Honoured Sir

According to your Orders, I continue to write to you; and as I am no Way concerned in the Broils that distract this unhappy Province, farther than any Indifferent Man must be, who loves his Country, you may always depend that I shall write the calm Dictates of an impartial Breast.

You will see by the late Messages (which I enclose) that our Quarrels run higher, and we have still less Prospect of Agreement than ever, All our late Misfortunes have not taught our Assembly to yield a single Inch to save the Whole. On the Contrary they advance new Claims of Power to retard Business and play the old Game, where they know the Governor restricted in Duty and Honor. In the mean Time our Country bleeds; all our superior Advantages are lost; Expences are immensely increased; and the Hands of Thousands of brave Men in this Province, eager to assert our just Cause, are tied up, while Murder and Misery roar at their very Doors! This is truly a piteous Situation, and no Hopes of Redress but from your Quarter.

The Quarrel is now Taxing the Proprietary-Estate and Quit Rents; a new Branch of Power assumed contrary to a positive Law of their own. This they think will serve at your Lordship’s Board as a better Pretence and Plea for their doing Nothing in Defence of the Province, than their former Quarrels about Instructions, which they find will no longer do.

That the Proprietor should bear his Part od the general Burden is but reasonable. We are persuaded he will not be backward; and his Expence is at this Time considerable. But that the Assembly should fix both the Mode and Quantum of his Tax is unjust in itself. They have already wrested too much of the Powers of Government from their chief Governor; and now they want to complete their Scheme by wresting his Estate also, and rendering him absolutely dependent on them for the Future. For such is the Manner of Assessing here, that they would make his Estate pay more perhaps than it brings. To speak of the Assessors being on Oath or Affirmation, is nothing to the Purpose. All other Subjects are taxed by those who may be called their Peers;—Persons interested to deal equitably; but here the Propriator would be taxed by Persons who are taught to think it Justice to do him Injustice; Persons who set up his Interest as separate from their own, and who the more they can make him pay will have the less to pay themselves. Now this is the very Consideration upon which the Law excludes all Persons from bearing Witness in Court or serving as Jurymen, whose Interest might influende them contrary even to an Oath; much more an Affirmation!

There is so little Decency observed in this Dispute that the Asembly, in the bitterest Manner have endeavoured to make the Governor pass for a Knave, the hated Instrument of Oppression; a Fool, incapable of Government; a Calumniator, Liar, Libeller &c.—Language which is the Effect of Licentiousness and plainly proves that they are Strangers to every Thing but the Name of that Oppression they complain of. In short when once a chief Governor, or his Lieutenant, are so treated, it renders a People weak and contemptible, and seems to me a Dissolution of all Government. In what Light it will appear on your Side of the Water I cannot tell; but surely it is high Time for the British Parliament to interfere, and ascertain the particular Powers both of Governors and Assemblies, that now at last we may enjoy some Respite from those eternal Quarrels that distract us, and have thrown us almost into the Hands of the Enemy. This with the proposed Union and fixing of our several Quotas of the general Expence would render us great and Powerful. Could this have been done last winter, it wou’d have saved much Blood & Treasure.

We hope however, you will make no Laws for us but such as are necessary to save us, & we will not make for ourselves. Many good Men think it hard that Laws should ever be binding, when made where they are not represented; and they fear when you once begin, you may go too far. But this must be left to the providence of Heaven and a British Legislation.

As our Assembly boast much of what they have done, it may be necessary to inform you that the whole is something less than 20,000£ a poor Sum compared to what all our Neighbours, except Maryland, have done! Nor has this been given for Defence directly, but part in Provisions to the New-Englandmen; part in Sweetmeats, Horses & Presents to conciliate themselves to the Kings Officers, who threatened us with Fire & Sword if we sat idle; and part to cut a Road, which they now refuse to pay if it exceeds 800£. But no men have been raised, & nothing done to secure our Frontiers, tho’ the Inhabitants are daily quitting their Habitations.

The waggons & Horses were raised by a single Man, who [converted?] and paid them with the General’s Money; after being obliged to wait till the Leaves had covered the Trees & the Enemy were reinforced so as to defeat us.