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most singular manner. The Governor appointed Mr. Ogden a Justice of the Peace of Essex County. By an act of the Assembly, passed July 8, 1730, it was declared that if any member of the Legislature should accept an office of profit from the crown or from the Governor for the time being, his seat should be vacant and a writ for a new election should issue. The law did not provide by whom the seat should be declared vacant, nor who should issue the warrant. The Governor, however, in this instance, made the declaration and issued the writ. This the Assembly declared to be irregular and insisted that no one had the right to interfere with their sitting members but themselves, and that the writ should issue from them. But, as a difficulty which promised, at one time, to create some disturbance was thus settled, the delegates were not disposed to pursue their opposition further.

Another discussion, more violent than those already noticed, although much less important, arose in 1772, between the Government and the Assembly, in which Franklin allowed himself to depart from the dignity which had generally characterized his deportment. About four years before, Skinner, the Treasurer of the Province, complained that the chest in which the funds of the colony were kept, had been broken open and seven thousand and more pounds of bills and money stolen. About a year afterwards, Skinner was appointed a member of the Council and Franklin became very much attracted to him and would not admit that there was any fraud on the part of the Treasurer, in the case of the robbery. But the Assembly took a different view, alleged that the money was lost through the negligence, at least, of the Treasurer and intimated that his story about the alleged theft was not to be entirely believed. This gave rise to very acrimonious correspondence, in which the Governor lost his temper and allowed himself to indulge in language not becoming the Chief Magistrate of a province.

But the chief source of disagreement between the Governor and the Assembly was the absolute divergence of their opinions and actions in the differences between England and the colonists. Franklin never disguised his sentiments in the slightest degree, but whenever it was. necessary, proclaimed his adherence to the Crown. His position was fully understood, but such was the respect felt by the Assembly towards him that his salary, £1200 and £60 for house rent, was allowed him to the very close of his career as Governor.

But the end came at last.

Concord and Lexington sent their dread

echoes throughout the land, Bunker Hill followed and the die was cast. An appeal was made by the undismayed and spirited colonists to the wager of battle, and war was declared. Franklin remained at his post, from time to time transmitting to England information of events, as they transpired in the colony. During the year 1775, he found that his Council was not, at all, in accord with him. Theretofore, there had been no discord, but, in that year, one of his Councillors, the Earl of Stirling, accepted a military commission under the Provincial Congress and Franklin suspended him. At the end of 1775, he found himself almost entirely unsupported and in a most embarrassed position. On January 6, 1775, a letter which he wrote to the Earl of Dartmouth contained this sentence: "My situation is indeed somewhat particular and not a little difficult having no more than one or two among the principal officers of government to whom I, even now, speak confidentially on public affairs." This was intercepted by General Stirling and instant means were taken to prevent him from leaving the province. There is not the slightest evidence that he contemplated any such step. He was then living at Amboy and nominally attending to the duties of his position. A guard was placed at his gate and he was virtually under arrest. Later, in 1775, he received some despatches from the English ministry which he thought it his duty to lay before the legislature. He thereupon issued a proclamation directing the Assembly to meet on the 20th of June. The Provincial Congress, then in session, considered this a violation and in contempt of its order, which had sundered all relations with England, directed that the Governor's proclamation should not be obeyed and that no more salary should be paid to him. He was arrested on the 17th of June, 1775, by Nathaniel Heard, afterwards General in the Colonial Army, under an order from Samuel Tucker, President of the Provincial Congress, or Convention, as it was afterwards called. That order manifested the respect felt for the Governor; the officer making the arrest was directed to accept Franklin's parole of honor, to permit him to select one of three places of residence, one of them his own farm at Rancocus, and "that this necessary business be conducted with all the delicacy and tenderness which the nature of the service can possibly admit of." The Governor indignantly refused the parole of honor and was therefore placed in actual confinement, in his own house, however, a guard of sixty men being placed around it. The proceedings were reported to the Continental Congress, which directed that the prisoner should be examined.

"If, on such examination, they shall be of opinion that he should be confined to report such opinion to Congress, and then the Congress will direct the place of his confinement." He was removed to Burlington and there submitted to an examination. He denied the jurisdiction of the Legislature, claiming that it had usurped his prerogatives and absolutely refused to answer any of the questions put to him. He was then declared an enemy of the country and ordered to be put "under safe guard" until the pleasure of Congress should be ascertained. The original minutes of the convention, until recently and, perhaps, still in existence, show an erasure of the words "in safe custody" and an interlineation of the words "under safe guard." On the 22d of June, 1776, Congress directed that he should be sent, under guard, to Governor Trumbull, of Connecticut, "who could admit him to his parole, but if Mr. Franklin refused to give his parole, that Governor Trumbull be desired to treat him agreeably to the resolution of Congress respecting prisoners." The Chief Justice of the State induced Franklin to accept parole and he was quartered in the house of Capt. Grant, at East Windsor. There was an apparently unnecessary severity connected with this imprisonment which cannot be accounted for. Gov. Franklin was married to an estimable woman just about the time he came to New Jersey as its Governor. They were living at Amboy when he was arrested, but, during the whole of his stay in Connecticut, more than two years, were separated, Mrs. Franklin remaining in New York.

Several attempts were made for an exchange, but, on April 22, 1777, Congress transmitted a resolution to Governor Trumbull stating that evidence had been received that Franklin had "sedulously employed himself in dispersing among the inhabitants the protection of Lord Howe and General Howe, the king's commissioners for granting pardons and otherwise aided and abetted the enemies of the United States, and therefore he was instructed to order the late Governor into close confinement, "prohibiting him the use of pen, ink and paper, or the access of any person or persons but such as are properly licensed for that purpose by Governor Trumbull." His confinement lasted until October, 1778, when he was exchanged for J. McKinley, president of Delaware. His wife, in the meantime, had died in New York and was buried before her husband was released. Franklin sailed for England in August, 1782. The English government donated £1,800 to .

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him as an indemnity for his losses and allowed him £800 per annum, as a pension.

There was much legislation during the time of Franklin, but the most of it was confined to local and private acts, such as establishing the lines between different counties; ferries across rivers; bridges over creeks; roads; highways; erection of court houses and jails; draining meadows; naturalizing aliens; preservation of forests; preventing the waste of timber and the like. But there were some statutes of importance, indicating the nature of the law making on the subjects to which they related. Of this character were the following: "An act for preventing Frauds by Mortgages which shall be made and executed. after the First day of January one thousand seven hundred and seventysix." The preamble to this act stated that it was passed to prevent Frauds and Abuses which had been perpetrated by persons mortgaging their real estate and "afterwards selling the same to other persons who were ignorant of such mortgages, or by Persons mortgaging the same lands, or Tenements several times, without giving notice to the latter mortgagees of the former mortgage or mortgages, whereby persons have been or may be defrauded of great sums of money." This act provided for the registry of mortgages in suitable books and the indorsement on the mortgages of the time when they were received for registry. Mortgages must first be acknowledged or approved before one of the Council, a Justice of the Supreme Court, or one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas; the mortgage first registered to have priority; if two mortgages were presented at the same moment of time, the one prior in date should first be registered and paid; when a mortgage was paid, it was cancelled from the record by an entry in the margin left for the purpose. The Clerks of the respective counties were required to read the act publicly at the courts of sessions of the Peace, in open court, at three succeeding sessions of the Peace, after the publication of this act, in each respective city and county in the colony. This is the first law on the subject of the registering of mortgages and, in the main, is very similar to the act now in force. This act was renewed in October, 1770, and according to its terms "shall be and remain in full force forever thereafter."

"An act to enable creditors more easily to recover their Debts from Joint Partners, within the colony of New Jersey," passed December 21, 1771; this was to enable creditors to recover their debts from one of several partners who might be residing in New Jersey, although the other parties were residing outside of the colony.

"An act to extend the jurisdiction of the several counties in this colony, which are divided by Rivers, Creeks and Bays," passed December 21, 1771, was intended to put an end to questions which had been raised as to the jurisdiction of the Courts over crimes perpetrated on the rivers or creeks or bays, forming the boundaries. The first section gives the full scope of the act; the second provides for the method of trying offenders. On September 26, 1772, an act was passed for establishing the boundary line between New York and New Jersey. This line had been settled by a joint commission appointed by the king. There were some difficulties affecting the right of private individuals. who owned land so situated that the partition line, determined by the commissioners, might change the jurisdiction over the land from one State to the other. Provision for this exigency was made by the act, and it was enacted that all land lying south of the partition line, the title to which was derived from New York, should be held in fee as fully and absolutely as if the estate had come from the Lords Proprietors of New Jersey. But the act further declared that it should not be in force until the king should give his assent to a similar law passed by the Legislature of New York. The practice of bringing Defendant Mortgagors into court by publication in actions of foreclosure, was introduced by "An act for making process in courts of Equity effectual against mortgagors who are absent and cannot be served therewith, or who refuse to appear." Precaution was taken against quacks and ignorant persons who undertake to practice medicine by "An act to regulate the practice of Physick and Surgery within the Colony of New Jersey." An examination as to the ability of candidates for licenses was to be made by two Judges of the Supreme Court; and any person. practising without a license from the examiners forfeited Five pounds. A clause in this Bill gives an idea of one of the customs of the day, as it enacts that "Every Physician, Surgeon or Mountebank Doctor," who should come into or travel over the colony and "erect any stage or stages for sale of drugs or medicines of any kind" shall forfeit £20 proclamation money. Aliens were permitted by act to hold real estate in the colony.

On the 8th of February, 1774, the Legislature, as already stated, appointed a Committee of Correspondence. Neither this measure nor that of electing a Provincial Congress met with Franklin's approbation. At the beginning of the session, as usual, he made a speech, in which he referred to the perilous state of affairs existing in the colonies, dep

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