The Lower House. 385

Confidence which they claim, and a Compliance with their earnest
Desires, that I must beg to be excused, if, for the future, I shall
chuse to see the Bottom of every Representation against any Man,
whether Officer or Not, with my own Eyes; since I find so little
Reliance is to be had on their Firmness and Candour.

And now, to conclude this Message, so far as it relates to the Naval-
Officers; since I find no Breach of Duty in those Officers; since
Impost-Bonds, which are the established Security to the Public for
all Country Duties, are taken payable to the Proprietor, and by which
these Duties are secured in the regular and usual Way, and since, as I
am told, those Securities are still good (tho' how soon they may fail
cannot be foreseen) I shall, upon your Request, order those Bonds to
be put in Suit, against the original Debtors to the Public, to recover
those Duties, if you think them payable, as you seem to do, by your
desiring the Naval-Officers Bonds to be sued: But if nothing less
than Suits upon those Officers Bonds will content you, I must beg to
be excused; and if, when I find such a Spirit prevailing, as seems to
have Governed the last Lower House, I should afford any one en-
dangered by it, a Protection from Injustice and Oppression (as I
think even the Trouble of attending Suits on those Bonds, and the
Loss of the Costs to those Officers, tho' they should end in Non-
suits, would be) I should hope you would think I was only acting
agreeable to the Duties of my Station.

L.H.J.
Liber No. 49
Dec. 16

I come now to the second Head of your Address, relating to the
Commissioners of the Currency Office, wherein you express your
Concern to find, that no legal Steps have yet been taken to compel
those Commissioners to Credit the Public with those Monies paid
so many Years ago into that Office by Trippe, Porter, and Bradford :
You'll be pleased to observe, Gentlemen, that the first Address upon
this Subject to me was in the last Session; to which I then gave you
for Answer (amongst other Things) That Col. Hammond, who was
the only surviving Commissioner who could be affected by those
Judgments, obtained long before my Arrival in this Province, had
told me, that as he could make it appear the Money in Question never
was paid into the Office, he had appealed from those Judgments; and
I can venture to assure you, that a Writ of Error is now depending
for their Reversal, wherein should he not succeed, I have Reason
to believe, he will, without further Trouble, pay the Money; by which
Means the Country may receive it as soon as upon a Suit commenced
on his Bonds. I presume that the particular Behaviour of the Jury
in those Cases, (which I am told gave no small Disgust to many
sensible By-Standers): And the Matters having been dormant so
many Years, may have given him Reason to conclude, that this
Affair would never have been stirred against him, notwithstanding
those Judgments, because as soon as that Address of last Session
came to my Hands, he declared he would endeavour to Reverse

p. 229