of the Money due for the Maintenance of the Indians in their return homewards; we observe their frequent Visits put the Province to considerable Charge, whereas Part of their Business often is either for the Sale of Land to the Proprietaries or other Matters relative thereunto. We therefore hope the Governor will take an opportunity of recommending it to the Proprietaries that they may bear a Share of the Expence, who receive so great a Part of the Benefit by the Coming of the Indians.

"Signed by Order of the House.

"October 18th, 1749."

"JOHN KINSEY, Speaker.

The Report of the Committee of Assembly of the Province of the State of the Paper Currency.

"That in the Year 1739 an Account was settled by the Assembly of all the Bills of Credit issued by several Acts from their first Emission in the Year 1723 to that time, by which it appears that the Sum of £80,000 and no more was then current in this Province, which being reduced to Sterling Money of Great Britain amounted to £50,196. At which Time, also, the same Assembly upon an exact and careful Enquiry, settled the Rates of Gold and Silver Coin by ascertaining the Prices at which they were received and paid, or bought and sold from the Year 1700 to that Year, Since which our Bills of Credit have continued nearly the same both in the Total Sum and the Value when reduced to Gold and Silver or Sterling Money; But such Alterations and Addition as have been since made we have comprized in the following Account:

"In the Year 1745, an Act of Assembly was past for continuing the Currency of the aforesaid £80,000 for sixteen Years; during the first ten years whereof the whole sum is to be kept up by lending out or Re-emitting the yearly Quotas or payments as they become due upon the same real Securities, and under the same Penalties and Restrictions as directed by former Acts; In which, besides obliging the Borrowers to give Land, Plate, or Houses in Security of double the value of the sum borrowed; it is further provided that no one Person shall borrow more than £100. And after the expiration of ten years as aforesaid, the Act provides, That onesixth Part of all the Bills of Credit shall be paid in yearly in order to be sunk and destroyed, by which means the whole £80,000 is to be paid in and destroyed in sixteen years from the time of issuing those Bills, which was the 15th of October, 1746.

"In the Year 1746, an Act was past giving £5,000 to the King's use, to be sunk in ten yearly Payments of £500 each by the Treasurer, out of Money arising from the Excise, yearly payable into his Hands, Which Bills of Credit were accordingly made and issued in Pursuance of the said Act, and applied by Colonel Thomas, then

Lieutenant Governor, to an Expedition at that Time on Foot against Canada, So that the whole amount of Bills of Credit current in the Province at this Time is £85,000 and no more, which reduced to Sterling money of Great Britain is £53,333 6 8.

"Permit us to add, that our Paper Bills being found by Experience much below the Sum necessary to carry on our Trade, which of late Years has been very much increased, especially to Great Britain, and yet should we be deprived of those Paper Bills, small as the sum is it would in a great Measure disable Us from paying the yearly Balance of Trade against Us to our Mother Country, and consequently oblige Us to engage in sundry manufactures here, which we have from thence. Tho' our Payments at this Time are chiefly in Gold and Silver, which for several Years have passed current among Us at Eight Shillings and Six Pence per Ounce for Silver and Six Pounds Five Shillings per Ounce for Gold, and at those Rates are continually remitted home but must be detained here if we are deprived of our other Currency.

"Submitted to the Correction of the House by

"18th October 1749."

"ISRAEL PEMBERTON, "THOMAS LEECH,

"EDWARD WARNER,

"JAMES MORRIS.

The Governor was acquainted by the Members who delivered the Assembly's Answer that the House inclin'd to adjourn to the 20th of November next, to which he agreed.

MEMORANDUM.

The Secretary, by the Governor's Order, made a State of the Paper Currency agreeable to the above Report; and the Governor wrote the following Letter to His Grace the Duke of Bedford: "May it Please Your Grace:

"In obedience to His Majestie's Commands, signified to me by your Grace's Letter of the 19th of July last, I have caused to be prepared by the Secretary of His Majestie's Province of Pennsylvania, and Government of the Counties of Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex, on Delaware, Accounts of the Tenor and Amount of all the Bills of Credit which have been emitted and are at this Time outstanding within the aforesaid Government; and as upon Examination I believe them to be exact and true, I do myself the Honour to transmit them as such to your Grace; being with all possible Regard,

"Your Grace's most obedient and most humble Servant, JAMES HAMILTON.

'Pennsylvania, 26th October, 1749."

MEMORANDUM.

The Governor sent the like Message to the Assembly at New Castle, and received from them the following Report, which was alter'd by the Secretary in the Form tho' not in the Substance; and the Governor transmitted the Secretarie's State of the Paper Currency of the Lower Counties at the same time to his Grace the Duke of Bedford.

Report of the Committee of Assembly of the Lower Counties of the State of the Paper Currency.

"Pursuant to the Order of the House we have consider'd the present State of the Bills of Credit now circulating in this Government, as also the State of a Paper Currency in general from the time of its first Emission among us. We have likewise inspected the several Laws by which the said Bills of Credit have been issued; and we do report:

"That in the Year of our Lord 1723 there was £5,000 struck to pass current, according to the Statute made in the Sixth Year of the late Queen Ann for ascertaining the Rates of Foreign Coins in the American Plantations, And in 1726 a further Sum was struck of £6,000, both which Sums have been duly paid in to the Publick Loan Offices and sunk according to the Directions of the Acts whereby they were emitted. In the Year 1729 there was an Emission of £12,000, and in 1734 a farther Emission of £12,000, equal in Value to the Rates of Foreign Coins as ascertained in the aforementioned Act. And in the Year 1740 One Thousand Pounds more was emitted and appropriated to His Majestie's Use for victualling and transporting of the Troops raised in this Government to the West Indies. And in the Year 1746, upon stating the Accounts of the General Loan Offices, it appeared that £5,000 had been paid in and sunk according to the Directions of the said Acts; and that but £20,000 then remained circulating among Us, which Sum and no more is made current by an Act for Re-Emitting the same and exchanging such Bills of the former Emissions as are directed to be sunk and destroyed.

"And the said Act doth farther direct and ordain that from and after the 28th Day of May, 1747, the said £20,000 shall be the only Sum in Bills of Credit current in this Government; and that all Bills of Credit made and emitted by Virtue of any former Act or Acts of Assembly of this Government from the said 28th Day of May, shall cease to be current, and from thenceforth become null and void. And we do farther report:

"That the said £20,000 is but an Equivalent to £12,549 Sterling, and barely sufficient to carry on our Trade and Commerce.

"We likewise lay before the House that in the issuing of the VOL. V.-27.

said Bills the Act directs, That no one Borrower shall have above Sixty Pounds, for which he is to give in Mortgage of Lands in Fee Simple to double the Value, and for Houses built upon Lands subject to Ground Rents to triple the Value, and on good Plate redeemable in one Year at the Value of Six Shillings per Ounce; And the said Act also directs, That on the Twenty-Eighth Day of February, in the Year of our Lord 1758, all the said Bills are to be duly examined and compared by a Committee to be chosen by the Assembly, and then burnt and destroyed in their Presence.

"And we crave Leave to say, that by the moderate Sums that we have had from time to time emitted we have been enabled to shew our Loyalty to our Gracious Sovereign and make an Honourable Support for Government, improve our Lands and Commerce, and without which we should have found it impracticable to have advanced the Sum given as above mentioned to his Majestie's Use.

"Which is humbly submitted to the Correction of the House per Us,

"JEHU CURTIS,
"JAMES GORRELL,
"JACOB KOLLOCH.”

MEMORANDUM.

The 20th November, 1749.

A Message was deliver'd to the Governor by two Members that the House was met according to their Adjournment and ready to receive any Thing he might have to lay before them. The Governor made Answer that if any thing should occur to him proper for the Consideration of the House during their Sitting he would communicate it by Message.

MEMORANDUM.

The 24th of November, 1749.

The Governor received by the Post the following Letter from Mr. Phipps, with a Copy of an Account of the Charge of Pris

oners:

"To the Honourable JAMES HAMILTON, Esqr., Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania, &c.

"Sir:

"I am informed that his Excellency Governor Shirley had settled an agreement with the Governor of Canada (so far as related to this Government), and the Charge of transporting English Prisoners should be defrayed by the English Governments, and the Charge of transporting French Prisoners by their Government; and that upon

his Excellency's informing the Governors of the several Colonies, the most of them had signified their Approbation of this Methodt I am likewise informed that in the Year 1746 there were brough. into this Province in a Flag of Truce sent by the Governors of Canada, called the La Vierge de Grace, a great Number of English Captains, some of them being Europeans but the most of them belonging to the English Provinces and Colonies in America, and that about the same Time his Excellency had sent a Flag of Truce to Canada with French Prisoners at the Expence of this Government, and that his Excellency sent circular Letters to the Governors of the English Colonies aforementioned with Lists of the several Prisoners belonging to their respective Governments, wherein he inform'd them that as soon as the Accounts of the Charges of the Flags of Truce and the Proportions of the several English Governments thereto were adjusted, he would send them to the said Governors that so they might reimburse the Governor of Canada what Charges he had been at for transporting the English Prisoners belonging to their Government. Soon after this the Court House in Boston was burnt, and therein all the Papers relating to the fitting out the French Flag of Truce, which made it necessary that those Accounts should be had from Canada, in order to state the particular Part each of the English Governments ought to bear to the Charge of transporting their Prisoners, and I find the said Accounts were sent here a little before Governor Shirley's Departure, and an Account has been stated between the said Governor Shirley and the Governor of Canada and sent to Quebec by a Person gone there for the Redemption of Captives, and the Governor of Canada has been assur'd that all possible Care should be taken for recovering from each Government their Proportion of the Charge. I shall now send your Honour a Copy of the Account, by which you will perceive the Number of Persons belonging to your Government is six, and the Proportion of the Charge £174 8 5, which I must pray your Honour would cause to be paid into my Hands as soon as may be, and the same shall be remitted to the Governor of Canada, and I doubt not your more ready Compliance when you consider as appears by the Account that this Province will be obliged to pay in Proportion beyond any other Government, as the greatest Part of the Charge of the Europeans and other uncertain Persons, both in this Vessel and another sent to Louisbourg, will fall upon them. "I am, Sir,

"Your Honour's most humble and most obedient Servant,

"S. PHIPS."

The Charge of the Ship La Vierge de Grace amounted, as appears by the Contract, to 10,000 Livres, each Livre being valued at Ten Shillings of the Currency of New England makes the Sum of £5,000.