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Letter from Governor Franklin to the Earl of Hillsborough, relative to two Acts of the Assembly passed October, 1770.

[From P. R. O., America and West Indies, Vol. 176 (194).]

BURLINGTON May 5th 1772

Right Honble the Earl of Hillsborough

My Lord,

I am honoured with your Lordship's Dispatches of the 5th & 8th of February, and have likewise received those of M Pownall and M Knox dated the 11th and 18th of February.

I shall not fail to publish in the usual Manner, His Majesty's Royal Disallowance of the two Acts passed in Oct: 1770, and to pay Obedience to the Additional Instruction with regard to the passing of Laws relative to the Attachment of Lands, &c. belonging to Persons who have never resided in the Colony. It is necessary, however, that I should observe to your Lordship, that the Law for this Purpose, to which I gave my Assent, was passed exactly in the Manner directed by the present Instruction, having a Clause suspending the Execution thereof untill the Royal Will & Pleasure should be known thereupon; a Circumstance which I presume was not attended to, as it is not at all mentioned in the Report of the Board of Trade. Nor is there any Notice taken in the Board of Trade's Representation on the other Act (relative to the Purchases, &c. of Aliens) that it also contained a Clause of the same Nature, and a humble Prayer to His Majesty that it might be enacted. This, I believe is the only Mode which has ever been pursued here, in making Application for a Law which may affect any of His Majesty's Rights; and tho' it has the Form of a Law, for the Sake of more expeditiously obtaining the

Advantages proposed by it, is only considered in the Light of a Petition. But as their Lordships say, "that "it ought not to have been the Object of a Law of "this Colony without His Majesty's Permission first "obtained," I shall be careful for the future not to give my Assent to any Law of the like kind, even with a suspending Clause, unless a Permission has been previously obtained from His Majesty. For what has past I shall hope to be thought the more excusable as it was agreeably to the constant Practice of this and the neighbouring Colonies in such Cases, no ways repugnant to any of the Royal Instructions, and as a Law of a similar Nature had a short Time before been passed by the Governor of New York, which has since been allowed of and confirmed by His Majesty.

It gave me particular Pleasure to hear from your Lordship, that the Addresses of both Houses had passed with such Unanimity, as it Affords a Prospect of that Harmony which is so essential to His Majesty's Measures for the Good of his People.'

I very sincerely condole with your Lordship on the Deaths of their Royal Highnesses the Princess Dowager of Wales, and Princess Mary, Landgravine of Hesse Cassel, but am happy to find by your Lordships Letter, that His Majesty and the Rest of the Royal Family are as well as can be expected under such afflicting Events. The Orders for the Mourning and the additional Instruction directing the Form to be used in the Prayers for the Royal Family, I have caused to be made publick in the Manner usual upon such Occasions.

I have the Honour to be, with the greatest Respect, My Lord, Your Lordship's most obedient

& most humble Servant

W FRANKLIN

1 Neither the King's Speech at the opening of Parliament, nor the Addresses of the two Houses in reply, contained any reference to American affairs.

Letter from Gov. Franklin to the Earl of Hillsborough, transmitting the petition of the Presbyterian Clergy residing in New Jersey, praying that the Governor would grant them a charter to enable them to raise funds, etc.

[From P. R. O. America and West Indies, Vol. 176 (194).]

BURLINGTON May 11th 1772

Right Honble the Earl of Hillsborough.

My Lord,

Having some Time ago received a Petition from D Witherspoon, President of the College at Princeton, and a Number of other Presbyterian Ministers residing in this Province, praying that I would grant them a Charter to enable them to raise a Fund for the Support of their Widows and Children, I laid the same before the Council, with a Draft of the proposed Charter, which, by their Advice, was referred to the Attorney General for his Opinion. The Attorney General having his Doubts both as to the Expediency and Legality of the Measure, advised me to defer granting it until I obtain His Majesty's Direction thereupon. He likewise communicated to me a Copy of a Report of the Lords of the Committee of Council for Plantation Affairs on the 24th of August 1767, respecting a Petition for the Incorporation of the Presbyterian Ministers &c in New York, wherein it appears that the Board of Trade had not only made it a Question how far such an Establishment could be created by His Majesty consistent with his Coronation Oath founded on the Act of Queen Anne, but upon the fullest Consideration were of Opinion, that independent of the Objection arising out of this Question, it was not ex

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pedient upon Principles of general Policy to comply with the Prayer of that Petition, or to grant them any other Privileges than they are intitled to by the Laws of Toleration, in which Sentiments the Lords of the Committee of Council agreed, and reported to His Majesty that the said Petition ought to be dismissed, and it was dismissed accordingly. I laid the said Copy of the Report of the Lords Committee of Council, together with the Attorney General's Report, before His Majesty's Council in this Province (as your Lordship will see by the Minutes of the 21st of February enclosed) who were of Opinion, "That if the said Char "ter shall be so drawn as to be unexceptionable in "Point of Form, and shall be confined solely to the "Purposes of the Charitable Institution therein men"tioned, and the said Corporation made accountable "to this Board for the Monies they shall receive and pay by Virtue of the said Charter, then and in such "Case His Excellency may with Propriety order the "Great Seal to be affixed to the said Charter without "referring the same to the Consideration of His Ma"jesty's Ministers as advised by the Attorney General, "it appearing to the Council that the Reference made "to the Board of Trade from the Governor of New "York relative to a Charter for a Presbyterian Con"gregation in that Province, is by no means similar "to the Case in Question."-This was the Opinion of four of the six Counsellors then present whereupon the Attorney General was directed to report his Opinion concerning the Alterations necessary to be made therein which he accordingly did; But as I have Reason to think that had there been a full Meeting of the Council the Majority would have been of the same Sentiments as the Attorney General, as to the Propriety of waiting for His Majesty's Orders, and as His Majesty's Ministers were so lately of Opinion that "it was not expedient upon Principles of general Policy

to grant the Presbyterians at New York any other Privileges than they are intitled to by the Laws of Toleration," I could not think it proper to acquiesce in the Opinion which the Council gave me on the Occasion. I have therefore enclosed to your Lordship Copies of the Petition, the Draft of the proposed Charter, M' Ogden's Observations, the Attorney General's two Reports, and the Minutes of Council relative thereto, for His Majesty's Consideration, and shall be glad to be informed whether I may pass the said Charter, provided it is made conformable to the last Report of the Attorney General and the Sentiments of the Council. Charters for the like Purpose have been lately granted to the Clergy of the established Church of England in the Provinces of New York, New Jersey & Pennsylvania, a printed Copy of which is enclosed;"

The need of such an organization having been long apparent, at a meeting of the clergy at Elizabeth-town, in October, 1767, a committee was appointed to frame a plan. "In pursuance of this appointment, the Revd. Dr. Smith, Provost of the College of Philadelphia, the Rev. Dr. Auchmuty, Rector of Trinity Church, the Revd. Dr. Cooper, President of King's College, both of New York, and the Revd. Mr. Cook, Missionary in Monmouth county, New Jersey, met at Perth Amboy, May 12, 1768, and framed a plan; which, with some alterations, obtained the approbation of sundry succeeding meetings of the clergy. A draught of a Charter was also agreed upon, and Charters soon afterwards passed in each of the three Provinces of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, by which the Clergy, and a number of the most respectable Laity named with them, are created a body corporate, in which ever of these Provinces they may meet, or have occasion to transact business. The first meeting of the corporation, agreeable to charter, was convened at the city of Burlington, in New Jersey, October 4th, being the first Wednesday after the Feast of St. Michael, 1769.”—An Abstract of the Proceedings of the Corporation for the Relief of the Widows and Children of Glergymen, in the Communion of the Church of England in America, Philadelphia, 1773, 3, 4. "The charter granted in Pennsylvania, is dated February 7, 1769; that in New Jersey March 29, and that in New York September 29, both of the same year; and by a rule of the corporation the annual meetings are to be held by rotation, once in three years, in each of the three Provinces."-Ib., 5, note. At the anniversary meeting held at Perth Amboy, October 2, 1771, the sermon was preached by the Rev. Dr. Thomas Bradbury Chandler, of Elizabeth-town, and was printed by Isaac Collins, at Bur lington, with a brief abstract of the proceedings, the charter, etc. The sermon was dedicated to his Excellency William Franklin, Esq., Governor of New Jersey: in testimony of that Esteem which is due to Distinguished Merit, and of that Gratitude to which a generous Patron and Benefactor is entitled from every well wisher to our charitable corporation." This was the " printed copy the well-pleased Governor enclosed in his letter above. The New Jersey charter, granted by Governor Franklin, is recorded in Liber AB of Commissions, in the Secretary of State's

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