Letter from the Earl of Hillsborough to Gov. Franklin, relative to the bill of the New Jersey Assembly for issuing £100,000. Sir, [From P. R. O. America and West Indies, Vol. 174 (192).] WHITEHALL. March the 22nd 1769. Governor of New Jersey. I have received and laid before the King, your letter of the 28th of January, containing observations upon a Bill, (inclosed therein) for issuing One Hundred Thousand Pounds in paper Bills of Credit upon Loan. This letter and the Bill therein referred to, have been by His Majesty's Command communicated to the Lords of Trade for their Consideration, and I shall not fail to transmit to you, by the earliest opportunity, such instructions as His Majesty shall think fit to give you, in consequence of their Lordships' report. With regard to the letter from the Speaker of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, mentioned in your dispatch of the 28th of January, it is impossible to foresee in what manner it may be treated by the Assembly, in case they should take up the Consideration of it, and therefore I cannot give you any precise instructions upon that head; If however their Proceedings upon this letter should be of such a disrespectfull and unwarrantable Nature as to amount to a denial of the authority of the Legislature to enact Laws binding upon the Colonies in all cases whatsoever, it will certainly become you to shew a proper resentment of such Conduct; But it is His Majesty's Pleasure that you should exert your utmost endeavours to reduce the Minds of His Subjects in New Jersey to that just confidence in His Government, which a calm and dispassionate consideration of it, cannot fail of making them see the strongest foundation for. Your letters No 13 & 14. were received yesterday, and have been laid before the King, and I shall be very glad if your letter N° 13, so far as it is intended to be a fair and candid justification of your own Conduct, shall produce in His Majesty's Mind the effect you wish. I am &c HILLSBOROUGH Order of the Lords of the Committee of Council for Plantation Affairs, directing the preparation of Drafts of Instructions to the Governors of the several Colonies and Plantations in America for regulating their conduct in respect to bills for raising money by way of lottery. L. S. [From P. R. O. B. T. Plantations General, Vol. 30 (28), V. 16.] AT THE COUNCIL CHAMBER WHITEHALL By the Right Honourable the Lords of the His Majesty having been pleased to referr unto this Committee, a Representation from the Lords Commissioners for Trade and plantations, Dated the 7th of last Month, proposing (for the Reasons therein Contained) that proper Instructions should be Circulated to the Governors or Commanders in Chief of the several Colonies and plantations in America, directing them not to give their Assent to any Act of their re spective Legislatures, whereby Money is proposed to be raised by the Institution of publick or private Lotteries; but that in all Instances, where the exigency of the Case may seem to Warrant a departure from such general restriction, the Governor under such Circumstances, may be Instructed to transmit proposals as Heads of a Bill for this purpose, Stating the Reasons which, in his Opinion, makes such a measure Expedient, and submitting the whole before it is attempted to be passed into a Law, to His Majestys Consideration and decision. The Lords of the Committee, in Obedience to His Majestys said Order of Reference, this Day took the said Consideration [Representation] into Consideration, and are hereby pleased to Order that the said Lords Commissioners for Trade and plantations, do prepare and lay before this Committee, Draughts of Instructions to the respective Governors of the several Colonies and Plantations in America Agreable to what is above proposed. STEPH: COTTRELL 1 This subject had come before the King in Council, March 6, 1769, when a lottery act of the Pennsylvania Assembly was under consideration. The Lords of Trade had reported that "they could not omit observing that this is a practice which in their opinion ought by no means to be encouraged, as obviously tending to disengage and mislead Adventurers therein from Industry and Attention to their proper callings and Occupations, and introduce a Spirit of Dissipation prejudicial to the Fortunes of Individuals, and the Interests of the Public."-Penn. Col. Records, IX., 638. This doubtless led to the promulgation of the Order in Council, given above. Lotteries had been prohibited by acts of the New Jersey Assembly, of December 16, 1748, and December 5, 1760, but public sentiment favored lotteries, and the acts in question did not prove "effectual for the Purposes thereby intended," and other acts were passed March 11, 1774, and February 13, 1797, for the same purpose.-Nevill's Laws, I., 405; Allinson's Laws, 187, 234, 415; Paterson's Laws, folio ed., 227. For some account of Provincial Lotteries, see Whitehead's Contributions to East Jersey History, 321.-[W. N.] Representation from the Lords of Trade to the King, recommending disallowance of an Act of the New Jersey Assembly for issuing £100,000 in Bills of Credit. [From P. R. O., B. T., New Jersey, Vol. 17, p. 212.] WHITEHALL May 2a1 1769 To the King's most Excellent Majesty. May it please your Majesty, We have had under Our Consideration a Bill passed by the Council and Assembly of Your Majesty's Province of New Jersey, for making Current one hundred thousand Pounds in Bills of Credit." Whereupon we humbly beg leave to represent to Your Majesty; That this Bill which for the reasons set forth in the Preamble, was passed by the Council and Assembly of New Jersey for the purpose of emitting one hundred thousand Pounds in Bills of Credit upon loan, enacts, that the said Bills of Credit shall pass current in the above Province for the several Sums for which they shall be struck, thereby importing that the same shall be received within this Province as a legal Tender in payments of Money. From this without instancing any other objection, it is obvious, that the above Bill in its present form cannot be allowed to pass into a Law, as being contradictory to an Act of Parliament passed in the 4th Year of Your Majesty's Reign for preventing paper Bills of Credit thereafter to be issued in any of Your Majesty's Colonies or Plantations in America, from being declared to be a legal Tender in payments of Money; But as your Majesty's Governor of New Jersey strongly represents the necessity of an Act of this nature free from the objection above stated, and therefore prays to receive Your Majesty's Instructions thereupon before the next meeting of the Council and Assembly at which time he expects they will pass such another Bill and press for his Assent, we do for these reasons humbly recommend to Your Majesty to signify to your said Governor, in case the actual necessity of emitting Bills of Credit upon loan to the high amount now proposed can be made to appear, and provided care be taken effectually to observe the restrictions of the Act of Parliament prohibiting such Bills to be deemed a legal Tender that no objection occurs why an Act of Assembly under proper limitations should not be allowed to be passed for the purposes above mentioned but as many regulations may be found necessary, when a measure of this consequence shall come under consideration which cannot now be pointed out and prescribed, we would humbly propose to your Majesty that Your Governor of New Jersey should be expressly restrained from assenting to any proposals for the above purposes whereby the same may be carried into effect without reference to Your Majesty's Approbation for which end we humbly recommend, that he should be directed either to transmit them (as in the present instance) in the form of a Bill, or if the same shall be passed into an Act, to take Care that a Clause shall be inserted therein, suspending its execution till Your Majesty's pleasure thereupon can be obtained. Which is most humbly submitted. |
