356 Correspondence of Governor Sharpe.

Letter Bk. IV

come to some Agreement with regard to the Annual Salary
heretofore allowed & still claimed by the Clerk of the Council
& that in Consequence of such Agreement they would prob-
ably concur in passing a Bill for paying off the Publick Debt
with Notes of Credit to be now emitted on some such Plan as
I mentioned in my Letter bearing Date the 21^st of Decem^r
last. Agreeable to such my Expectations a Bill hath been
framed for that purpose & having met with the Concurrence
of the Upper House received my Assent last Saturday Even-
ing when I put an End to the Session. As this Act is of
much Consequence & might perhaps be reported as repug-
nant to the late Act of Parliament prohibiting the Colony
Legislatures from Emitting & making Bills of Credit a Legal
Tender I shall herewith transmit a Copy of it by which you
will see it is therein expressly provided that the Notes or Bills
of Credit to be by Virtue thereof put in Circulation shall not
be deemed a legal Tender in any Case whatever unless a
Contract be specifically made for such Bills ; & as the Emis-
sion is to be made on the Plan sometime ago communicated
to you to which in your Letter of the 22^d of March you signi-
fied to me that His Ldp had no Objection I entertained hopes
that the Act now made will be found so unexceptionable as to
receive His Ldps Assent. The Upper House as you will see
by their Journal herewith transmitted were desirous to have it
amended or altered in some respects but could not prevail, &
therefore being unwilling to lose the Bill altogether pass't it as
it stood. In order to prosecute the Appeal to His Majesty in
Council respecting the Allowance of the Clerk the Members
of the Lower House have I understand opened a Subscription
& at the Conclusion of the Session contributed themselves
about £ 150 which will probably by this Opportunity be remitted
to M^r Garth whom they are to employ as their Agent &
through whose hands their Address to the King upon the
Repeal of the Stamp Act is to be transmitted. They may
also by this Opportunity send Instructions to their Agent to
prosecute the Appeal immediately & furnish him with Argu-
ments for that purpose, if they do I should be glad to be
advised thereof as soon as possible, tho indeed without such
Advice I shall endeavour to have immediately collected for
your Information such Evidence as may serve to support the
Claim of the Clerk of the Council or rather of the Upper
House who insist the Clerk ought to be paid his Salary accord-
ing to constant Usage by the Publick & not by His Ldp out
of Fines Forfeitures or any other Branch of his Revenue. As
the settling this Point & the other Matters which have for
some years been controverted between the two Houses &
consequently agitated Mens Minds throughout the whole Pro-