The House are not inclined to enter into any Dispute with the Governor on the Subject of his proposed Amendments to the Money-Bill; as the Representatives of the People have an undoubted Right to judge, and determine, not only of the Sum to be raised for the Use of the Crown, but of the Manner of raising it.

The Governor, in his Message of the Nineteenth of February, was pleased to tell us, “That if the House should be of Opinion that there will be a Necessity to strike a farther Sum in Bills of Credit, to defray the Charges of raising Supplies for his Majesty’s Service in this Time of imminent Danger, and would create a proper Fund or Funds, for sinking the same in a few Years, he would concur with us in passing a Law for that Purpose, thinking himself sufficiently warranted so to do in Cases of real Emergency.”

On this Assurance the House have prepared a Bill, and presented it to the Governor, to strike the Sum of Ten Thousand Pounds, to give the same to the King’s Use, and to sink it by an Extension of the Excise Act for a farther Term of ten Years. The Governor will be pleased to consider, that his Predecessor, to whom the mentioned Instruction was given, did afterwards pass an Act of the same Kind, extending the Excise Act ten Years (now near expired) for a Grant of Five Thousand Pounds only; and we never heard that he incurred the Royal Displeasure for so doing. As the Sum we grant is double, we had no Expectation that our proposing the same Term would have been deemed extravagant. The Governor thinks four Years sufficient; but as the Representatives are best acquainted with the Circumstances of the People, and must themselves, as a Part of the People, bear a Share of all Burthens laid upon them, it seems not reasonable to suppose they will lay such Burthens unnecessarily. They now offer Ten Thousand Pounds to the Crown, and propose a Manner of raising it, that they judge most easy and convenient for the People they represent: And if the Governor thinks fit to refuse it, meerly from an Opinion that a shorter Term for sinking the Bills would be more easy for the People, we cannot but suppose, that since the Messages in which he so warmly recommended this Affair to us, he has, on farther Advices, or better Consideration, changed his Sentiments of the Importance of the present Occasion for Supplies, and doth not now think the Danger so imminent, or the Emergency so great or so real, as he then apprehended it to be.

We therefore beg Leave to acquaint the Governor, that if this Amendment regarding the Term is insisted on, it is needless to consider the other relating to Commissioners, for the Bill cannot pass this House.