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at five per cent. The particular distress of this Province for want of a currency, and the little prospect of being able to obtain a Bill very soon to make the Bills a legal tender was what induced the Assembly to comply with this method, and as the funds for the redemption of the Bills are good beyond a doubt, we are under no apprehensions of any difficulty as to the bills obtaining credit and passing in lieu of money. We refer to the preamble to the bill and to your own knowledge of the propriety of the measure; and it gives us particular pleasure to intrust to your care a matter so generally desired by the people of this Colony, because you so well understand the subject and can so readily answer any objections that may be made against it.

The House have ordered a sum of money to pay the expense that may attend the getting of the Royal Assent to these Bills; and we enclose a Bill of Exchange for two hundred pounds sterling for that purpose.

The House have also passed a Bill for lending a sum of money to the General Proprietors of the Eastern division of this Province and have by a Message to the Governor informed him that they would direct their Agent by a Memorial to support the claim of this Colony before his Majesty in Council.' You will, from the Agent appointed by law to manage the controversy between the colonies, receive a state of the controversy and every paper necessary for you to inspect before drawing your Memorial. The House have therefore directed us to inform you that the principal motives of the House for your application to his Majesty, are

1 "An Act to indemnify the Treasurers of this Colony for advancing certain Sums of Money to the Agents appointed by Law to manage the Controversy touching the Settlement of the Line between New Jersey and New York, and for other Purposes therein Mentioned," passed December 6, 1769. The agents were John Stevens, James Parker, Henry Cuyler, William Donaldson and Walter Rutherford.- Allinson's Laws, 335.—[W. N.]

1st. That justice may be done to individuals as well as the Colony in general, and altho' the House does not pretend to direct where the said line ought to be fixed, yet as the settlement of said line will in its consequences affect the Colony very sensibly, especially should any station be fixed Southward of this line solemnly settled in the year 1719, in consequence of which great numbers of people settled up to the said line and have ever since done duty and paid their taxes in this Government, should that line be altered and brought Southward, many honest and bona fide purchasers will be involved in ruin, unless his Majesty should think proper to interpose.

2d. The Injustice to this Colony will appear very great when it's considered that the line of 1719 has constantly been deemed the line of division between the Governments, and the settlers and lands up to that line have ever been estimated in the taxes; hence should the line be removed Southward this Colony that has incurred a debt of one hundred and ninety thousand pounds in the late war, yet undischarged, will be deprived of valuable settlements in paying off this debt and the burthen increased on the remainder of the Colony. From this sketch of the sentiment of the House and the papers that will be laid before you by the Agents appointed by law to manage the controversy between the Colonies, you will be able to frame a Memorial to his Majesty; but as no appeal is yet made, and only threatened, no application from you to his Majesty will be necessary until such appeal is actually made by the agents from New York.

are

Sir, with great sincerity and respect,

Your humble servants,

We

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When you write by way of New York please to direct to Cortlandt Skinner, Esq Speaker of the Assembly of New Jersey; and by way of Philadelphia to Abraham Hewlings or Joseph Smith Esqrs at Burlington.

ESTEEMED FRIEND

BURLINGTON, Decr. 19th 1769.

The foregoing is a copy of a letter wrote by the Committee of Correspondence which was forwarded by the way of Bristol. Nothing further at present than to inform the foregoing and to inclose 2nd Bill for £200 stg drawn by Garret and Geo: Meade on James Dormer Esqr in London.

I am very respectfully

Thy friend

JOSEPH SMITH.

Letter from the Earl of Hillsborough to Governor Franklin, stating that the Lords of Trade had recommended Cortlandt (Stephen) Skinner' to be appointed a Member of the New Jersey Council.

Sir,

[From P. R. O., America and West Indies, Vol. 174 (192).]

WHITEHALL Decembr 9th 1769

Governor Franklin

On the 10th of last Month I received and laid before the King your dispatches N 18 & 19.

The ill effects of the Resolves of the Carolina Assembly in respect to the Mutiny Act have but too plainly

1 Intended for Stephen Skinner, who, a few days afterwards, was appointed a member of the Council.

shewed themselves in other Colonies, and seem to justify your apprehensions that they may have the same consequences in New Jersey; The King however confides in the professions you have made of a dutifull obedience to His Commands, that you will upon this occasion use your best endeavours to dissuade the Assembly from taking any notice of these Resolves and to induce them to make such provision for quartering the Troops as the Act requires, which will be the best plea they can have for any alteration they may wish to have made in it.

I lost no time in receiving His Majesty's Commands to communicate to the Board of Trade your Letter N° 19 recommending M Bayard to supply the Vacant Seat in the Council.

Their Lordships however have thought fit that the present vacancy should be filled up by the appointment of M Cortlandt Skinner who has long been upon their list, as a Person to whom they stood engaged for the first vacancy; at the same time I am warranted in saying that this circumstance would not have induced them without the greatest reluctance to have postponed the appointment of the Gentlemen you recommended, had it not appeared that two of them are at present not resident in the Colony; and that the other is actually of a profession that might require his attendance.

I am &c

HILLSBOROUGH.

Letter from Governor Franklin to Secretary Pownall, relative to the provision for the Support of the King's troops.

[From P. R. O. America and West Indies. Vol. 174 (192).]

BURLINGTON Dec 10, 1769

Sir

Secretary Pownall

I duely receiv'd your Letter of the 4th of October, informing me of Lord Hillsborough's Absence, and that my Dispatch N. 17, was received and laid before the King.

I must beg the Favour of you to acquaint his Lordship, that the General Assembly of this Colony, which met here on the 10th of October last were on the 6th Instant prorouged after an amicable Session, in which they made the same Provision for the Support of the King's Troops as heretofore, notwithstanding Endeavors were used to induce them to follow the Example of S. Carolina in this respect.-It is not in my Power to send his Lordship the Minutes of their Transactions by this opportunity, but they are Copying with the utmost Expedition, and will, with the Laws which have been passed, be transmitted without Loss of Time. I am with great Regard & Esteem,

Sir Your most obedient humble Servant
W FRANKLIN

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