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L.H.J.
Liber No. 48
April 30
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We did in our third, as in our second Bill, lengthen the Time for
keeping up the Troops, from the 25th of December till the Ioth of
February next; before which Time undoubtedly an Assembly will be
called, who will Judge of the Expediency of keeping them up longer ;
and hope your Honours will not further press a Measure, so un-
constitutional, as your Proposal of keeping them up at the Will and
Pleasure of the Governor or Commander in Chief of those Forces ;
if you should, we never will consent to it.
We regulated in our third Bill the Pay of the Officers, nearly to
what they have in the neighbouring Colonies; and this we did also
in the second. The Governor or Commander in Chief of any Ex-
pedition that may be undertaken, we apprehend, will have Power to
form his Companies as he pleases. Those of the Fort and Block-
Houses, we cannot consent to alter, as the multiplying Commanding
Officers will too much increase the Expence.
A Fort-Adjutant and Gunner at the Fort we do not conceive
necessary; and the Arms, when out of Repair, may be exchanged
and repaired at much less Expence than would accrue from keeping a
Gun-Smith in constant Pay, at 2/6 per Day, as you propose.
The Pay of the Surgeon, at the Fort, we have rated at 6 s. per
Day, and Medicines to be provided for him: The Pay of a Surgeon,
who shall serve on the Expedition, 12/6 per Day, for himself and
Mate, and Medicines found. We did in our second Bill, and that
last sent up, make sufficient Provision against Mutiny and Desertion,
and the Entertainment of Deserters. To the Election of the Collectors
of the Duty on Wine and Spirituous Liquors, by the several Vestry-
men and Church-Wardens, we had good Reason to hope for your
Concurrence, as being a Method readily agreed to in our Inspection-
Law; however, as you had twice refused it, we did in our third Bill,
appoint, for Collectors, the several Sheriffs, who, as they are Gentle-
men already appointed by the Government to such considerable
Trust, we conceived, would not have been objected to by your
Honours; and they were to have given Bond in £400 as you pro-
posed; and this we condescended to, urged by the Miseries our
Frontier Inhabitants have already experienced, and are hourly in
Dread of, and the Danger threatening the whole British Interest in
America; nevertheless, insisting on our undoubted Right to the
Nomination of Commissioners or Collectors of every new Tax or
Duty, which may be imposed upon the People for any Purpose
whatever.
We could not have imagined you would have refused to pass a
Bill of the Importance that was of, purely because the Wealthy,
Opulent, and Luxurious, were to pay a Duty on some of the Liquors
they would have consumed, as well as the Poor, the Laborious, and
the Indigent Part of the Community, on the most they would expend
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