Amendment regarding the Term is insisted on, it is needless to consider the other relating to Commissioners, for the Bill cannot pass this House.

"Sign'd by Order of the House.

"ISAAC NORRIS, Speaker.

"In Assembly, 15th May, 1754."

To which the Governor on the Seventeenth returned the following Answer:

"Gentlemen:

"As I am not less unwilling than Yourselves to enter into Disputes of any Kind, I could have been well pleased to have been freed from the Necessity of animadverting upon the Contents of your Message on the Subject of the Bill for granting Money to the King's Use; but as that Message appears to contain a Position derogatory to the Rights of Government, I cannot, consistent with my own Judgment and the Trust reposed in me, suffer it to pass without some observation.

"You are pleased to say that the Representatives 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 raising it.' This, Gentlemen, is a Privilege which I neither have or ever shall deny to be inherent in You as an Assembly, while it is only understood to imply that no Money can be levied on the People without your Consent; But if you would infer from it that I have no Right to exercise my Judgment with respect to Money Bills farther than either to approve or reject them as they are of fered to me, I must beg Leave to differ from You in my Opinion, both from the Reason of the Thing and the Practice of my Predecessors upon several Occasions.

"The Governors of this Province are invested with one Half of the Legislative Powers, and being equally concerned in Duty with the Assembly to consult the Ease, Freedom, and Welfare of the People committed to their Care, must of Course be supposed to have a Right to interfere and rectify any Mistakes they apprehend likely to be committed by the other Branch of the Legislature, as well in Regard to the laying of Taxes as to Matters of any other Kind, unless it can be proved they have renounced their Right thereto by some publick Act, which I do not conceive to have been the Case here; for to what Purpose is a Governor appointed and invested with a Share in the Legislative Authority if he hath no discretionary Power to object to what he thinks Amiss in the Proceedings of an Assembly, and is only to be made Use of as an Instrument to ratify their 'Transactions, tho' ever so inconsistent with his own Judgment and the Good of the People?

"You must be sensible, Gentlemen, that I have neither objected

to the Sum granted for the Use of the Crown nor to the Manner of raising it as proposed by the Bill under Consideration, tho' I could heartily have wished that the Sum had been larger, and that it had been given more seasonably, as well as that some less exceptionable Method had been fallen on for raising it than by compelling me to depart from the Letter of his Majestie's Instruction, which nothing less than my Concern for the King's Service and the Preservation of the People under my Government in this Time of imminent Danger could have induced me to comply with; on which accounts I hope his Majesty, upon a fair and candid Representation of the Case, will most graciously be pleased to pardon me.

"My principal Objection You well know is only against the Extension of the Fund whereby the Money is proposed to be repaid to an unnecessary Length, by which a Tax is to be laid and continued upon the People without the least apparent Necessity. Can You suppose, if there should be any future Occasion, that a Governor will refuse his assent to a Bill for levying Money for the general Utility of the Province? Or have You in the present Case at all intimated to me any Services for which it is now wanted?

"It is true You have been pleased to make a Grant to his Majesty of Ten Thousand Pounds, which as it was the most that could be obtained I am in hopes will be graciously accepted by him as a Mark of your Duty; and in compliance to my Message of the nineteenth of February I have consented to establish a Fund by which the same will be repaid in the easiest Manner at the End of Six Years and leave a Surplus of several Thousand Pounds in your Hands, to be disposed of as You think fit; but I am sorry to find You are not satisfied with this, and that for the Ten Thousand Pounds now granted to his Majestie's Use You are desirous of obtaining more than three Times that Sum in Return, and urge as a Precedent for my Behaviour what was done by my Predecessor on a like Occasion.

"I have no Desire, Gentlemen, to detract from the Merit of your late Governor, of which I allow him to have had a great deal; he might possibly have Reasons to influence his Conduct, to which I am hitherto a Stranger, yet if one may judge from the Circumstances of his not having communicated them to those who at that Time had the greatest Share of his Confidence, and of his having never transmitted that Act for the Royal Approbation, I am inclined to think they were such as he himself was not very well pleased with. For my own Part, as I never made the Actions of another the Rule of my Conduct farther than I thought them founded in Reason, and as at present I see none for altering my Opinion with regard to the proposed Amendment, I shall not recede from it but upon Condition that You enlarge the Sum given for his Majestie's Use, in which case I will agree to extend the Act in such Manner as to sink it in the same Proportions.

"But it is possible, Gentlemen, that more may be concealed under this Sollicitude for a long Extension of the Excise than You have thought proper to reveal, otherwise I cannot account for your desiring to extend it so much beyond the usual Term, which in this Province never exceeded Five Years till the late Governor thought fit to grant it for Ten, for no good Reason I have ever heard given or believe possible to be given.

"It is well known that by the Laws now in Force the Publick Money is solely in the Disposal of the Assembly, without the Participation of the Governor; nevertheless while these Acts by which Money was raised were of short Duration, the Governor had now and then an Opportunity of obliging the Assembly in a very essential Manner by a Renewal of those Acts, and thereby of making himself acceptable to them, but to extend them to such an unreasonable Length of Time as You now desire might be to render him in a great Measure unnecessary to them during the Continuance of those Acts, but upon Terms very disagreeable to himself as well as injurious to his Constituents. To this Condition, therefore, I will not be the Means of reducing any Successor of mine, and this Circumstance is of no small additional Weight with me to adhere to my Amendment.

"You will please to observe, Gentlemen, that the Question betwixt You and me is not which of Us is best acquainted with the Circumstances of the People, but whether it be reasonable to burden them with a Tax for a long Term of Time without any apparent Necessity. If any such had occurred to You I cannot but think You would have made Mention of it in your Message, but as You have not been pleased to point it out to me, I must of course conclude none such has appeared to You.

"You are exceedingly mistaken, Gentlemen, if You really do suppose me either to have changed my Sentiments with respect to the Importance of the present Occasion for Supplies or that I am less apprehensive of the Dangers to which We are at present exposed from the Invasion of a Foreign Power than when by my several Messages I represented them to You and called upon You for such Supplies as might enable me to resist the Invaders and repel Force by Force. On the contrary, I am fully sensible that the Danger is become more imminent from the certain Account I have received of the Hostilities committed by them and of their having made themselves Masters of a Fortress which was building by Order of the Governor of Virginia on his Majestie's Lands, and of their having driven away the English Garrison. Of this You must likewise be sensible from the accounts I communicated to You, if You do not wilfully oppose the Conviction of your own Senses and shut your Eyes to the great Dangers that threaten the Country of which You are the Representatives, and which by every Tye both human and divine You are bound to cherish and protect, to which End I once

more call upon You pursuant to his Majestie's Orders for such Supplics as the present Emergency of Affairs requires.

"Upon the whole, Gentlemen, I have already gone farther in my Condescensions to please You than I am warranted to do by the King's Instruction, unless You will make an addition to the Sum mentioned in the Bill, and have at my own Risque extended the Currency of the Money to be issued on this occasion for a year longer than the utmost Term allowed to the Eastern Governments by the late Act of Parliament.

"I well know the State of your publick Funds, and that the Loan Office itself were the Money duly collected is able to furnish a much larger Sum than You have thought fit to grant to his Majesty upon this important Occasion, independant of the Interest hereafter to accrue, which, together with the Excise, make up a Revenue of more than Six Thousand Pounds a Year. This Money belongs to the People, and had You thought fit might have been employed for the Service recommended to You without laying any additional Tax upon them before it became necessary. I have, nevertheless, consented to gratify You in extending the Excise for such Time as is more than sufficient to repay the Sum granted to his Majesty without breaking in upon either of your present Funds or the outstanding Interest of the Loan Office, which I cannot estimate together with the broken Interest at less than Twelve Thousand Pounds. If, then, considering the favourable State of your Finances You shall decline to do what his Majesty so justly expects from you, merely on account of my refusing wholly to disregard his Majestie's Instruction, which would justly subject me to his highest Displeasure, and to join with You in laying a Tax upon the People without its appearing to me to be in the least necessary, I think I may more justly impute to You a wanton Disregard of his Majestie's Commands and of the Security and Protection of your Constituents than You can insinuate of me a Lukewarmness with Regard to his Majestie's Service, of which I have the greatest Detestation, and from which I hoped my Conduct thro' this whole affair might have exempted me.

"Let me, therefore, Gentlemen, recommend to your serious attention a Review of your Conduct upon the present Occasion, and if You shall find that You have been too precipitate in the Resolution contained in your Message, let me entreat You to rectify it before it be too late, for as I must be obliged soon to lay this whole Transaction before his Majesty, 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 should still persist in refusing to accept of my Amendment, and the Bill should by that Means be lost, I cannot but apprehend some unhappy Consequences to the Province from your extraordinary Behaviour.

"17th May, 1754.”

"JAMES HAMILTON.

The following Message was delivered to the Governor on the eighteenth Day of May by Two Members, who acquainted him "that the House on seeing no Prospect of being farther useful to the Publick in the present Sitting, and their private Affairs in this busy Season of the Year requiring their Attendance at their respective Homes, were enclined to adjourn to the nineteenth Day of August." "To which his Honour said "He had no Objection; but desired that the Gentlemen would acquaint the House that as some Parts of the Minutes of Assembly of this Season might be necessary to be mentioned in the Representation the Governor found himself obliged to make to his Majesty, in Answer to his Royal Order relating to the Invasion of his Dominions by the French and their Indian allies, he desired the House would direct a Copy thereof be delivered to him, or permit a Person to be by him appointed to take the same from their Journal as soon as conveniently might be."

"May it please the Governor :

"We have deliberately considered the Governor's several Messages, together with the Letters He has been pleased to lay before Us, relating to the ensuing Treaty to be held at Albany, in which We thankfully observe the Care He has taken to 'obtain the best Intelligence he was able of what was proposed to be transacted at that Treaty for the general Benefit and Advantage of these Colonies, and of every other Thing relating thereto which he conceived necessary for our Information;' And as he has been pleased to request our Sentiments on the Instructions to be given the Gentlemen Commissioners on the Part of this Province, to which he will pay the greatest Regard,' We can do no less than return him our grateful Acknowledgements for his Condescension and Justice, and would chearfully comply therewith at this Time, but when we consider that no Propositions for an Union of the Colonies in Indian Affairs can effectually answer the good Purposes, or be binding farther than they are confirmed by Laws enacted under the several Governments comprized in that Union, that We know not what Restrictions the Governor may lie under in passing our Acts, and that we have very little Reason to depend upon any Assistance in our Indian Expences where by a former Assembly it has been respectfully addressed for, and where we think in Justice We have a Right to expect it. We are, under these Circumstances, at a Loss to advise him on the important articles he has been pleased to propose to our Consideration; nevertheless, as we have already declared our Satisfaction in the Gentlemen the Governor has been pleased to name for this Commission, so We confide in their Abilities and Prudence to answer the Ends proposed in the Letter from the Lords of Trade of the Eighteenth of September last, by renewing at this Interview the Covenant Chain with the Six Nations, and by frustrating, as far as lies in their Power, any Attempts which have been made to withdraw them from