Fairhill June 4th. 1759.
The Bills of Exchange I have remitted are as
follows—to wit—
There are unforseen Changes in consequence of
this American War. In Philadelphia Houses are high and Bills of
Exchange easy to be procured and very considerably under Par which
has tempted me to sell several of my Houses and every Thing else I
could convert into Mony to invest them in Bills of Exchange. But
what I now transmit will not be wholly mine, and as soon as it can
be done I will give Notice of what belongs to the Province. As the
Bills are good, the Distinction is not so immediately necessary,
but for fear you might be in want of Mony for the Publick and the
Province suffer on that Article I took the earlyest Opportunities I
could find, at the Request of a considerable Number of the Members,
to supply any Defect on that Head. Whilst the Issue of our Bill was
unknown and its Success almost dispaired of which must have
involved us (in the Consequences of its failure) in the greatest
Difficulties in Mony Matters, and no very small Ones in our Civil
Affairs but by resolving to venture ev’ry Thing rather than subject
our selves to that miserable Disease which prey’d continually upon
our Vitals we have at length procured that Justice of joining the
Proprietary Estates with our Own towards defraying the Expence of
the War, And I do not doubt that we shall chearfully exert our
Selves in Our several Stations to extricate the Province from the
Load of Debt brought upon us by the present War when we consider
that the Property of all, contribute, under the present Law by an
equal taxation to the general Defence.
But when I suppose that the Property of all is
equally taxed, I need not distinguish to my Friend BF who is so
well acquainted with our Situation and Affairs that even as the Law
stands the Proprietary Estate cannot be equally taxed, since we do
not touch their unlocated Lands which will be as much theirs as any
other Part of their Property and may be sold whenever the Enemy is
expelled and the Frontier once more considered as Safe and fit for
Inhabitants as the Internal Parts of the Province. The Property
thus excluded by our Law was not long since estimated by themselves
to be nearly Nine Tenths of the Whole, as appears by an Estimate in
your Hands. But tho’ by the Law thus circumstanced and by this
Remark it may appear that the Proprietors cannot contribute their
full proportion of the Expences, I should not think it Right to tax
the unlocated Lands; And I believe the Assessors Will be careful in
assessing those that are located so as by no Means to exceed the
Proportions of the located Estates and property of the other
Inhabitants which are to be defended (as far as we are able to
defend them) at the common Charge of all. I shall make this a
Seperate Letter and close it and refer any further Advices to what
I may have Occasion to inform you of when either my Self, or the
Committee transmit the Laws for the Supplies and Indian Trade with
the Minutes relating to them under the G[reat] Seal and the proof
of the Clerk. I am &c.
Please to put all the Bills (after using what you have Occasion for
on the Public Account) into the Bank as by my former Orders.