1. On the first Paragraph of the Answer, we
shall just observe, that the Declaration it contains is a noble
One, and worthy of the Rank our Proprietaries hold among us; we
only wish that in the present Case they had thought fit to give a
Proof of the Sincerity with which it is made, such as would have
been satisfactory to others, since our Assemblies are esteemed
interested Judges.
2. The Insinuation in the second Paragraph, as
if the Assembly were actuated by any Inclination to oppose the
Proprietary Interests, we look upon to be injurious; and as
groundless as the other Supposition, that the Members might have in
View their future Election, of which we shall take farther Notice
when we come to the sixth Paragraph, where it is again repeated. No
Instance can be given of that Assembly’s opposing, or attempting to
oppose, the Proprietary Interest. It rather appears that they
thought they were consulting those Interests in the very Point
in Question, if it be consistent with the Proprietary Interest
to have a good Understanding with the People; since the
representation expresly proposed a Method of preventing
Misunderstandings for the future.
3. In the third Paragraph, the Representation
is treated as a mere Repetition of a former Application, and
therefore improper, as “repeating the Request could only produce
the Repeating the Answer”: But the Representation appears to your
Committee to contain, not only a Repetition of the Request, but new
Reasons in Support of it, and Answers to such as had been given for
refusing it. And such a Repetition of an Application we think
justifiable in all Cases; except where we can be sure that the
first Thoughts of the Persons apply’d to, are infallibly right; or
if wrong, that they are incapable of hearing Reason.
4. With Regard to the Opinion said to be
declared by the Lords of Trade, “that our Proprietaries were no
more obliged to contribute to Publick Charges than any other
Governor in Chief of the King’s Colonies;” your Committee presume
to suppose their Lordships could only mean, that as Governor in
Chief the Proprietaries were not obliged by Law; and not,
that as Proprietaries they were not obliged in Equity. The
latter is the Point at present in Dispute between the Proprietaries
and People of Pennsylvania, tho’ in this Paragraph evaded. The
Assembly mention no other Obligation but such as in their Opinion
arises from Reason and Justice; they humbly submit their Reasons to
the Proprietaries Consideration, and from their Equity only, they
hope a Compliance with the Request. The Position understood as the
Proprietaries would understand it, must as well hold good among the
Governed as the Governors of the Colonies: For should
the wealthiest Inhabitant say, he ought to pay no more towards
publick Charges than any other Inhabitant, he would be right,
considering him merely as an Inhabitant; but as a Possessor of
Property, he would be wrong; and therefore Laws are made, obliging
such as would not otherwise be just, to pay in Proportion to their
Substance.
5. The fifth Paragraph seems intended to combat
an Assertion that the Purchases from the Indians were made with the
People’s Money. As we find no such Assertion in the Representation,
we do not think it necessary at present to enquire how far, or in
what Instances, the People have had a Share directly or indirectly
in any such Purchases. The Representation only intimates, that the
House conceived, Treaties for the Purchase of Land were made on
more reasonable Terms to the Proprietaries for the Provincial
Presents accompanying such Treaties: And that this was an
additional Reason why the Proprietaries should bear a
proportionable Part, at least, of the Expence of such Presents;
since, besides their Share of “the common Benefits and
Conveniencies, which arise from the mutual Exchange of Friendly
Offices with the Indians,” they reap a particular Advantage to
themselves, and That a very considerable One. This Reason we
apprehend is not answered in the present Paragraph; it is only
evaded, by changing the State of the Question. A Subtlety, in our
Opinion, unworthy the Dignity of the Proprietaries and the Chief
Governors of a Province.
6. On the sixth Paragraph we would observe,
That the Request to the Proprietaries, that they would be pleased
to bear a Part of Indian Expences, was founded on the
supposed Equity of the Case; and that they would consent to
settle the Proportion to be paid by them, was proposed as a
Means of preventing Dissatisfactions between them and the People.
To these Points, this Paragraph only answers, that the People
are able enough to pay these Expences without the Assistance
of the Proprietaries. This likewise seems to be starting a new
Question, and one that is beside the present Purpose: For tho’ it
were true that the People are able to pay, it does
not follow that they should therefore pay unjustly, nor is
it likely that they will be pleas’d and satisfied
with so doing, for such a Reason. The Proprietaries are likewise
able to pay, they have Revenue enough, but they do not think
this a sufficient Reason even to pay a Part, why then should
it be thought sufficient to induce us to pay the whole? The
Charge contained in this Paragraph, “that the Application was only
an Attempt to induce the weakest of the People to imagine the House
had an uncommon Regard to their Interests, and were therefore the
most proper Persons to be continued their Representatives at the
ensuing Election”; your Committee think an absolute Mistake, and
unsupported by the least Degree of Probability. For there had not
been for some Years, nor was there expected to be, nor has there
since been, any Contest at Elections between the Proprietary and
popular Interests; nor if there had, would it have been necessary
to take such Measures, the Proprietaries having, of late Years, no
formidable Share of the People’s Love and Esteem. Nor was the
supposed Address in Fact made to the People; for the Representation
has never yet been published; nor were the Votes containing those
Resolutions published till after the Election was over. Nor is the
Situation of an Assembly-man here so advantageous as to make it
worth his while to use Artifice for procuring a Re-election; for
when the Smallness of the Allowance, the Expence of Living, the
Time he is absent from his own Affairs, and other Inconveniences
are considered, none will suppose he can be a Gainer by serving the
Publick in that Station.
7. But whether Assembly-men may or may not
expect any gainful Advantages from that Station, we find our Chief
Governors informing us in pretty plain Terms in the Seventh
Paragraph, that they themselves are not without such Expectations
from theirs. They tell us, “their Consent is
necessary to our Laws, and that it will tend the better to
facilitate the Matters which must be transacted with them,
for the Representatives to shew a Regard to their Interest.” That is, as we understand it, tho’ the
Proprietaries have a Deputy here, supported by the Province, who is
or ought to be fully impower’d to pass all Laws necessary for
the Service of the Country, yet, before we can obtain
such Laws, we must facilitate their Passage, by paying Money
for the Proprietaries which they ought to pay, or in some other
Shape make it their particular Interest to pass them. We hope, however, that if this
Practice has ever been begun, it will never be
continued in this Province; and that, since, as this very
Paragraph allows, we have an undoubted Right to such Laws, we shall
be always able to obtain them from the Goodness of our Sovereign,
without going to Market for them to a Subject.
Yet however easy it may be to understand that
Part of this Paragraph which relates to the Proprietaries
Interest, your Committee are at a Loss to conceive why, in
the other Part of it, the People are to be acquainted, “that the
Crown has been pleased to give the Proprietaries a Rank, and
that they expect from the Representatives a Treatment
suitable thereto.” We cannot find on perusing the Representation in
Question, that it contains any Treatment unsuitable to their Rank.
The Resolve of the House was, That to prevent Dissatisfactions on
all Sides, they should be requested, in the most reasonable
and most respectful Manner, to agree upon a Proportion of
Indian Charges to be paid by them and the Province according to
Justice: And it may be submitted to the Judgment of all impartial
Persons, whether the Representation drawn in Pursuance of the
Resolve, was not both reasonable in itself, and
respectful in the Manner. It was not, as the Proprietaries
represent it, an Address to the Publick. It is not to this Day made
publick. It was a private Application to themselves, transmitted to
them thro’ the Hands of their Governor. Their true
Interest (which they will always find to
consist in just, equitable and generous Measures, and in securing
the Affections of their People) was consulted in it; and one
suitable Means proposed to obtain that End. As to Rank, the
Proprietaries may remember, that the Crown has likewise been
pleased to give the Assemblies of this Province a Rank; a Rank
which they hold, not by hereditary Descent, but as they are
the voluntary choice of a free People, unbrib’d, and even
unsollicited. But they are sensible that true Respect is not
necessarily connected with Rank, and that it is only from a
Course of Action suitable to that Rank they can hope to obtain
it.
8. Your Committee are quite surprized at the
Concern the Proprietaries are pleased to express in their eighth
Paragraph, on their being, as they say, laid under a Necessity of
acquainting the Publick with the State of the Revenue of the
Province: As if the State of that Revenue had ever been a Secret;
when it is well known, and the Proprietaries themselves know, that
the Publick Accounts are yearly settled, stated, printed, and
published by the Assembly, and have been so for these Thirty Years
past. Whatever private Reasons the Proprietaries may have to make a
Secret of their Revenue, we know of none to make one of the Revenue
of the Province, nor has it ever been attempted. Their following
Observations, concerning the Nature of our Taxes, and the
Distinction between general and particular Taxes, seem to your
Committee not so just and accurate as might be expected: For we
cannot conceive, that the Willingness of People to subject
themselves to the Payment of Interest or Excise, by taking Money on
Loan, or consuming spirituous Liquors, makes either the one or the
other less a Tax. The Manner of laying a Tax, the easy Method of
levying it, and the Benefits arising from the Disposition of it,
may all tend to induce People to pay it willingly; yet it is still
a Tax. And indeed all Taxes ought, upon the whole, to produce
greater Good to a People, than the Money kept in their Pockets
could do: In such Case, Taxes are no Burdens; but otherwise they
are. Taxes, seemingly particular, are also more general than they
are often supposed to be: The labouring Man must live: Excise the
Materials of his Subsistence, and he generally finds Means to get
more for his Labour.
After estimating our whole present Revenue, as
if it had been the same for twenty Years past, and would certainly
continue, tho’ the Proprietaries know it depends on temporary Acts
near expiring, the Renewal of which is at best dubious, they
conclude that Four Hundred Pounds a Year for Indian Expences is a
small Sum, and that we are under no Necessity of being frugal, on
this Account, of the Publick Money. This Four Hundred a Year is the
Sum that they find has been paid on an Average for twenty Years
past, and they take no Notice of its being a growing Charge, and
that for the four last Years before the Representation, it amounted
to near Twelve Hundred a Year, which we conceive disinterested
Persons will think a very large Sum: And altho’ the same Excise
might have been raised, if not Half that Money had been expended,
it does not seem to us to follow, that the Proprietaries ought not
to have paid their just Proportion of it. If the Sum be small,
their Proportion of it must have been smaller: And the Money so
sav’d might have been applied to some other Use, beneficial to the
Publick; or have remained ready in the Treasury for any
Emergency.
9. On the Ninth Paragraph your Committee will
only observe, that the People of Pennsylvania do likewise pay
Duties and Excise for the Support of his Majesty’s Government; and
other Taxes, which, considering their Ability, are perhaps
proportionably equal to those paid by the Proprietary Family, or
any other Subjects in England. We pay indeed as much as an Infant
Colony can well bear, and we hope and believe the Justice of a
British Parliament will never burden us with more. The
Proprietaries Exemption was not published till now at their own
Instance. It was made use of as a private Motive to themselves
only, in the Representation.
10. On Enquiry, we have Reason to believe that
the Interpreter’s Bills of Charge against the Province, have always
been allowed and paid; and where his Accounts have contained blank
Articles for his Service, he has been ask’d what would satisfy him,
and the same has been allowed. We suppose the Instances alluded to,
wherein the Assembly did not fully satisfy him, must have been such
as the Proprietaries were concerned in by the Purchase of Lands,
and a Part might accordingly be left for them to pay. We believe
our Assemblies always have been, and we hope always will be, ready
to acknowledge gratefully any Services render’d to the Publick by
the Proprietaries; and not merely to acknowledge them, but to make
adequate Returns.
11. Whether the Monopoly of Lands, in Favour of
the Proprietary, was established by the Royal Grant, or by Acts of
Assembly, or by both, your Committee do not think it material at
this Time to dispute, since the Reasoning in the Representation
remains the same, viz. That those in whose Favour such Monopoly was
erected, ought at least to bear a Part of the Expence necessary to
secure them the full Benefit of it.
12. In the twelfth Paragraph, three Things
appear somewhat extraordinary to your Committee. 1. That the
Proprietaries should deny that Treaties for Land are made at less
Expence on Account of Provincial Presents accompanying them; which
we think any disinterested Judge would at least allow to be
probable. 2. That they should say the last Purchase was made on
no other Account, but purely to save the Province the
Expence of a Present; as if they had no Occasion to purchase more
Land of the Indians, or found no Advantage in it. 3. That to prove
such Purchases were not the cheaper on Account of Provincial
Presents accompanying them, they should give an Instance in which,
they themselves say, the Purchase was the dearer for want of such
Presents. If Purchases are dearer to the Proprietaries when no
Provincial Presents accompany them, does not this clearly confirm
the Assertion of the Assembly, that they are the cheaper when there
are such Presents? And does it not prove what the Proprietaries
deny?
13. It appears by their thirteenth Paragraph
that the Proprietaries think the Part they voluntarily submit to
bear, and expect always to bear, of publick Expences, is greater
than their Proportion, equitably laid, would amount to. If this be
so, and they are, as they say, “far from desiring to avoid
contributing to any publick Expence which it is reasonable
they should bear a Part of, altho’ their Estate is not by Law
liable to be taxed;” your Committee are at a Loss to conceive, why
they should refuse, “to enter into any Agreement for the Payment of
any particular Proportion of Indian or other publick Expences,”
when such Agreement might save them Money, and is propos’d to
prevent Dissatisfactions, and to preserve Union and Harmony between
them and the People; unless it be to shew their utter Contempt of
such Union and Harmony, and how much they are above valuing the
Peoples Regard.
The Charge on former Assemblies, that they
neglected the Defence of the Proprietaries City, your
Committee cannot but think unkind, when it is known to the World,
that they gave many Thousand Pounds during the War to the King’s
Use, besides paying near Three Thousand Pounds at one Time, to make
good the Damages done to the Masters of Servants, by the irregular
and oppressive Proceedings of the Proprietaries Lieutenant; and
that their not providing Cannon to defend the City, was not from
Neglect, but other Considerations set forth at large in the printed
Proceedings of those Times, needless now to be repeated. At the
same Time it may be remember’d, that tho’ the Defence of the
Proprietaries City, as they are pleas’d to term it, by Batteries of
Cannon, was more their Interest (we will not say Duty) than any
other Person’s whatsoever, and they now represent it as a Thing so
necessary, yet they themselves really neglected, and even
discouraged, it; while some private Gentlemen gave Sums nearly
equal to that they mention, and many contributed vastly more,
considering their Circumstances, by which Means those Batteries
were not only compleated in Season, but the Defence of both Town
and Country in that Way provided for; whereas this boasted
Assistance of Four Hundred Pounds worth of Cannon, was sent, like
Venetian Succours, after the Wars were over. Yet we doubt not, but
the Proprietary who sent them has long since had the Thanks of
those who receiv’d them, tho’ we cannot learn that they ever were
favour’d with any from him, for what they did and expended in
Defence of his Share of the Province Property.
14. The fourteenth Paragraph of the
Proprietaries Answer seems calculated merely for the same Design
with which they charge the Representation, viz. to amuse the weaker
Part of the People. If they are really dispos’d to favour the
Drinkers of spirituous Liquors, they may do it without a Law, by
instructing their Lieutenants to abate Half the Licence Fees, which
would enable the Retailers to sell proportionably cheaper; or to
refuse Licences to more than Half the present Number of Publick
Houses, which might prevent the Ruin of many Families, and the
great Increase of Idleness, Drunkenness and other Immoralities
among us.
15. In Return to the good Resolutions expressed
by the Proprietaries in their fifteenth Section, your Committee
hope that future, as well as past Assemblies, will likewise
endeavour to make the Publick Good the Rule of their Actions, and
upon all Occasions consult the true Interest and Honour of
the Proprietary Family, whatever may be the Sentiments or Conduct
of any of its particular Branches. To this End, we think the honest
and free Remarks contain’d in this Report, may be more conducive
than a Thousand flattering Addresses. And we hope, that when the
Proprietaries shall think fit to reconsider this Matter, they will
be persuaded, that agreeing to an equitable Proportion of Expence
will be a good Means of taking away one Handle of Dissention from
“Men of warm uneasy Spirits, if such should ever unhappily procure
themselves to be elected.”
16. The representatives being annually
chosen, we are aware that we are not writing now to the same
Persons who sent the Representation to us; the Persons most
forward to push on a Measure (which, from the Answer, we
directed our Governor to give to the former Application he
was desired to make to us, must be supposed disagreeable) may
not now be in the House, but may be succeeded by more
prudent Persons, returned for their Places, who would be
careful not to press a Matter too far, in which the Rights
of the People are not really concerned: However, the Answer
we give must be to the Representation sent us. And we
desire, in any Matter of the like Nature, that the House will be
satisfied with such an Answer as the Governor may have
Orders to give on our Behalf.