Letter from the Earl of Hillsborough to Governor Franklin, relative to making provision for quartering the King's troops, and expressing the King's satisfaction with the submission of the Colonies to the Authority of the Mother Country.

Sir,

[From P. R. O. America and West Indies, Vol. 173 (191).]

WHITEHALL, Feb'ry 23 1768

Governor of New Jersey.

Since the Earl of Shelburne's Letter to You, dated the 18th of July last,' Your several Letters to His Lordship, No 3. 4. 5. have been received, and laid before the King.

The Law passed in June last for making Provision for quartering His Majesty's Troops, is before the Lords of Trade for their Consideration, and it will be a great Satisfaction to His Majesty, if upon their Lordships Examination of it, It shall be found to be conformable to what has been directed in that Case by Act of Parliament."

The very becoming Testimonies which have been lately given by almost all His Majesty's Colonies of their dutyfull Submission and Obedience, to the Laws and Authority of the Mother Country, have given His Majesty the greatest Satisfaction, & cannot fail of restoring that mutual Confidence so essential to the Interest and Welfare of both.

As the future Disposition of His Majesty's Troops in

1 New Jersey Archives, IX., 636.

2 This act was passed June 24, 1767.-Allinson's Laws, 300-1. The Board of Trade recommended its repeal, June 10, 1768, and it was repealed by the King in Council, August 12, 1768.-See post, under these dates. See also N. J. Archives, IX., 576, note.-W. N.]

America, will very soon come under the Consideration of the King's Servants,' I shall not fail on this Occasion to have a proper Attention to what is suggested by You in respect to the Dissatisfaction arising from the Inequality of the Expence attending the Manner in which they are at present stationed.

The Attention which has always been given by the Commander in Chief of His Majesties Forces in America, to establish good Order & Discipline, leaves no room to doubt, but that every Irregularity & improper Behaviour, either of the Officers or Soldiers, would, upon a proper Complaint, be severely punished, and therefore, it can never with Reason be urged, that the Injuries sustained by the disorderly Behaviour of the Soldiers, counterbalance the Advantages which the Colonies receive from the Money which is spent amongst Them.

I am &c

HILLSBOROUGH.

An Account of His Majesty's dejacing in Council the old Seals of several of the Islands and Colonies in America.

[From P. R. O. B. T., Plantations General, Vol. 30 (28), V. 3.]

AT THE COURT AT ST JAMES'S THE 20TH DAY OF

APRIL, 1768.

PRESENT

The King's most Excellent Majesty in Council

WHEREAS there was this Day laid before His Majesty in Council pursuant to His Majesty's Orders in Council and Warrants the old Seals which have been

1 Under date of October 22, 1767, Governor Franklin had suggested that England should "appropriate some of the Monies arising out of the Revenues of the Crown in America, and the Defraying of those Expences for the future."-N. J. Archives, IX., 643.-W. N.]

received from the following Islands and Colonies in America in Order to their being Defaced Viz! Jamaica, Barbados, Leward Islands, South Carolina, Georgia, Nova Scotia, New York New Jersey and Massachusetts Bay And his Majesty was pleased to Deface the said Seals accordingly.

Circular Letter from the Earl of Hillsborough to the Governors in America, relative to a flagitious attempt to disturb the public peace.

Sir

[From New York Colonial Documents, Vol. VIII., p. 58.]

WHITEHALL, APRILI, 21. 1768

I have his Majesty's Commands to transmit to you the enclosed copy of a letter from the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, addressed by order of that House to the Speaker of the Assembly of each Colony upon the Continent of North America.

As his Majesty considers this Measure to be of a most dangerous & factious tendency calculated to inflame the minds of his good Subjects in the Colonies. to promote an unwarrantable Combination and excite and encourage an open opposition to and denial of the Authority of Parliament, & to subvert the true principles of the Constitution; It is his Majesty's pleasure that you should immediately upon the Receipt hereof exert your utmost influence to defeat this flagitious attempt to disturb the Public Peace by prevailing upon the Assembly of your Province to take no notice of it, which will be treating it with the contempt it deserves. The repeated proofs which have been given by the Assembly of of their Reverence and respect for the laws, and of their faithful Attachment to the Con

stitution, leave little Room in his Majesty's Breast to doubt of their shewing a proper Resentment of this unjustifiable Attempt to revive those distractions which have operated so fatally to the prejudice of this Kingdom and the Colonies; and accordingly his Majesty has the fullest confidence in their Affections But if notwithstanding these expectations and your most earnest endeavors, there should appear in the Assembly of your Province a disposition to receive or give any Countenance to this Seditious Paper,' it will be your duty to prevent any proceeding upon it by an immediate Prorogation or Dissolution.

I am &ca

HILLSBOROUGH.

Commission of Daniel Smith, Jr., as Surveyor-General of West Jersey.

[From Book AB of Commissions, Secretary of State's Office, Trenton, fol. 11.] To all to whom these Presents shall come. We Abraham Hewlings Vice President, John Monrow, John Hinchman, Daniel Ellis, and William Hewlings, a Majority of the Council of proprietors of the Western Division of the Colony of New Jersey send Greeting

This circular letter of the Massachusetts Assembly is printed in full in the Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. IV., 1st Series, p. 286. It conveys in the most respectful language the sentiments of the Assembly in regard to the operation of the several acts of Parliament imposing duties and taxes on the American Colonies. It asserts that His Majesty's American subjects have an equitable claim to the full enjoy. ment of the fundamental rules of the British Constitution; that in this Constitution is engrafted as a fundamental law the unalterable right in nature, that what a man has honestly acquired is absolutely his own, which he may freely give, but cannot be taken from him without his consent; that the American subjects may, therefore, exclusive of any consideration of charter rights, with a decent firmness, adapted to the character of free men and subjects, assert this natural constitutional right; that it was, moreover, the humble opinion of the Assembly, expressed with the greatest deference to the wisdom of Parliament, that the acts made there imposing duties on the people of that Province, with the sole and express purpose of raising a revenue, are infringements of the natural constitutional rights, because as they are not represented in the British Parliament, His Majesty's Commons in

Know Ye that by virtue of the Powers and priviledges to the General Proprietors of the said Western Division of the said Colony granted by his late Majesty King Charles the Second by his Letters Patent under the Great Seal of England And in pursuance of the Trust and Power lodged and reposed in us and in our Successors, Councillors Elected by the said General Proprietors by the Original Concessions We have Constituted and appointed, and by these presents do Constitute and appoint Daniel Smith junior' of the City of

Britain by those acts grant their property without their consent; that were the right of Parliament ever so clear, yet for obvious reasons it would be beyond the rules of equity that their constituents should be taxed on the manufactures of Great Britain, in addition to the duties they pay for them in England, and other advantages arising to Great Britain from the Acts of Trade.

In this circular letter it is also stated that the House of Assembly had, in an humble, dutiful and loyal petition to His Majesty, submitted it to consideration whether any people can be said to enjoy any degree of freedom, if the Crown, in addition to its undoubted authority of constituting a Governor, should also appoint him such a stipend as it shall judge proper, without the consent of the people, and at their expense; and whether, while the judges of the land, and other civil officers in the Province, hold not their commissions during good behavior, their having salaries appointed by the Crown, independent of the people, hath not a tendency to subvert the principles of equity and endanger the happiness and security of the subject.

The circular further states that the Assembly had in a letter to their Agent in England directed him to lay before the ministry the hardship of the act for preventing mutiny and desertion, which requires the Governor and Council to provide enumerated articles for the King's marching troops, and the people to pay the expense, and also the commission appointing Commissioners of the Customs to reside in America, which authorizes them to make as many appointments as they think fit, and to pay the appointees what sums they please, for whose mal-conduct they are not accountable, from whence it may happen that officers of the Crown may be multiplied to such a degree as to become dangerous to the liberties of the people, by virtue of a commission which doth not appear to the House to derive any such advantages to trade, as many have been led to expect.

The circular concludes with an expression of the House in "their firm confidence in the King, our common head and father, that the united and dutiful supplica. tions of his distressed American subjects will meet with his royal and favorable acceptance."

Such is the circular which Lord Hillsborough denounces as a "seditious paper," declaring it to be the duty of the Governors of the Provinces to prevent any proceedings upon it.

1 DANIEL SMITH, JR., was the second son of Robert Smith, of Burlington; he called himself “junior" during the life time of his uncle, Daniel Smith. "He was a man of extensive reading, gentle, affectionate and religious in his disposition, but by no means devoid of energy. On the contrary, being chosen to the office of Surveyor-General, he filled it many years with great ability. He was a real estate lawyer and conveyancer by profession, and occupied during his life, the venerable