even to the consciences, of those concern'd in the doing of it; & I hope my not Assenting to Laws I am not Impowered to Assent unto will not be call'd a fault; but on the contrary, a Strict adherence to do my Duty which by Gods assistance, nothing shall intimidate me from doing.

There is nothing more common in the mouths of the populace than, Saying give us good laws, and we will Support the Government and what they call good laws, are such only as they like; and Agreeable to this they are made to believe, that if the Governor doth not Assent to such Laws as are Off'red for his Assent, the Assembly are Justifyable in not raising a Support for his Majesty's Government; tho' he is forbid to Assent to those Laws: as in the Cases before mentioned; or tho' the Govern' himself very much disapproves of them; which (notwithstanding the Attempts of your Honourable House with respect to the bills of Credit made in the year 1724) I hope no body will presume to say, he has not a right to do.

The Assent to Laws we have a power to make ought to be free, and not compell'd in any part of the Legislature, and I believe you would think so your selves, were there any Attempts made to compell your Assent to any Law propos'd by the Council, Yet I may ask with what view those Strong Endeavours were made in your House, to annex a fee bill to the bill for Support of the Government, (a bill to which you would never suffer an Amendment to be made) unless it was to Compell the Governor and Council, to pass that fee bill, in such manner as your Honourable House should pass it without any Amendment?

It is true the attempt did not succeed; and I thank you for what is done but believe most People will think it had been more for the interest of the Publick, if it had been made for a longer time; and it may not be unworthy your Notice to Observe, that this fee bill tho' not Intitled An Act to Inforce Obedience to an Ordinance made for Establishing fees & yet whatever title you will please to give it, if it be of the same nature of that which was twice repeal'd, for reasons I need not repeat, it will not be difficult to Say what will be the Success of it or the Sentiments of his Majesty's Ministers concerning it.

Your Bill for making lands Chattels, doth not with any certainty Express what Estate the Purchaser from the Sherriff shall be Vested wth whether in fee or for Life: or years; & for that reason I shall referr it to farther consideration.

Your Bill for paying the Expenses that may arise on Printing Signing &c" the Sum of £40,000, I am told was intended should be pass'd in a

Secret manner peculiar to itself as usuall; and not sent home, that the Ministry might not know I was to have 500 pounds for passing it, The Offering this, I suppose, you believ'd would be a Sufficient Inducem' to Obtain my Assent to your £40,000 Act, your making of that offer Shews what your Notions of Virtue and Honour are, & what many of you would do, if in my Case, for a Much less Sum: but you Mistook your Man; for if I know myself your whole £40,000 would not have Prevail'd upon me to have Acted so mean apart. If I recommend any bill, it shall be, (what I deem) the intrinsick goodness of it shall induce me to do it, and not any Sum you can give me, If you believ'd money would have influenc'd me to come into your measures, the offer should have been of a different kind, and not of such a nature, that none but a Fool would have been influenced by; and instead of being an Inducem' to recommend your bill, or using any Interest to get it pass'd at home would be a Strong motive to the Contrary.

your present bill for making £40,000 being to put so much money into the Loan Offices without any certain Indisputable provision for the Support of the Government, I cannot think it proper for me to Assent unto it; Had that been done: Had a Sufficient sum of money been by that bill Appropriated to the building of a House and conveniences for the Residence of a Governor, Places and Houses for the Sittings of the Council and Assembly, and for the safe keeping & preserving of the Public records of the Province, whereby many tradesmen and the poor and Labouring part of the Inhabitants of the Province, might have been Imploy'd; & the money circulated among ourselves; had there been any Provision made for encouraging and increasing the litle Trade, and the few Manufactures we have, whereby more Trad-men and Labourers might be Imploy'd; I dont know how far I might have been induced, for these and other good purposes to assent to it: But as none of these things are done, nor I believe intended; and as without these things, or something of that sort litle of the money will Circulate in this Province, or remain long in it, and consequently will fall in its value, and as the bill is full of Confus'd references, and intricate in its make; I neither can assent to it myself, nor recommend it to have His Majesty's & by this you will save the £500, Intended for that Purpose.

Thus much for your bills.

F. W. Ricord and W. Nelson, editors, Documents relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey (Trenton, 1891), XV, 271–275 passim.

66. How to Avoid a Governor's Veto (1764)

BY LATE GOVERNOR THOMAS POWNALL

This suggestion is based on the practice of many assemblies. — Bibliography as in No. 53 above.

ΤΗ

HE settling and determining this point is of the most essential import to the liberties on one hand, and the subordination on the other, of the government of the colonies to the government of the mother country. In the examination of this point, it will come under consideration, first, Whether the full and whole of legislature can be any way, in any special case, suspended; and next, whether the crown, by its instructions, can suspend the effect of this legislature, which by its commission or charters it has given or declared; if not, the crown, whether the parliament of Great Britain can do it, and how; whether it should be by act of Parliament, or whether by addressing the crown upon a declarative vote, that it would be pleased to provide by its instructions, for the carrying the effect of such vote into execution, as was done in the case of the paper-money currency.

In the course of examining these matters, will arise to consideration the following very material point. As a principal tie of the subordination of the legislatures of the colonies on the government of the mother country, they are bound by their constitutions and charters, to send all their acts of legislature to England, to be confirmed or abrogated by the crown; but if any of the legislatures should be found to do almost every act of legislature, by votes or orders, even to the repealing the effects of acts, suspending establishments of pay, paying services, doing chancery and other judicatory business: if matters of this sort, done by these votes and orders, never reduced into the form of an act, have their effect without ever being sent home as acts of legislature, or submitted to the allowance or disallowance of the crown: If it should be found that many, or any of the legislatures of the colonies carry the powers of legislature into execution, independent of the crown by this device, it will be a point to be determined how far, in such cases, the subordination of the legislatures of the colonies to the government of the mother country is maintained or suspended; or if, from emergencies arising in these governments, this device is to be admitted, the point, how far such is to be admitted, ought to be determined; and the validity of these votes and orders, these Senatus Consulta so far declared. For a point

of such great importance in the subordination of the colony legislatures, and of so questionable a cast in the valid exercise of this legislative power, ought no longer to remain in question.

Thomas Pownall, The Administration of the Colonies (London, 1765), 47–49.

67. Disallowance of a Colonial Bill (1770)

THE

BY THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS FOR TRADE AND PLANTATIONS The ultimate power of disallowance was one way of enforcing instructions, and the chief means of keeping the colonies within bounds. Bibliography: George Chalmers, Opinions of Eminent Lawyers (a collection of recommendations for disallowance). HE Lords of the Committee of your Majestys most honble Privy Council for Plantation Affairs having by their Order of the 10th of Nov: last directed us to report to them Our opinion upon a Bill passed in May 1769 by the Council and House of Representatives of your Majesty's Council of New York for emitting £120,000 in paper notes of Credit upon loan, to which Bill your Majesty's late Governor had refused his assent without having first received your Majesty's directions for that purpose.

We did on the 20 of Dec' make our report thereupon submitting it to their Lordships to give such advice to your Majesty on this subject as they should think fit, and in the mean time, and until your Majesty's pleasure could be known the Lieut' Gov' was acquainted with the several steps which had been taken on this occasion & with the difficulties which arose in point of law upon those Clauses of the Bill by which the paper notes to be cancelled were made a legal Tender in the Treasury and loan office of that Colony.

It is our duty however to observe to your Majesty that notwithstanding their intimation given to the Lieut' Gov' a new Bill in no material points differing from that now before your Majesty has been proposed in the Assembly of this Colony & having passed that house and been concured in by the Council Your Majestys said Lieut Gov' did think fit by their advice to give his assent to it on the 5 day of January last and therefore it becomes necessary for us to lose no time in humbly laying this Act which was received at Our Office yesterday before Your Majesty, to the end that if Your Majesty shall be pleased to signify your disallowance of it, either upon the ground of the doubts in point of law

which occurred to the former Bill, or upon a consideration of so irregular a proceeding as that of entering upon a proposition of this nature & passing it into an Act pending the consideration of it before Your Majesty in Council there may be no delay in having Your Majestys Pleasure thereupon signified to the Colony, so as to reach it before that part of the Act which authorizes the emission of the Bills can take effect that is to say on the last Tuesday in June.

How far the Lieut' Gov' is justified in the conduct he has thought fit to pursue on this occasion must be submitted to your Majesty upon the reason assigned by him in his letter to one of your Majestys principal Secretaries of State & to this Board extracts of which are hereunto annexed, but it is Our further duty to observe that the Instruction of July 1766, on the ground of which he says the Council advise him to this step does expressly forbid any law of this nature to be passed without a Clause suspending its execution until your Majestys [pleasure] could be known

E. B. O'Callaghan, editor, Documents relative to the Colonial History of the State of New-York (Albany, 1857), VIII, 202–203.

68. Dispute over the Agency (1771)

BY AGENT BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

From about 1680 the colonies were in the habit of appointing some person to represent their interests in London; and such agents received salaries. Franklin was agent for several colonies at the same time. — Bibliography: Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, V, 216, VI, 53, 89.

I

Wednesday, 16 January, 1771.

WENT this morning to wait on Lord Hillsborough. The porter at first denied his Lordship, on which I left my name and drove off. But, before the coach got out of the square, the coachman heard a call, turned, and went back to the door, when the porter came and said, "His Lordship will see you, Sir." I was shown into the levee room, where I found Governor Bernard, who, I understand, attends there constantly. Several other gentlemen were there attending, with whom I sat down a few minutes, when Secretary Pownall came out to us, and said his Lordship desired I would come in.

I was pleased with this ready admission and preference, having sometimes waited three or four hours for my turn; and, being pleased, I could