withdrawing the Allegiance due to the Crown of England? (from which all Lands within its Dominions must be held mediately or immediately) Or is it not an Overt Act or Endeavour, to establish the Dominion of the Indian from whom the Tenure is, and to destroy the Dominion of the Crown of England in this Province? And do not those Overt Acts or Endeavours in their Nature approach to High Treason?

If the Facts of barely treating for, or procuring an Indian Deed, without the Right of the Crown of England so to do, be in their Nature approaching to the Crime of High Treason, what must be the Pretence of holding Lands by them only?—The assembling of Multitudes in a riotous Manner to defend such Pretence?— The obstructing with those Multitudes the due Course of the Law? The taking from the King's Officer, the Sheriff of the County, the Possession of his Majesty's Prison? The breaking open his Majesty's Prison, and rescuing the Prisoners there lawfully committed, &c. &c.? And what must the publick avowing of all those Things in Print, by the Post-Boy of February 17th, and Mr. Jenkins's Letter be?

These are Questions, that had the Seducers been honest Men, they would have considered, first, how they could have answered them themselves? And if they could answer them to their own Satisfactions, without withdrawing their Allegiance from the Crown of England; then, secondly, they ought to have acquainted the People with them and with their Answers, and ought not to have. blindly led a poor ignorant People in the Dark, into the Crimes they have committed against those Laws and the King's Peace, and all this thro' the silly Position aforesaid, false in it self, as the Indians had no Notion of Property in Lands more than in Air, until the Christians came amongst them (except in the small Spots on which they planted their Indian Corn, and those Spots did

not occupy so much as one Acre of a Thousand Acres; so that the remaining 999 Acres might properly be said to be void and uninhabited, and in the Power of the Crown absolutely to grant; and except as to Hunting.)

And as by what we have now published, Mr. Jenkins, and other the People seduced, will be acquainted with what, we apprehend, has been kept hid from them by the Seducers; we hope they will be sensible of the Crimes they have committed or countenanced, and abhor them and the Seducers; will burn their Indian Deeds, that they have lately got for some Bottles of Rum, that they rise not in Judgment against them, to subject them to the Punishments and Penalties of the Laws, and flie to the Mercy of the Laws, for the Expiation of their criminal Riots, and to the Mercy of the Owners of the Lands they have been pillaging and wasting, to make them what Amends is in their Power for so doing.

By Order of the Council of Proprietors of East New-Jersey.

LAUR. SMYTH, Clerk.

Samuel Nevill's' Speech in the Assembly of New Jersey-in answer to the Rioters' Petition.

[From New York Post-Boy, May 19th and May 26th.]

Mr. Nevill's Speech to the House of Representatives of the Colony of New Jersey, on the Second Reading of the Petition, from a

1

Samade Novill

came to East Jersey in May, 1736, brought out by the death of his sister, who had been the wife of Peter Sonmans and inherited his property. Mr. Nevill had been editor

of the London Morning Post, and the few memorials of him still existing indicate the possession of character and talents much above mediocrity. He soon rose to

Number of Persons stiling themselves Inhabitants chiefly of the Northern Part of the Province of New-Jersey, on Saturday the 26th of April, 1746.

Mr. Speaker,

I look upon the Petition now read, as a scandalous, false, abusive and inveterate Libel, upon a Set of Gentlemen who are more immediately under the Protection of his Majesty, as will appear by the Instructions given by the Crown, to the several Governors of this Colony, ever since the Surrender of the Government; I mean sir, the Proprietors of East New-Jersey, who are by the Petitioners traduced as guilty of Unjust Molestation, Virulent Oppression, Pretenders to Propriety, Invaders of the Rights and Properties of the People, and Encroachers upon the Heathen and Indian Natives, and True Proprietors of the Lands, under whom the Petitioners claim their Titles and

eminence in the Province, became a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, Mayor of Perth Amboy (then no trifling position), Second Judge of the Supreme Court, and filled several other important offices to the credit of himself, and it is believed to the satisfaction of the Government and the well disposed among the people. He was a member of the Provincial Assembly at various times, and prominent in the dissensions which occurred during Governor Morris' administration. In 1752, while holding the office of Second Judge of the Supreme Court, Mr. Nevill commenced the publication of the laws of the Province in two volumes folio, which was a valuable service to the Province. In 1758, under the sobriquet of "Sylvanus Americanus,”-in imitation, probably, of "Sylvanus Urban," of the London Gentleman's Magazine-he commenced editing a monthly periodical published at Woodbridge by James Parker, called The New American Magazine, being the first periodical of any kind printed in New Jersey, and only the second monthly magazine on the Continent. The appellation “New " was to distinguish it from its only predecessor, published in Philadelphia, which, however, was discontinued on the appearance of its competitor. On the death of Chief Justice Morris in January, 1764, he would probably have been raised to the vacant bench had not the infirmities of age rendered the performance of its duties by him impracticable. He died in October following, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. Whom he married is not known, but his wife preceded him to the grave, dying in 1755, and their simple headstones of gray slate yet mark their places of sepulture in the graveyard of St. Peter's Church, Perth Amboy. They left no children.-See Contributions to the Early History of Perth Amboy, pp. 120-124, etc.-ED.

Rights to their Possessions; and thereby deny the Right and Property of these Parts of the English Dominions to be vested in his Majesty, and charging the Crown of England with a Royal Fraud, and as guilty of the greatest Injustice; for the Proprietors cannot come under these opprobious Denominations, they having honestly paid for the Land which they claim Title to, and fairly obtained good and sufficient Conveyances for the same from the Crown, as manifestly appears by the Records of this Province. How this Honourable House will treat this Bold Attempt upon the Prerogative of the Crown, by calling in Question his Majesty's Right and Title to the Soil of New Jersey, who is the Proprietors immediate Warrantor and Defender, I must submit; and shall now only beg Leave (in Behalf of those injured Gentlemen, Proprietors) to answer the said libellous Petition, Paragraph by Paragraph. The Petition begins thus:

"We, our Ancestors, Predecessors, &c. having (as we suppose) made a Full and Just Purchase of sundry Tracts of Land (situate in this Province) of the Heathen Native Proprietors and Owners thereof, and of and from them, obtained Good and Lawful Grants or Deeds of Conveyance of the same, some of which Lands having been possessed by our Fathers and us some Scores of Years, we thought our Rights and Properties secure from Invasion, &c."

This, Mr. Speaker, I conceive is a Notorious Libel upon the Crown of England; for if the Purchases and Conveyances made and obtained by the Petitioners be Full and Just, Good and Lawful; then consequently the Purchases and Conveyances made and obtained by the Proprietors from the Crown of England, must be Void and Unjust, Bad and Unlawful, and of Course a Royal Fraud. But that the Crown fully intended to make good their Right and Title to the Lands of New Jersey, and to confirm them to the Proprietors, (to

whom they had conveyed them) plainly appears by the Instructions given by Queen Anne, to the Lord Cornbury, the First Governor of New Jersey, after the Surrender of this Government to the Crown. And this set of Instructions, Sir, agreed on at that Time to be granted by the Crown as their Concessions to the People, may be justly deemed the Magna Charta or Great Charter of the Colony of New Jersey; and to break through any of them, I esteem as an Infringement upon the Liberties and Properties of the People here; they being founded upon the Royal Word or Grant, and being Part of the Condition of the Surrender of the Government. I shall beg Leave, Sir, to read that Part of the Instructions relating to the Proprietors. [See the Substance in the Proprietors' Publication.']

These Instructions, Sir, have always been continued to the several succeeding Governors, and I doubt not are continued to His Excellency our present Governor to this Day; and were also recommended by His Excellency the Lord Cornbury to the first Assembly of this Colony after the said Surrender, in his first Speech to them, which I beg leave to read from the Minute Book of the said Assembly, now lying upon the Table, in the following Words, viz.

"I am likewise commanded to recommend to your Care the preparing one or more Bill or Bills, whereby the Right and Property of the General Proprietors to the Soil of this Province may be confirmed to them, according to their respective Titles, together with all Quit-Rents, and all other Privileges as are expressed in the Conveyances made by the Duke of York; except only the Right of Government, which remains in the Queen.

In Consequence of which Recommendation, the first

1See page 297 of this volume.