Letter from Governor Franklin to Lieutenant Arthur Wadman, promising him assistance in recruiting men in New Jersey.

[From Skinner Papers among Manuscripts of W. A. Whitehead, Vol. II, No. 8.] BURLINGTON Mar. 30, 1771

Sir.

Lieut. Wadman

I am favoured with your Letter of the 21st Instant, acquainting me with your being sent by the General with a Recruiting Party into this Province, and your having made Brunswick your Head Quarters. You may be assured that I shall with Pleasure afford you all the Assistance in this Service which may be in my Power. I have already issued a Proclamation requiring all Magistrates and other Civil officers to be aiding & assisting to such Officers & Recruiting Parties as shall be ordered into New Jersey

I am with great Regard Sir,

your Most obed' Servant

W FRANKLIN

Report of Richard Jackson, Esq., on eight Acts passed in the Province of New Jersey in March, 1770.

[From P. R. O. B. T. New Jersey, Vol. 10, L. 10.]

To the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations

May it please your Lordships

In humble obedience to your Lordships Commands Signified to me by M Pownall, I have perused and

considered Seven Acts passed by the Governor Council and Assembly of New Jersey in March 1770 Intitled.

"An Act to provide a more effectual Remedy against "excessive Costs in the recovery of Debts under fifty "pounds in this Colony and for other purposes there' in mentioned"

66

"An Act for Defraying Incidental Charges."

"An Act to revive and amend, an Act intitled, an "act for better settling and regulating the Militia of this Colony of New Jersey, for the Repelling Inva"sions and suppressing Insurrections and Rebellions."

66

"An Act for preventing dangerous Tumults and "Riotous Assemblies, and for the more speedy and "effectual Punishing the Rioters."

"An Act to revive and continue the Process and "Proceedings lately depending in the Inferior Court "of Common Pleas, and Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, for the County of Mon"mouth."

66

"An Act to enable the Owners and Possessors of "certain Meadows and Marshes bounding on Dela"ware River and Salem Creek in Lower Penns Neck "in the County of Salem to stop out the Tide from "overflowing the same."

"An Act to revive an Act intitled, An Act to pre"vent waste from being committed upon the Com"mon Land allotted to the Patent of Secaucus in the "Corporation of Bergen."

And I am humbly of Opinion, that the same are proper in point of Law.

I have also perused and considered An Act passed in the same Year 1770 Intitled, "An Act to explain "and amend an Act of the General Assembly passed "in the Tenth Year of his Majesty's Reign, intitled "An Act for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors, and for "other purposes therein mentioned."

And I am of opinion, that the frequent and occasional Interposition of the Legislature in the Cases of Individuals for the purpose of stopping or diverting the usual Course of Legal Proceedings cannot but be attended with Danger of great Injustice, and therefore that it is to be wished General Acts of Insolvency may be penned with such care and attention, as at the same time to include every proper case, and likewise to provide for the most equal Justice among the Creditors both present in the Colony, and absent, so as to make further private Acts of this sort unnecessary; which however well intended, and I dare say for the most part founded on the true Interest of the Creditors, yet should be avoided excepting in very urgent Cases, and should then be supported by a Preamble specially stating at large all the circumstances, particularly the consent express or implied of the Creditors.

In the several Cases provided for by this Act there are no particular Directions for the security of the Creditors, not even a reference to the General Insolvent Acts before passed, and if there was no other objection to the Law but what arises from the total Discharge of William Hewlings by the last Clause, I think that fatal because the precedent is so dangerous, inasmuch as it is not even alleged to be for the benefit of the Creditors. But the Clause staying all proceedings against William Gerrard for five years, and which is n[ot] alleged to be for the benefit of all his Creditors, though said to be at the desire of the principal ones, probably well intended appears to me to be likewise too dangerous a precedent to be trusted with your Lordships Countenance. I therefore humbly beg leave to advise your Lordships to report the Act fit to be dis-allowed.

All of which is humbly submitted by

My Lords Your Lordships most obedient most humble Servant

April 9th 1771

R JACKSON

Letter from Benjamin Franklin to Gov. FranklinThe Ohio Affair-The Assembly's Insolvent Laws:

[From Works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. VII., 516-7.]

LONDON, 20 April, 1771.

Dear Son,

*

* * The Ohio affair seems now near a conclusion, and, if the present ministry stand a little longer, I think it will be completed to our satisfaction. Mr. Wharton has been indefatigable, and I think scarce anyone I know besides would have been equal to the task, so difficult it is to get business forward here, in which some party purpose is not to be served, but he is always among them, and leaves no stone unturned.

I have attended several times this winter upon your acts of Assembly. The Board [of Trade] are not favorably disposed toward your insolvent acts, pretending to doubt whether distant creditors, particularly such as reside in England, may not sometimes be injured by them. I have had a good deal of conversation with Mr. Jackson about them, who remarks, that, whatever the care the Assembly may, according to my representation of their practice, take in examining into the cases to prevent injustice, yet upon the face of the acts nothing of that care appears. The preambles only say, that such and such persons have petitioned and set forth the hardship of their imprisonment, but not a word of the Assembly's having in quired into the allegations contained in such petitions and found them true; not a word of the general consent of the principal creditors, or of any public notice given of the intention to apply for such an act; all which, he thinks, should appear in the preambles, and then those acts would be subject to less objection and

difficulty in getting them through the offices here. I would have you communicate this to the Speaker of the Assembly, with my best respects. I doubt some of those Acts will be repealed. Nothing has been done, or is now likely to be done, by the Parliament, in American Affairs.

* * *

B. FRANKLIN.

Letter from Governor Franklin to the Earl of Hillsborough, announcing the refusal of the Assembly to provide for the King's troops, and transmitting Copies of his Speech and Messages on the Subject.

[From P. R. O., America and West Indies, No. 194.]

BURLINGTON April 30th 1771. To the Rt. Honble the Earl of Hillsborough. My Lord

I had the Honour to acquaint your Lordship in my Letter of the 27th of March, that I had called a Meeting of the Assembly here on the 17th Instant, in order to make Provision for supplying the Troops with the Necessaries required by Act of Parliament-In my Speech at the Opening of the Session I recommended this Matter to them in the strongest Manner, but they absolutely refused granting any Money for the Purpose, alledging the inability of the Colony in Excuse. As I had at the former Session, been so happy as to prevail on them to recede from a Resolution of the like Nature, I was not without Hopes that I might be able to do the same again. Accordingly I undertook, in a Message, to prove to them, from a State of Facts, that the Colony was very able to defray the Expence required, and that there was even a Sum more than sufficient for it in the Treasury unappropriated. They returned an angry and somewhat abusive Answer,