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they would be under a necessity of suffering rather than paying for other than peaceable measures, had notwithstanding the decency of its language, assumed a greater right than they were invested with; and, forasmuch as the said petitioners had not duly considered former precedents, especially the grant of two thousand pounds to the crown in the year 1711, was an unadvised and indiscreet application to the house at that time."

"That the representation from the mayor of Philadelphia, and one hundred and thirty-three others, said to be of the principal inhabitants, but in reality a great part of them not freeholders, many of them strangers and obscure persons, and some of them under age, as it charged the house with not having a proper concern for the lives of the inhabitants, and dictated, in a haughty peremptory manner, to the representative body of the whole people, what laws to make, and threatened to force a compliance, &c. if its commands were not obeyed, was a paper extremely presuming, indecent, insolent, and improper; and that the said mayor, by becoming a promoter and ringleader of such an insult on that part of the government, and by his authority, arts, and influence, drawing in so many indiscreet or unwary persons to be partakers with him therein, had exceedingly misbehaved himself, and failed greatly in the duty of his station." Expressions equally applicable to the governor himself as chief magistrate; if the mayor in all this, only acted as a tool of his.

And upon the whole, "that the said paper ought to be rejected."

Thus ended this memorable session, on the 3d of December; and that day two months, instead of that day three months, which was the time prefixed by their own adjournment, the governor, having, in that interval, left his province, in order to attend the military congress at New York, notwithstanding the preventives thrown as above by the assembly in his way, thought fit to convene them again; and by the medium of a written message in the usual form, told them, "that he had called them together, to consider of the

plan of operations, concerted in the late council of war held at that place for the security of his majesty's dominions on the continent; that he had directed the said plan to be laid before them, under a recommendation of secresy, that no part of it might be suffered to transpire; that the many en-` croachments of the French, &c. sufficiently shewed what they had farther to expect, if they did not by an united, vigorous, and steady exertion of their strength, dislodge and confine them within their own just bounds; that he was persuaded this would be found the best way of providing for their own security; and that therefore, he must recommend it to them to grant him such supplies, as might enable him to furnish what was expected from that province towards the general service; that they must be sensible their success would very much depend on their being early in motion; and that he made no doubt, they would use the greatest diligence and dispatch in whatever measures their zeal for the public cause might induce them to take upon the present occasion; that every thing possible had been done for the security of the province; that a chain of forts and block-houses, extending from the river Delaware along the Kittatinny hills [where he had formerly said the 1500 French and Indians had taken post in their way to Philadelphia] to the Maryland-line, was then almost complete; that they were placed at the most important passes, at convenient distances, and were all garrisoned with detachments in the pay of the province, and he believed, in case the officers and men posted in them did their duty, they would prove a sufficient protection against such parties as had hitherto appeared on their borders; that he had directed the minutes of the several conferences held with the Indians, and other papers relating to Indian affairs (by which it appeared that the bulk of the Indians living on the Susquehanna, were not only in the French interest, but deaf to all the instances of the Six Nations thereon) to be laid before them; that the heads of those nations had been convened by the timely care of general Shirley, and were then mét in council to treat on those and other matters; that

he was informed, they were so much displeased with the conduct of the Delawares and Shawanese that they seemed inclinable to take up the hatchet against them; and that he hoped the warmth with which general Shirley had recommended this matter to them, would induce them to act vigorously on this occasion."

Connection is not to be expected in this gentleman's proceedings; his congress we have already seen converted into à council of war; instead of a general treaty with the Indians he brings back a plan of military operations; and while the levies were actually making of the sixty thousand pounds, just given, for the defence of the province, he calls upon them for a supply, towards an offensive war.

By the plan settled among the governors at their late council, which is now in print, the colonies were to raise ten thousand two hundred and fifty men, to be employed in two bodies against the French settlements on the lake Ontario, and Crown-point; and of these fifteen hundred were to be supplied by Pennsylvania.

The governor, however, did not think it expedient to push this demand in the cavalier manner he had hitherto practised; probably convinced that it was what the province neither would or could comply with; and that consequently he should only draw down so much the more odium on himself.

Besides, the assembly was scarce met, before a circumstance occurred, which, though of an almost private nature, served to evince the truth of what has been just insinuated.

The several recruiting parties distributed through the province by the order of general Shirley, had renewed the old practice of enlisting purchased servants; the persons thus deprived of their property brought their complaints before the assembly; the assembly not only received the petitioners favorably, but also espoused their cause in the strongest terms to the governor; and as their address on this occasion, contains such a state both of the province and its conduct, as will serve to make the reader equally acquainted with both, the most material paragraphs are here adjoined.

'We presume that no one colony on the continent has afforded more free recruits to the king's forces than Pennsyl-. vania; men have been raised here in great numbers for Shirley's and Pepperell's regiments, for Halket's and Dunbar's, for the New York and Carolina independent companies, for Nova Scotia, and even for the West India islands. By this, and the necessity we are under of keeping up a large body of men to defend our own extensive frontiers, we are drained of our hired laborers; and as this province has but few slaves, we are now obliged to depend principally upon our servants to assist us in tilling our lands. If these are taken from us, we are at a loss to conceive how the provisions that may be expected out of this province another year, for the support of the king's armies, are to be raised.

'We conceive that this province could not possibly have furnished the great numbers of men and quantity of provisions it has done for the king's service, had it not been for our constant practice of importing and purchasing servants to assist us in our labour. Many of these, when they become free, settle among us, raise families, add to the number of people, and cultivate more land; and many others who do not so settle, are ready and fit to take arms when the crown calls for soldiers. But if the possession of a bought servant, after purchase made, is thus rendered precarious, and he may at any v.time be taken away from his master at the pleasure of a recruiting officer, perhaps when most wanted, in the midst of harvest or of seed time, or in any other hurry of business, when another cannot be provided to supply his place, the purchase, and of course the importation, of servants will be discouraged, and the people driven to the necessity of providing themselves with negro slaves, as the property in them and their service seems at present more secure. Thus the growth of the country by increase of white inhabitants will be prevented, the province weakened rather than strengthened (as every slave may be reckoned a domestic enemy) one great and constant source of recruits be in a great measure cut off, and Pennsylvania soon be un

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able to afford more men for the king's service, than the slave colonies now do.'

They also accompanied their address with an extract of a letter from general Shirley to colonel Dunbar, in which he declares himself convinced, that the inlisting of apprentices and indented servants would greatly disserve his majesty's interest, as well as be in most cases grievous to the subject, and in the strongest manner recommends it to him to avoid doing it.

Even the governor himself in his answer acknowlegedthe fact; admitted it to be a great hardship, and an unequal burden upon the inhabitants of the province; but, instead of issuing his proclamation, strictly charging and commanding all officers civil and military to be aiding and assisting to the inhabitants, in securing or recovering their servants, when any attempt should be made to force them away, as required by the assembly, told them the courts were open, and that the injured might there sue out his remedy by due course of law.

He also signified, that general Shirley had now altered his opinion, and issued orders different from those he had before given to colonel Dunbar. And in effect, a letter from the said general in answer to one of the governor's, was soon after communicated to the assembly, in which he pleads the necessities of the service for a continuance of the practice; and in justification of it, cites the authority of his own governn-ent, "where it was common, he said, to impress both indented servants and others for garrisoning the frontier towns, where they often remained several years."

And his thus renouncing his former conviction, is so much the more remarkable, because the province had recently made his troops a voluntary present of warm waistcoats, stockings, and mittens; and in his letter of acknowlegment (dated but five days before that to the governor) to the assembly, addressed to one of the members, he expresses himself as follows:

'I am now, sir, to acquaint you, that I have ordered a distribution of clothing, and to desire the favor of you to