To Isaac Norris; Pennsylvania Assembly Committee of Accounts:
Report (II)
Philada. Feb. 15. 1763
It is now six Years, since, in obedience to the
Order of the House, I undertook a Voyage to England, to transact
their Affairs there.
Fifteen Hundred Pounds of the Public Money was
at different Times put into my Hands, for which I ought to
account.
The following Articles are vouch’d by the
Receipts inclos’d, viz.
I made many other Disbursements for which I have no Receipts;
such as for Postage of Letters and Pacquets, which were often very
heavy, containing Bills and Duplicates, &c. under the Great
Seal, brought by Post to London from the Out-Ports, which to
compute moderately could not, I think, fall short of £15 per Annum.
Also for customary New Year’s Gifts, and Christmas Presents to
Door-keepers and Clerks of the Publick Offices, Tavern Dinners for
the Lawyers and our other Friends at Hearings, Coach Hire, &c.
for which I know not what to reckon, having kept no Account of such
things.
I therefore can make no Claim of Allowance for
them.
The House will therefore please to consider the
Remainder of the £1500 put into my Hands, so unaccounted for, as
now in their Disposition; for as to any Compensation for my Time
and Pains in their Service, though I am conscious of having done
faithfully every thing in my Power for the Publick Good, according
to the best of my Abilities, yet as the House, when they appointed
me their Agent at first, and afterwards from Year to Year, did not
vote any particular Sum as my Salary, I am therefore not warranted
to charge any thing, but do now, with the same Confidence I have
ever had in the Justice and Goodness of the House, chearfully
submit the same to their present Discretion.
With the greatest Respect and Esteem, I am,
Sir, Your most obedient and most humble Servant