure, and evasive a declaration as is contain'd in the last Message of the Assembly, their being repaid again depending on the Good will and pleasure of the House, to be obtain❜d by humble petitioning and by submissive personal Application to the Members, and on the Judgment the House may happen to form of the reasonableness of the undertaking in which the Money was expended, especially when it is consider'd that it is the known opinion |