Letter from Mr. Pownall to the Chief-Justices of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts Bay and the Judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court at Boston, relative to the destruction of the Gaspée schooner.

[From P. R. O. America and West Indies, Vol. 276.]

WHITEHALL 5th Sept 1772

Dan! Horsmanden' Esq. Chief Justice of New Hampshire [York] Frederick Smyth Esq Chief Justice of New Jersey Peter Oliver Esq Chief Justice of Massachusetts Bay Rob Auchmuty Esq Judge of the Adm'ty Court at Boston

Sir,

Since the Earl of Dartmouth's Letter to you of yesterday's Date, a dispatch has been received from Rear

others then and there present, arranged to establish their colony south of the Ohio river and west of the Alleghanies. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Walpole, a London banker, having been enlisted in the project, the tract was called after the latter, the "Walpole Grant," while the company were generally known as the "Ohio Company." Application having been made to the Crown for a grant of the tract in question, Lord Hillsborough strenuously opposed it, and presented an claborate report against it (April 15, 1772), and with rare foresight gave as one rea son that such a colony "must draw and carry out a great number of people from Great Britain; and I apprehend they will soon become a kind of separate and independent people, and who will set up for themselves." To this Dr. Franklin replied in one of the ablest of his public papers, bristling with facts, figures and arguments, which led the Lords of Trade to recommend the granting of the desired patent. However, it was so delayed by the troublous state of the times that the grant was never signed by the King.-Franklin's Works, IV., 302-80; ante, 112, note. Writing to the Governor, under date of August 17, 1772, Dr. Franklin said: "At length we have got rid of Lord Hillsborough, and Lord Dartmouth takes his place, to the great satisfaction of all the friends of America. You will hear it said among you, I suppose, that the interest of the Ohio planters has ousted hm; but the truth is, what I wrote you long since, that all his brother ministers disliked him ex. tremely, and wished for a fair occasion of tripping up his heels; so, seeing that he made a point of defeating our scheme, they made another of supporting it on pur.

DANIEL HORSMANDEN was one of the most famous of the early Recorders of New York city; was for many years a member of the Council, and Chief-Justice of New York from 1763 until his death In 1778, at New York City, in his eighty-fifth year. Quite a full biographical sketch of him is given in N. Y. Col. Docs., VII., 528, note.

Admiral Montagu containing an Account of a discovery of the names of some of the persons stated to have been Ringleaders in the Attack upon, & burning the Gaspée Schooner,' and I am directed by His Lordship to transmit to you for your Information the inclosed Copy of a paper containing the particulars of that Discovery.

I am &c.

J. POWNALL.

Letter from Governor Franklin to the Earl of Hillsborough, informing him that the Assembly had granted money for the support of the King's troops.

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

BURLINGTON Oct: 5th 1772

Right Honble the Earl of Hillsborough &c. &c. My Lord,

I am just returned home from Perth Amboy, where I have been for some Weeks past holding a Session of

The

pose to mortify him, which they knew his pride could not bear. King's dislike made the others more firmly united in the resolution of disgracing Hillsborough, by setting at naught his famous report."-Works, VIII., 10. In a letter to Joseph Galloway, of August 22, 1772, Franklin says: "Lord Hillsborough, mortified by the Committee of Council's approbation of our grant, in opposition to his report, has resigned. I believe, when he offered to do so, he had such an opinion of his importance, that he did not think it would be accepted; and that it would be thought prudent rather to set our grant aside than part with him. His colleagues in the ministry were all glad to get rid of him, and perhaps for this reason joined more readily in giving him that mortification."-Ib., 17. If, as Franklin surmises, the King favored this humiliation of Lord Hillsborough, he certainly palliated the effect of it by a more substantial mark of his favor, for among the promotions recorded for the year was this, under date of August 12: "The Right Hon. Wills Hill, Earl of Hillsborough, in Ireland, and Lord Harwich, Baron Harwich, in Essex, and to his issue male, the dignitaries of Viscount and Earl of Great Britain, by the titles of Viscount Fairford, and Earl of Hillsborough, in the county of Gloucester."—Dodsley's Annual Register, for 1772, 162. Franklin summed him up thus: "His character is conceit, wrongheadedness, obstinacy and passion."— Works, VII., 507. In His first letter, of January 21, 1769, Junius holds Lord Hillsborough largely responsible for the disturbed state of affairs in America. -[W. N.] 1 See note to the foregoing letter.

Assembly. As soon as a Copy of the Proceedings can be made out, I shall do myself the Honour to transmit them to your Lordship.

Your Lordship's Dispatches No 37, 38, & 39, are just come to hand, but as the last Post which has any Chance of reaching the Packet that is to sail this Week from New York, is expected to pass by here every Minute, I have only Time to acquaint your Lordship, that I have obtained from the Assembly (notwithstanding all the Resolutions of the late House to the Contrary) a Sum of Money for the Support of the King's Troops which the General has lately ordered to be quartered in the Barracks of this Colony until the Transports shall arrive which are to carry them to the West Indies.

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

W FRANKLIN

Letter from Chief-Justice Smyth to the Earl of Hillsborough, relative to the robbery of the Treasurer of the Province, and to his traveling expenses on the circuit.

My Lord,

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

AMBOY NEW JERSEY October 5th 1772.

As your Lordship was pleased to express some desire to hear from me on my return to North America, I have the honor to acquaint you that I arrived at New York on the 229 of last month, and hearing that the General Assembly of this Province was then sitting, I took the first opportunity to come over to New Jersey; The Governor and Assembly on my arrival

were engaged in a violent contest on the subject of the Treasurer of the Province, who about four Years since was robbed of about £6000 of the public money; a former Assembly took great pains to enquire very minutely into all the circumstances relative to the Robbery, and Resolved in effect, that the money was lost through the negligence of the Treasurer, and that he ought to replace the same sum in the Treasury; which however he is not inclined to do, 'till compelled to it. the present Assembly apply to the Governor to remove him from his office, and appoint another, which the Governor positively refuseth to do, in the course of this altercation very long messages are penned, in the language of some parts of which I must think the dignity of Government much degraded; I am truly sorry for this dispute, as in other respects the Province is in perfect tranquility, but I doubt this extraordinary attachment which the Governor has shewn to the Treasurer, will occasion much discontent, if not worse consequences.

I have taken occasion since my arrival to collect the opinion of people in general on the subject of the new projected Government on the Ohio, and I can with great truth assure your Lordships, that nothing can equal the astonishment that is expressed by everybody that such falsehoods as have been advanced on the subject of the number of people said to be assembled, should meet with any kind of belief, or that such absurdities with respect to an easy intercourse with the other Colonies, and with the mother Country from the intended settlement, should be a moment attended to as the contrary must be obvious to everybody at all acquainted with the course of the Country -the distance, and natural impedim'-your Lordship's opposition to this measure is highly applauded by everybody I discoursed with at New York on the subject, and by everybody in this province, one indi

vidual only excepted, whose name I need not mention when I tell your Lordship that he is very industrious to hand about, certain Observations on the Report of the Board of Trade, relative to the petition of the Associates &c.' I am under the necessity to mention a matter to your Lordship relative to myself, and shall wait your determination on the subject, before I allow myself to say one word to any person in the province. I well remember that your Lordship has enjoined me to receive no farther Salary from the Assembly of this Colony-the Governor has shown me your Letter to him on the same subject, which he also communicated to the Assembly'-but a doubt has been started by the Governor and Council whether the annual allowance for traveling expences through the Province to hold the Assizes may be received by me. In the annual support Bill there is constantly given a sum to defray the expences of such of the Judges as shall go the Circuits-since my Residence I have constantly every year traveled through the Province to hold the Assizes, and for my expences in this service I have been allowed to receive about £100 Pann-the Assembly in the Support Bill of this year tho' framed and passed since the receipt of your Lordship's Letter on the subject of my Salary from the Crown have given the same allowance as usual to defray the Judges expences on the Circuit, but the Gov and Council are of opinion that I ought not to receive any part of this allowance.. be that as it may I shall certainly go the Circuit and hold the Assizes as usual, but shall not allow myself to demand any allowance for my expences, till I have your Lordships opinion. that I ought to receive it—surely this is very different from a Salary for a support-it is rather a fee for cer

The reference is doubtless to Governor Franklin. The paper entitled "Observations," etc., was Dr. Franklin's reply to Lord Hillsborough's Report on the Ohio Company.

"See June 6, 1772.