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made the most speedy Applications they possibly could to the Gov-
ernment, for Leave to march to the Assistance of their Neighbours,
believed, by them, to be in Distress; and accordingly in a very few
Days at least Eight Hundred Men of Kent and Caecil, were far
advanced towards the Northern Frontier of this Province, on their
Way to meet the Enemy; and the Militia of several other Counties
had, in the same Time, we are informed, got themselves in Readiness
(as well as they could) to march on the same Occasion; when happily,
the Report proved to be groundless. The Alacrity, with which many
Gentlemen accompanied your Excellency to the Western Frontier,
after the unhappy Defeat of his Majesty's Troops under General
Braddock, upon only the bare Suggestion of an Invasion, we pre-
sume you cannot but be mindful of. But upon the present Occasion,
as there was not so much as a Report of even an Incursion of a
single Enemy, among the most distant of the Frontier Settlers, it
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L. H. J.
Liber No. 50
April 17
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cannot be wondered at that the Militia of Queen-Anne's and Kent
Counties shewed so great an Unwillingness to march out, and expose
themselves to the Severities of the most rigorous Season of the
Year, to do a Duty they pay others to perform; and which never
was, by any Law of this Province, intended to be imposed upon
them; till at Length by Threats of Punishment, we presume, they
were induced to move; for we cannot learn, that any compulsive
Methods have yet been made use of, agreeable to the Mode prescribed
by the aforesaid Law, against any who refused to go.
And we presume it will be as little wondered at, if the Militia of
Calvert, or any other County, at this Time ordered to march, should
to a Man refuse; as this Province is happily free from any Invasion,
or any Report of one, and is preparing, in Conjunction with the
neighbouring Colonies, and his Majesty's Regular Forces, to act vig-
orously and offensively against the Enemy; and there is no small
Reason, from a late Message of his Honour Governor Denny, to
the Assembly of Pennsylvania, to hope, that most of the Indians to
the Westward of us are well inclined, at least to forbear their
Incursions.
Upon the Whole, we cannot but entertain the warmest Hopes, that
your Excellency, moved by the calamitous Circumstances, which
many of his Majesty's faithful and truly loyal Subjects have already
been and must inevitably be reduced to, by being marched to the
Frontier of this Province, at a Season of the Year the most severe,
and there stationed for so long a Time, as must render it impossible
for them to give that Attendance to their Crops which is necessary,
in order to procure a bare Subsistence to their Families, and to enable
them to pay the Public Taxes, necessarily already, and which must
be hereafter imposed, for his Majesty's Service, and their own
Security: And clearly sensible of the slavish Condition we and our
Posterity must be reduced to (for we are presuaded from your
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p. 48
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