upon any pretence whatever, Communicate either to the Council or Assembly any Copies or Extracts of such Letters as you shall receive from His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, unless you have His Majesty's particular directions for so doing. I am &ca HILLSBOROUGH Letter from Secretary Hillsborough relative to the letter from the Assembly of Massachusetts Bay. Sir, [From P. R. O. America and West Indies, Vol. 173 (191).] WHITEHALL, October 12th 1768. Governor Franklin. On the 1st Instant I received Your Letters No 6. 7. and 8, and have laid them with their Enclosures before The King. Those numbered 6. and 8. the one containing your Observations upon the Laws of the last Session of Assembly the other recommending M Stockton to sup ply the Vacancy in the Council by the Death of M Woodruff, are ordered by His Majesty to be communicated to the Board of Trade. ment. His Reason for this request is that this matter may be held in remembrance by all the nations present & by that means be more surely handed down to their Posterity." The next day (Saturday, Nov. 5), the Indians in reply said: "We are glad to see that Governor Francklin is so well pleased with our having bestowed one of our own names upon him & are well pleased [to] hear you promise that he will always be ready to do us justice. We hope that all future Governors will act the same part. We acknowledge that several of our Nations now present were witnesses to the transaction at Easton & therefore acquit that Province of any demand & we have only to desire of him to follow your example in his future conduct towards us, which will sufficiently recommend him and his people to our esteem." --N. Y. Col. Docs., VIII., 115, 117, 131-2-4. The proceedings at the Treaty of Easton, referred to, are related fully in Smith's New Jersey, 450; in Penn. Col. Record, VIII., 174-223, and the results are briefly summarized in N, J. Archives, IX., 139–42.—[W. N.] The pains which appear by your Letter, N° 7 to have been taken by the Assembly to conceal from you their proceedings upon the Letter from the Assembly of Massachusetts Bay, shews but too plainly the sense. they had of the measures they were about to pursue, & it is very proper that M: Skinner should know that his Conduct upon this Occasion has not escaped His Majesty's Notice. I am &ca HILLSBOROUGH Order in Council appointing Richard Stockton, Esq., to be of the Council of New Jersey, in the room of Samuel Woodruff, Esq., deceased. L. S. [From P. R. O. America and West Indies, Vol. 107.] AT THE COURT AT ST JAMES'S THE 2ND PRESENT The Kings most Excellent Majesty in Council. Whereas there was this Day read at the Board, a Representation from the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, dated the 1st of this Instant Setting forth, That Samuel Woodruff Esquire, one of His Majestys Council for the province of New Jersey, is Dead, and that Richard Stockton Esquire hath been recommended to the said Lords Commissioners, as a person every way Qualified to serve his Majesty in that Station, they therefore humbly propose, that he may be appointed of His Majestys Council in that province in the room of the said Mr Woodruff deceased His Majesty in Council approving thereof, is pleased to Order, as it is hereby Ordered, that the said Richard Stockton 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 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 M 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 |