516 Assembly Proceedings, Mar. 28-May 13, 1758.

U. H. J.
Liber No. 35

May 4

Message that whatever Probability you may think there is of the
Quit Rents of the Proprietary of Pensilvania being taxed from the
Intelligence you may have received we are unacquainted with it and
that it can't at present have much Weight with us.

The Quit Rent reserved in the old Grant, whether there was any
purchase Money paid or not /in many Instances you know Nothing
was paid/ was we presume thought to be as much as the Proprietary
deemed it prudent to demand of his Tenants who had many Diffi-
culties to struggle with, and would be put to a great Expence in
supporting the Government and defending the Province, but can it
be seriously contended that after the Province was well settled and
Lands grew valuable he could not with Justice alter the Terms of his
future Grants in Proportion to their Increase of Value? had his
Lordship attempted to impose new Terms upon old Grants you would
have Reason for your Exclamation, but as he has made no such
Attempt you have none. — You ask if the Undertaking the sole
Burthen to defend the Province was a Consideration in our original
Grants why did the Proprietary alter the Conditions of taking up
Lands from two Shillings p 100 Acres to four Shillings, and from
that to i o/. Rent, and why the Purchase Mony from two Pounds to
five Pounds

p. 327

Any one unacquainted with the Terms upon which Lands are
granted here who should read this Passage in your Message would
suppose that the present Rent reserved upon every one hundred
Acres is 10/. and that where 10/ : Rent is paid for one hundred
Acres the Caution or Purchase Money has been five Pounds, and
therefore it is proper for us to observe that the Rent reserved is four
Shillings only p. 100 Acres, that there have been but very few
Grants ever made upon which a Rent of 10./ p. 100 Acres has been
reserved, and that in the Instance where there has been a Reservation
of 10/ : Rent p 100 Acres the Caution or Purchase Mony was only
40./. We supposed it to be Part of his Lordship's Consideration, or
Expectation if you please when he granted his Lands whether under
the old or new Terms, that his Tenants would defend them and
support every other necessary Expence of the Government and there-
fore he was the more moderate in his Demands and we thought also
that his Tenants considered his Grants in this Light from their
never having called upon him to contribute to these Purposes out
of the Rents they paid him, and as we think it can't be denied that

the Lande lately granted under the new Terms are as valuable to his

Tenants as those were originally which were granted upon the old
Terms, and his Tenants are equally enabled by the Smallness of the
Rent they now pay /tho' greater than what they formerly paid/
to defend their Lands; we are not convinced that any Alteration of
the Terms can give his Tenants a Right to claim now a Contribution
of his Lordship out of his Quit Rents, which they had not an equal