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L. H. J.
Liber No. 52
April 23
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the Supply Bill which they a few Days afterwards offered to the
Upper House, it was expressly provided and directed, that the
Troops then in the Pay of the Province should be forthwith reduced
to 300 Men, and the Service of those 300 (not a Part of them only)
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p. 73
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was restrained, as the printed Bill will evince, in such a Manner as
to compel them to abandon the Post where his Lordship had stationed
some of them, and in such a Manner as to deprive all the King's
Officers of any Command over them. The Gentlemen of the Upper
House having returned this Bill with a Negative, those who had
framed it, desired me to transmit a Copy thereof to his Lordship,
together with an Address, in order that he might be the better able
to judge of their Proceedings, and Zeal to promote his Majesty's
Service. On the Receipt of this Bill and Address, his Lordship
wrote the Letter, which is quoted in your Address as an Evidence
of his having conceived a good Opinion of the Zeal of that Lower
House of Assembly to promote the Service of his Royal Master:
How far the Letter will support what you suggest, let the Un-
prejudiced determine: I shall only repeat it :
New-York, December 30, 1757.
"Sir,
I had this Day the Favour of your Letter by Express, with the
Bill prepared by the Lower House, and the Address from both
Houses to you. As I had seen an Extract of the military Part of
that Bill before, I am ready to give my Sentiments on it; and am
clearly of Opinion, that had it passed into a Law of the Province,
it would have been a direct Infringement of the King's undoubted
Prerogative, and as such was very wisely rejected by the Upper
House; at the same Time, I am willing to believe, that the Assembly
had not considered it in that Light, or they would never have framed
it in that Manner; nor had they considered that Right of the King
of commanding his Subjects in Arms, which is a Right undisputed
every where, or they would never have disputed the Power of his
Commission, to have marched the Troops, raised by them for the
Defence of his Domisions, even out of your Province, which I do
not understand I have done with Regard to them, which was to Fort
Cumberland, from the best Accounts I have been able to procure;
but that does not come to be the Question; for if they will consider
what has happened in almost all the other Provinces, they will find,
they are single in the Opinion of the King's Power of Marching the
Provincial Troops into other Provinces. At the Meeting at Phila-
delphia it was settled last Spring, that South-Carolina was in Danger
of a more powerful Invasion from the Enemy than they were able
alone to resist, therefore it was agreed, that it was necessary they
should have an additional Force sent to their Assistance, composed
partly of Regular Troops, and partly of Troops raised by the other
Provinces, and 200 Men did accordingly sail from Virginia, and are
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