Inhabitants & lest the Earl of Loudoun should not know how
to dispose of them in the best manner for His Majesty's Ser-
vice or our security they have in a Bill which they have been
employed more than two months in framing particularly spec-
yfied where the men shall range or patroll & lye in Ambush
& have forbid them to move from the Stations or posts that
they have been pleased to allot them on any account what-
ever. They are much surprized at the Earl of Loudouns
insisting that the Troops in the Pay of this Province shall be
under his Command & will immediately on His Lordship's
Arrival here undertake to convince him of the Impropriety of
his Requisition. My Lord on the contrary seems to hope that
they will at length be brought to Reason but I am afraid his
Ldp will find that his Hopes are without foundation. I sup-
pose the Event will be that I shall find myself under a neces-
sity of obliging three or four Companies of Militia to march
& serve on our Frontiers instead of the Soldiers that are now
there & in this Expectation I have already ordered that Num-
ber to hold themselves in readiness to move on the first notice.
I take this occasion of thanking you for the Minutes taken at
the Indian Treaty & the other papers which Mr Peters sent
me some time ago by your order &c —
[Sharpe to Loudoun.]
29th Novr 1757 —
My Ld
I now take the Liberty to send your Ldp a Copy of the
Military Part as it is called of the Bill which our Assembly
have been so long employed about & which they were pleased
to send to the Gentn of the Upper House four or five Days
after I had communicated to them the Contents of Your Ldps
last Letter. I am apt to think that this Specimen of their
Performances will shew your Ldp that they are at least as
wrong-headed as I have ever represented them. The Bill will
be returned to them to morrow with a Negative upon which
they will very probably desire to be dismissed but I shall not
be prevailed on to comply with any such Request untill your
Ldp's Business will permit you to undertake your intended
Journey. Your Ldp cannot help observing that they have
not only restrained the Soldiers Service to a particular Spot
but that they have also studied to lay the Officers under every
possible Hardship or Difficulty, beside this they reduce
the Captain's pay from 12/6 Currency p Day to 10/ which
according to our present Excha. is not more than 6/ stg while
They themselves have the Conscience to receive for serving
their Country in Assembly as they call it at the Rate of 147 a
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