352 Correspondence of Governor Sharpe,

Letter Bk. IV

Inclosed Your Ldp will receive the Titles of those Acts & as
there are two of more Consequence than the Rest I have
ordered Copies of them to be immediately taken & shall by
this Opportunity transmit them to M^r Hamersley for Your
Ldps Consideration. One of them as Your Ldp will see is
An Act for paying off the Publick Debt now of ten years
standing by an Emission of Notes or Bills of Credit on the
Plan I communicated to Your Ldp in a Letter hearing Date
the 24^th Dec^r last & on which I enlarged in my Letter to M^r
Calvert of the 2 I^st of that Month, in answer to which M^r
Hamersley by his Letter of the 22^d of March signified to Me
that the Scheme appeared to Your Ldp quite unexception-
able, & indeed as the Stock belonging to the Province in the
Bank of England (upon which as a Sinking Fund the Bills of
Credit are to be emitted) would really sell for more at this
time than the Amount of the Nominal Value of All the Bills
to be issued I do not conceive any Objection can be made
thereto, the strictest Regard being paid to the Act of Parlia-
ment made in 1764 relative to Emissions of Paper Currency
in the Colonies, for it is expressly provided by our Act of
Assembly now pass't that the Bills of Credit to be by virtue
thereof emitted shall not be a legal Tender in any Case what-
ever unless the Contract shall be specific for the payment of
such Bills. But altho the Bills are not made a legal Tender
I am confident they will pass Current & support their Value
as well as if they were, the Excessive Scarcely of Specie at this
time in the Province owing to the great Exportation of Dol-
lars for some years past to England will be a concurrent Cir-
cumstance to support the Credit of those Bills & as they are
to be destributed among so great a Number of Persons as the
Publick Claimants among whom are all the Members of both
Houses of Assembly & a great Number of Trading People as
well as Planters it must be the Interest of All to keep up their
Credit, nay, I am told that One of the principal Merchants in
Philadelphia who knows on what Foundation the Bills are to
be emitted has declared that he will make no Difference
between those Bills & the Number of Dollars to be therein
mentioned. As I advised M^r Hamersley the 20^th of last
Month on what Conditions the long disputed Affair of the
Salary due to the Clerk of the Council was settled between
the two Houses previous to the Bills being framed for paying
off the publick Claims I presume Your Ldp will be informed
thereof before this comes to hand, & as I shall herewith trans-
mit a Copy of the Upper House Journal Your Ldp will see
therein all that passed between the two Houses on the Occa-
sion. Before the Lower House or such Members as they may
have appointed to take the necessary Steps for carrying the