Introduction. xliii

Just prior to the adoption by the Lower House of the eight resolves and
the instructions to its representatives to the Stamp Act Congress, it had
resolved that £500 current money be appropriated towards their expenses,
and that if their expenses in the service exceeded that amount "this House
will take care that they be repaid in the first Application of Public Money
hereafter", any balance to be returned to the treasurer (p. 24). A message
was then sent to the Upper House notifying it of the appointment of three
delegates to meet in New York with commissioners of other colonies "to Con-
sult together on the present Circumstances of the Colonies and the Difficulties
to which they are and must be reduced by the Operation of the late Acts of
Parliament for levying duties and Taxes on the Colonies and to Consider of
a General and united dutiful loyal and humble Representation of their Condi-
tion to his Majesty and the Parliament and to Implore Relief". The message
went on to request the concurrence of the Upper House in an ordinance appro-
priating £500 current money in conformity with the terms of the resolution
previously adopted (pp. 25, 26). It was at this point that the Upper House was
for the first time brought directly into the Stamp Act picture. On the same
day the Upper House in a message in reply said that as it had not "at present
any regular Notice of the Foundation of the Resolve referred to in Your
Message of this day and it being necessary that We Should be apprised of it
before We come to a Determination on the Subject of that Message We
request that You will be pleased to Communicate it to this House" (p. 7).
The Lower House replied by sending the letters received from the Massa-
chusetts House of Representatives, which were "the foundation" of the resolve

(pp. 25, 7).

The Upper House in a second message declared: "We approve of the Mea-
sures in sending Commissioners from this Province to meet such as have been
appointed in the other Colonies in order to Consult together on the present
Circumstances of the Colonies .... and to Consider of a General and
United dutiful Loyal and humble Representation of their Condition to his
Majesty and the Parliament and to implore Relief and therefore Shall Chear-
fully Concur in an Ordinance for the payment of £500 .... but We can-
not concur even in a Vote and much less in an Ordinance of unlimited Credit".
The Upper House then proceeded to amend the ordinance which had been
sent to it. It added to the Lower House draft the provision that the dele-
gates be required to lay before the Assembly "the Proceedings they shall
join in with the Commissioners of the other Colonies". It also amended the
ordinance by eliminating the provisions giving the delegates authority to spend
more than the £500 appropriated and the promise to make a future grant for
any expenses exceeding this amount (pp. 10, 11). The Lower House objected
to these amendments, and the Upper House in a return message proposed a
compromise, saying that as it was "desirous of cultivating particularly on this
Occasion a Good Correspondence between the two Houses", it would agree to
pass the ordinance without the insertion of the proviso that the delegates be
required to lay before the Assembly a record of the proceedings of the meeting
at New York, although it must insist upon the elimination of the promise