Correspondence of Governor Sharpe. 97

tions. At this time no other Gentlemen of the Council except
M^r Tasker & M^r Ridout are in Town but the first time I can
have a Council I shall communicate to them your proposition
with regard to their drawing up such a State of our Publick
Proceedings for some years past as might be thought expe-
dient in order to justify His Ldp his Governor & themselves,
tho if the managers of the Lower House or their Agents do
not first publish, it would not in my opinion be advisable for
us to begin, for where People will not stick to assert or sug-
gest Falsehoods or to throw Dirt we may have Vexation but
can have little Satisfaction from the Contention. I will when
I see M^r Bacon communicate to him what you tell me as from
Doctor Wilson, & as he supposes that some or other of the
Ships that are now daily expected will bring him Paper for
printing the Acts of Assembly I shall probably see him here
very shortly; according to the Account I have heard M^r
Anthony Bacon his Brother used all the Subscribers to the
Laws very ill in not sending him Paper enough for that pur-
pose by the last years Shipping by which we lye out of our
Subscription Money one year at least longer than we expected,
there is no such Word as Fort in the Tonnage Act that word
cannot therefore be inserted. I was in hopes to have been
able by this time to send to the Board of Trade a printed
Copy of all our Acts of Assembly & indeed I sometime ago
told their Lordships as much, but the Disappointment I have
mentioned has prevented any Copies being thrown off, Their
Ldps must therefore wait some time longer for a Copy, for
really it would be hard & expensive for me to get another
compleat Collection transcribed as you know I did some years
ago for the King's Council office especially as I have not the
least Room to expect that the Assembly will reimburse me
even what I then paid. Governor Hamilton intimated to us
at Newcastle last April that he was about to be superseded by
M^r Penn ; it will be happy for the Proprietors as well as the
Young Gentleman if he is well received & respected but
many Persons seem to think that the Case will be quite other-
wise. Peace has not been yet proclaimed in form in any of
these Provinces, the usual Instructions for that purpose not
being yet received but I presume there will be a Dispatch for
every Governor brought by the next Packet & then we shall
issue Proclamations as hath been heretofore usual on similar
Occasions. I return you Thanks for the Pamphlets &c. that
you were pleased to send me, also for the Print of Lord Bute
& for the Medal you were pleased to send me last year which
was duly received. As well as I remember M^r M^cNemara did
when he arrived here last Summer bring me a Letter of yours,
which if he did I am sure was answered, but I think he drop't

Letter Bk. IV