The Lower House. 361

[This Representation is printed in full in the Upper House Journal
pp. 187-190]
The humble Address of the Upper and Lower Houses of Assembly
[to the Lord Proprietary]
[This Address is printed in full in the Upper House Journal
p. 190]
Which said Petition, Representation and Addresses, were severally
Signed, by Order of the House, by the Honourable Speaker.

His Excellency the Governor communicated to Mr. Speaker, the
following Message, viz.
Gentlemen of the Lower House of Assembly,
As there are, in your Address of the second Instant, some Insinua-
tions that seem calculated to injure my Character, I think it proper,
before I enter upon any other Parts of that extraordinary Address,
to submit to the disinterested and impartial Reader, whom you are
pleased to appeal to, a plain Narrative of those Transactions or Pro-
ceedings of mine, which you conceive I should be desirous of Con-
cealing, and would have judged improper for the Knowledge of the
Public.
By an Act of Assembly that was made here in July 1754, upon the
News of the Virginia Forces having been Defeated at the Little-
Meadows, the Treasurers and Commissioners of the Loan-Office
were directed to pay to Myself, or the Governor of the Province for
the Time being, the Sum of £6000 to be applied towards the Defence
of the Colony of Virginia, and his Majesty's Dominions, and the
Relief and Support of the Wives and Children of the Indian Allies,
that should put themselves under the Protection of this Government,
at such Times, and in such Sums, as I or the Governor of the Prov-
ince for the Time being, should judge necessary. As soon as this Act
was passed, I advised Governor Dinwiddie thereof, and desired him
to tell me, how he thought the said Money might be most usefully
expended for his Majesty's Service; and upon his giving it as his
Opinion, that a Company of one Hundred Soldiers ought to be raised
in Maryland, to act in Conjunction with the Troops that were then on
the Frontiers of Virginia, under the Command of Colonel Innes, I
forthwith issued Commissions for raising such a Company.
As it was then expected that these Men would be immediately
employed beyond the Allegany Mountains, where Provisions were
not at all Times to be easily got, as the Virginians had to their Cost
experienced, I impowered and directed Colonel Cresap, who lived in
the Westernmost Part of the Province, to purchase and lay in as
much Flour and Salt Provisions as could be consumed by One
Hundred Men in Twelve Months; and to enable the Colonel to pur-
chase every Thing at the cheapest Rate, I did, on the 3Oth of August,
27

L. H. J.
Liber No. 49
Dec. 15

p. 198