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Esquire be constituted and appointed a Member of His Majestys said Council for the province of New Jersey, in the room of the said Samuel Woodruffe Esquire deceased and that the Right Honorable the Earl of Hillsborough, one of His Majestys principal Secretaries of State do cause the Usual Warrant to be prepared for His Majestys Royal Signature accordingly'

W. BLAIR.

Letter from Secretary Hillsborough to Gov. Franklin, relative to the New Jersey bill for issuing £100,000 and the unwarrantable proceedings of the Assembly in connection therewith.

Sir,

[From P. R. O. America and West Indies. Vol. 173 (191).]

WHITEHALL Nov! 15th 1768

Governor of New Jersey

I have received and laid before the King your Dispatches to me numbered 9. 10. 11. 12. Of these Dispatches the only one upon which I have any commands from His Majesty is that numbered 9, in which you desire to be instructed, whether you may give your assent to an Act for emitting £100,000 in Bills of Credit upon Loan, without a Clause suspending its execution, until His Majesty's pleasure can be known, provided the Bills are not made a legal Tender, and the Interest is appropriated to publick purposes.

If the whole merit of this measure depended upon these circumstances, and it did require no other restriction and limitation, His Majesty's consent would seem to follow of course; but the King apprehends that this

1 For a sketch of Richard Stockton, see post, under date of February 28, 1774.

is by no means the case, and thinks that the necessity there is for so large a Sum as this is, the nature and extent of the public Services to be provided for, and the Fund and Security for the redemption of the Bills, are some, amongst many other material circumstances, necessary to be fully set forth and explained, before His Majesty can decide upon the propriety of the measure; and therefore His Majesty does not think fit, that any Law of this kind should be assented to by you, unless a Draft of the Bill has been first transmitted, for His Majesty's approbation, or that there is a Clause suspending its execution, until His Majesty's pleasure can be known.

The petition to His Majesty of the House of Representatives of New Jersey on the subject of some late Acts of Parliament, which Petition is mentioned by you, in your Letter No 5. to have been agreed upon by No the Assembly has not yet been received from you (which is undoubtedly the proper Channel through which it should pass to the Throne) nor has it been presented by any other person, although printed and published under the direction of the Assembly, a Proceeding which His Majesty cannot but consider as most unwarrantable & disrespectful.

Inclosed I send you His Majesty's speech to His Parliament at the opening of the Session on the 8th instant, together with the Addresses to the King from both Houses, one of which Addresses passed nemine contradicente, and the other without a division.

This happy unanimity and the resolution to preserve entire & inviolate the supreme authority of the Legislature of Great Britain over every part of the British Empire, so strongly expressed in these Addresses, will, I trust, have the happy effect to defeat and disappoint the wicked Views of those, who seek to create disunion and disaffection between Great Britain & her Colonies, and that all His Majesty's Subjects in America, who

wish well to the peace and prosperity of the British Dominions, will give full credit to Parliament for that true affection towards the Colonies, which appears in the declaration that they will redress every real grievance of His Majesty's American Subjects, and give due Attention to every Complaint they shall make in a regular manner, and founded upon principles not inconsistent with the Constitution.

I have the pleasure to acquaint you that the Queen was happily brought to bed of a Princess on Tuesday last, & that both Her Majesty and the young Princess are as well as can be desired. I most heartily congratulate you upon this increase of the royal Family, an Event that affords the greatest satisfaction to all His Majesty's Subjects. I am &ca

HILLSBOROUGH

Letter from Chief-Justice Smyth to the Earl of Hillsborough, relative to the insufficiency of his Salary.

My Lord,

[From P. R, O. and West Indies, Vol. 174 (192).]

NEW JERSEY Nov! 20th 1768

On the recommendation of Lord North, M: Charles Townshend, M: Attorney General, D Hay, and Mr Bacon, of Norfolk, about four years ago I was appointed Chief-Justice of New-Jersey.

If the Letters which I had the happiness to obtain from your Lordship, and others of His Majestys Ministers, at the time I left England, to the Governor of this province, had produced that effect in the Assembly of New-Jersey in my behalf which might reasonably have been expected, I should have now no occasion to trouble your Lordship with this application; but after having resided in this province so many years, con

stantly engaged in the duty of my station, with a conduct irreproachable even in times of the utmost danger, and difficulty, so far from any support or allowance from this Country adequate to my station or services, my applications to the Assembly for that purpose, repeated at every Session, have been hitherto utterly disregarded.

My circumstances are such that I should not have allowed my self to continue in an office of the Crown which I am obliged to fill almost at my own private expence, if I had not been assured before I left England that the Judges in the Colonies might expect to receive their Salaries from the Crown, and be made independent of the people.

The language of a late Act of Parliament gave me farther hopes that this measure would be accomplished.

I have also had in view the instance of the late ChiefJustice of New-York, who to compensate the neglect of the Assembly obtained a Mandamus for the payment of £500 Sterling pr. ann out of the Quit rents due to the Crown in that Province.

But by some information I have lately received from the Agent of this Colony, it seems now to be doubtfull if any alteration will take place with respect to the payment of the Judges in general in the Colonies.

The Governor of this Province assures me that he has so often applied to your Lordship and the Ministry from time to time in my behalf, that I am unwilling to trouble him farther; tho' I know my application to your Lordship would be more regular through him. But permit me my Lord once more to beg the honour of your patronage and assistance, that the bounty of the Crown may be extended to me as some reward for past services, and as an encouragement to continue the same resolution and address in the discharge of the duty of my station, which I will be bold to say has

hitherto contributed very greatly to the preservation of that order, and regularity, for which this province has been particularly distinguished.

I am my Lord with the utmost respect

Your Lordships most oblig obed Hum Serv

FREDERIC SMYTH.

Letter from Gov. Franklin to the Earl of Hillsborough, defending his Conduct during the last Session of the Assembly of New Jersey against the Censures of his Lordship.

[From P. P. R. O., America and West Indies, Vol. 172 (162).]

BURLINGTON New Jersey Nov! 23a 1768 To the Rt Hon ble the Earl of Hillsborough

My Lord,

The Animadversions and Censures which your Lordship, in your Letter No. 13. has thought proper to make upon my Conduct during the last Session of the Assembly of this Colony, give me much Concern; but my Uneasiness would be far greater were I not conscious that they are unmerited, and that it is in my Power to prove them so to every impartial Person. As such, I flatter myself I may address your Lordship, as you have, with the greatest Appearance of Candor and Impartiality, been kindly pleas'd to say, "that "you should be happy, by my Explanation of the Mo"tives of my Conduct, to find that there has not been "so just Grounds for those Animadversions as you "have too much Foundation to apprehend." This Explanation, my Lord, I shall therefore give you fully and freely, as it is a Duty I owe to your Lordship's Station, and to my own Character.

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