Atkinson, Esq. & Mr. Bart. Thing be a Comittee from the House to joyne the above Comittee for the end aforesaid. Then the House adjourn'd to the 16th currt. Tuesday May 16, A. D. 1732. [P. 372.] In Council May 15th 1732. Whereas there is a vote was passed by the House of Representatives on Saturday last which was concurr'd with the same day in Council and has since been assented to by his Excelly the Governour for putting the Bonds for £1730 into the Treasurer's hands and requiring the Treasurer forthwith to receive the Interest due on them and afterwards to demand and receive the Principle sums, to be bro't into the Assm. and Burnt next fall,-and whereas the authority given the Treasurer by the said vote is only to demand and receive, which the Council conceive is insufficient to answer the maine end intended by said vote.. Therefore, Voted, that the Treasurer or Treasurers for the time being, after demand made of Principall & Interest due upon the said Bonds, do forthwith put the same in suite in a Course of Law agt such obliger or obligers, as shall neglect or refuse paymt, such suit or suits to be comenced at the next Inferiour Court in June next. Eodm Die. In the House of Representatives, Read and non-concurr'd. Eodm Die. In Council this vote is recomended to the Hous's further consideration & it is proposed that the Treasurer be rewarded for his service as the Gen" Assm. shall hereafter think propper. In the House of Representatives, the last vote of Council was read & non concurr'd and voted that the House adhere to their vote of the 12th currt Whereas by the Estimate made the 12th currt it appears there will be above £1000 to be bro't into the Treasury and not above £600 to be drawn out Therefore Resolved, the said sum of £1070: 7:4, be for the supply of the Treasury & for payment of the charge of the Goverm' as allowed by Gen" Assembly. A vote past the House for emitting £1000 to be bro't in by a Tax on the Poles and Estates of the Inhabitants [P. 373] of this Province in the year 1744. Sent up for concurrence. Eod Die Mr. Secretary bro't down the same vote, with a Mess that his Excellency cannot make money to go beyond the year 1742. Post Merediem The High Sherrifs came into the House and represented that the Prison yard, the fence thereof, ought to be repaired for People do often bring Instrumts thro' the yard to the Prisoners for helping them to escape, and has actually endeavoured to assist those now in Prison for counterfeiting the money, to make their escape. Then the House adjourn'd to the 17th currt Wednesday May 17th A. D. 1732. Theo. Atkinson bro't in his account of the receipts and discharge of Powder from 1727 to 1729. Balla due to him And by paym's made as per his account Dr. for Ambler's and Hughs's Money yet in his hands £ 28: 5:11 £232:18:10 £261:04: 9 £246:11: 3 There were brought into the Gen" Assm by the Comittee for telling over the money to be burnt the sum of three hundred fifty six pounds eleven shillings and nine pence halfe penny, of the £15000 loane money received of Geo. Jaffrey, Esq. Then the House adjourn'd to the 18th curr Thursday, May the 18th A. D. 1732. Voted, That the Interest Money now due on the Bonds for the £1730 be forthwith bro't into the Treasury for defraying the Publick charges and that the several p'sons bring in their said sums of the £1730 to the Speaker of the Assembly for the time being, or that the several p'sons renew their Bonds at 6 per ct and that the Interest be paid into the Treasury next April for the ends aforesaid, and that if any p'son refuse forthwith to pay this Interest due or renew his Bond at 6 pr Ct. and pay his Interest now due such p'sons Bond to be imediately put [imediately put] in suit by the speaker for the time being. Sent up for concurrence [P. 374.] Voted That Mr. Treasurer's accounts be accepted. Money outstanding in several Constables hands as pr the Treasurer's Accounts, viz. Constable of Gosper, £16: 16. Constable of New'rket, £18:17:6. Constable of Newington, £9. Total £44: 13:6. A Mess from his Excellency pr Mr. Secretary, viz. That his Excelly required the attendance of the Speaker and the House in the Council Chamber. Mr. Speaker and the House went up accordingly. His Excelly made a Speech. Mr. Speaker obtained a Coppy as followeth, viz. Gentlemen of the House of Representatives. I have consented to every thing that has been passed by his Majties Council and your House, and I am sorry the great Business of the Sessions (the supply of the Treasury) remains undone, notwithstanding I have so early and so often recomended it to your especial care, as a matter more imediately belonging to your House, and I have been patiently waiting many days in hopes of your coming to a proper sence of your duty to the King & to a tender regard of the good people of this Province, in this Article; yet after all, I find you are resolved to make no supply of the Treasury, that can be agreed to by his Majesty's Council or by me, which is to say you will make none, and this you presist in under a pretence of the difficulty that the supplying the Tresury in the usual manner might bring on the Inhabitants. But how specious and vaine is such an amus'mt? when a Tax of £1000 for the present yeare would be sufficient, and in time of War it has been common for the Province to pay a Tax of 2 or 3000£ a yeare without any complaint, altho' the Inhabitants were then far less in number, and their lands not cultivated or improv'd to any degree as they now are. I find, therefore Gent that the Assurance you gave me at the Beginning of this Sessions of your doing every thing that might tend to his Maj'ties service and the Prosperity of his subjects, were only words of course, and on which there was to be no dependence. [P. 375.] By the Treasurers accounts and the estimate laide before you, you are sensible of the Debts already due from the Province, and what may be the growing charge of the currt yeare; and you must also know your refusing to make the necessary Provision for discharging them, is in open violation of your own laws & doing publick Injustice to all those to whome you are indebted, and it is exposing the King's Goverm and his People to the utmost hazard & confussion, for neither of them can be in safety and Peace without the usual and necessary supply of money. Gentlemen. Since what I have said do's not proceed from any p'sonal views, or from a reguard to my own Salary, which is provided for, for some time to come, by the Laws you have made; But from a pure aim at the safety of the King's Goverm', and at the good and welfare of the People, I have no doubt of its haveing due weight with all those who would approve themselves true lovers of their country, by always conforming themselves to the dictates of Reason and Justice. May 18th 1732. J. BELCHER. Then Mr. Secretary, by his Excellency's Order Declared the Assembly DI'SOLVED. Governor's Order about £15,000 loan. [From MS. Corr. in Secretary's office, Vol. I, p. 69.] Gentlemen. The time being expired for the payment of the fifteen thousand pounds loan, and not half of the sum being yet paid to the General Assembly to be burnt, tho' it was provided in the Act pass'd the fifteenth of May, 1729, That the then outstanding debt should be paid, one third at or before the 25th of July, 1729, another third at or before the 25th April, 1730, and the last third at or before the 25 April 1731, and that those who did not make the first of those payments should have no benefit of the said Act, but Extents should go against the land of such delinquent, yet so it is, That many persons made default in complying with the said first payment, yet no Extents have been made upon the mortgaged lands of such Delinquent, according to said Law; and since the term limited in the said Act expired, another year has passed away, and the money not yet paid in by one half; It is therefore my express order and direction, that you do forthwith, laying aside all excuse, and without any delay, render me an exact account of the state of that loan from your last account, and that you strictly persue the rules and directions of the law in making sale of the mortgaged lands, so that the outstanding bills of that loan may be, with all possible dispatch, consumed to ashes, according to the tenour of the Law: his Majesty having been pleased to command me to see the same effectually done, according to the periods & provisions of the sd Acts. A remark or two on the Representation of the Right Honourable the Lords for Trade and Plantations. [From MS. Corr. in Secretary's office, vol. I, pp. 75–78.] That the Governour gave orders to the Captain of the Fort not to suffer Col. Dunbar to enter there as Lt. Governour, is not rightly represented: The order intending no more than that the said Dunbar should not enter as Comander-in-Chief, to take the comand of that Garrison, in open contempt & defyance of the Governour's Comission; and well might the Governour give such an order, who had often heard that the said Dunbar had sworn he would have the Fort, tho' he scorn'd to ask or even to take a Commission from his Excellency for it; which (not onely indecency, but) aggravated insolence of the said Dunbar, necessitated the Governour to issue such an order, in a faithfull dis charge of the trust reposed in him, and in vindication of his own honour, which the said Dunbar had treated with so much disregard and ignominy, not only in the Instance above mentioned, but likewise, when he swore he scorn'd to accept a Comission from the Governour, he spit in contempt of it, as tho' he would spit upon it if offered him: such insolency & such arrogancy must surely be deem'd a sufficient inducement to the Governour to exert his authority; for what could be more provoking than for an Inferior officer to presume to vie powers with his Captain General, as he always did, being ever upon the defyance, til he was advised by an Express, that the Governour was upon the road bound to New Hampshire; but then (being conscious of what he deserved) to the great surprise of his few friends, he made a sudden flight to Pemaquid, getting out of the Province by a hard shift against wind & tide the evening before his Excellencys arrival at Portsmo, chusing rather to expose himself to the hazard of ye mercyless waves, in a dark and lowering night, in a little stinking fishing boat too, than to the resentment of his Governour, whom he knew he had abused and affronted, and from whom he deserved chastisement; Can any thing upon earth be a fuller proof of his own consciousness of his ill-deservings from his Excellency's hands than such a sudden & mean Escape? and if so, there can be no greater argument to justify the order from his Excellency to the Captain of the Castle, if such order needs a Justification: Moreover, the said Col. Dunbar, in further violation of his duty, was an open abetor to Mr. Atkinson in withstanding the Governour's authority in the appointmt of Rich Wibird, Esq. Collect for the N. Hampshire District: The said Atkinson refusing to deliver the Custom House Seal, and the said Dunbar justifying him in it, altho' his Excellency had given an express order for the same; and besides, when Capt. Wibird waited on the sd Col. Dunbar (as Lt. Gov') by the Governour's order, to be sworn into the office of Collector, the said Dunbar swore he would not administer the oath to him; so that his Excellency was obliged to send a Dedimus to two Gentlemen of the Council, to swear him and any other officers as occasions might afterwards require: And again, after Mr. Wibird was appointed Collector, the Governour ordered the Lt. Govt not to grant any Passes to the Fort for any vessels without a clause in such Passes signifying that such vessels were duely clear'd by Rich Wibird, Esq. Collect', which he absolutely refused to obey, and instead thereof (endeavouring to render null and void the Governour's authority & the Comission to the said Wibird, as far as in him lay) he commanded some of the officers of the Goverment to aid Mr. Atkinson as Collector, tho' the said Atkinson had nothing to make him so, but a dead deputation from Mr. Bacon, who departed this life some months before; and the said Dunbar well knowing at ye same time, that the Governour had Comissionated Capt. Wibird for that office, & that he had taken the oaths accordingly. What a high handed breach of duty & opposition was this? and what an instance of base ingratitude too, after his Excellency had wrote to the President & Council to receive him (when he came from Pemaquid) with all possible respect, & to publish his Comission wth the usual marks of honour in such cases, and which he well knew both from the President's letter and lips: This was some of the conduct of that Gentleman that was such matter of speculation & wonderment ye last summer, in this part of the world: Tho' really the greatest wonder |