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Limits or Precincts of this Province without the Consent and Appro-
bation of the General Assembly of this Province first had and de-
clared, the Freemen of this Province shall be no ways obliged or
compelled against their Consents to aid or assist with their Persons
or Estates in the Prosecution or Maintenance of such War, but are
and shall be discharged of all Attendance or Supply concerning or in
relation to such War; any Law, Usage or Custom to the contrary
hereof in any wise notwithstanding." It is afterwards enacted by the
same Law, " that no Martial Law shall at any Time hereafter be
exercised within this Province, but only in time of Camp or Garrison,
and that within such Camp or Garrison; " but not a Syllable is to be
found in this or any other Act which has ever been made in this
Province, whereby the Service of the Militia, or any of them, is
restrained to any particular County or Place within the Limits of this
Province, or whereby they are exempted from Marching to any
Part of it, that the Governor, with Advice of his Council, may think
proper to order them; and in a Word, neither the Practice of this
or any other Colony on the Continent (not to mention the Law or
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L. H. J.
Liber No. 50
May 5
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Custom of our Mother Country) will give the least Countenance to
the Construction you contend for.
Lest my Answer to your Address should be protracted to too great
a length, I admit all you say relative to the Marching and Service
of the Militia that were ordered to the Frontiers in September and
October 1756, tho' I am of Opinion, that such of them as were
Drafted and went against their Inclination (and many such there
were) could not properly be called Voluntiers : But as the next part
of your Address, and indeed the whole of it, seems calculated to make
your Constituents believe, that in September 1756, when the late
Lower House approved of my having Ordered out Two Companies
of Militia to the Frontiers, and moreover Addressed me to Order
out Others to relieve them, there were not a sufficient Number of
Troops there, to protect the Inhabitants, but that at the Time the
Companies were lately ordered to march from Kent, Queen-Anne's,
and Calvert Counties, there was an armed Force in the Pay of this
Province on the Frontiers more than sufficient, had they been com-
pelled to do their Duty, not only to protect the Inhabitants, but to
make them easy and quiet: I must, in order to prevent your Con-
stituents being imposed on and disquieted by such a Representation,
observe to you, that the Two Companies of Soldiers which were
Stationed at Fort Frederick in September 1756, and were commanded
by Capt. Dagworthy and Capt. Beall, amounted to upwards of 190,
including Officers, and there was also at that Time a strong Garrison
of Virginia Forces in Fort Cumberland.
Now it will appear by the Muster-Rolls, that the whole Number
of Private Soldiers in the Service of this Province the 9th Day of
December last, did not amount to 360, about 100 of these, with a
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p. 167
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