The Lower House. 583

probably for the same Purpose ? Indeed your Excellency was pleased,
in your Message of the 23d of February last, in Answer to our
Address of that Day, to say, " You had good Reason to apprehend,
that the Soldiers which had been raised for the more immediate
Defence of our Frontier Inhabitants, would disband themselves
when they found that the Assembly had broke up, without making
any further Provision for their Support: You thought it your in-
dispensible Duty to order Two Companies of Militia to the Frontiers,
lest the People that were settled there, being left without any Hopes
of Assistance or Protection, should desert their Habitations, or fall
an easy Prey to the Enemy : " But as a Bill was sent up from this
House last Session, making Provision for supporting Three Com-
panies of the Soldiers, which had been raised for his Majesty's
Service, and the more immediate Defence of our Frontier Inhabi-
tants; (though the other Branch of the Legislature did not concur
therein) it would seem that those Soldiers thought they had sufficient
Reason to depend, that the several Branches (the Assembly being
prorogued only for a few Weeks) would soon agree upon some Bill
for that Purpose; and that reasonable Dependance, we presume, pre-
vented their Disbanding themselves then, and has even to this Time :
And supposing those Soldiers to have been employed in the Duty of

L. H. J.
Liber No. 50
April 17

their Station, the Occasion your Excellency is pleased to mention
for ordering the Militia of Queen-Anne's and Kent Counties to the
Frontier, could not exist; even if there had been a Power of ordering
them out, which we humbly conceive there was not.
And we choose at present to avoid entering into a Dispute with
your Excellency, in Relation to the Existence of the Law before-
mentioned, we shall now proceed to represent to your Excellency
wherein you have exercised a Power not given you by that Law
(supposing it were really in Force) in marching the Militia of Queen-
Anne's and Kent Counties to the Frontiers of this Province, and
that the Exercise of that Power (supposing it had been strictly legal)
at the most severe Season of the Year, was unnecessary and extremely
grievous, and ruinous to them, and unreasonably burthensome to the
Country.
That Law (supposing it to be in Force) seems to give Power to
every Colonel, &c. to inlist the Inhabitants of this Province to be of
the Militia, and to muster, exercise, and train them; and seems to
subject them to a Fine of One Hundred Pounds of Tobacco for non-
Appearance or Refusal to be inlisted in the Militia or Trained Bands ;
agreeable to a reasonable Construction of that Law (supposing it
were in Force) the Inhabitants of this Province are to be Mustered
and Trained in the Counties where they Reside, and are not to be
compelled to Muster or Train out of their own Counties.
That Law next proceeds to settle the Pay of the Officers and Sol-
diers of the Militia, while they shall be in actual Service, and pro-

p. 43