those of the public, the promoting of which has been the great Foundation of those Measures your Majesty has thought it advisable to pursue in the Regulations laid down for encouraging a free and open Trade to all your Subjects in America.

We humbly hope therefore that what we have proposed will have your Majesty's Approbation; and that it will appear to your Majesty to be not only just in its general principles, but conducive to the Relief and Advantage of the Manufactures of this Kingdom, as far as can be reasonably expected or desired, without prejudice to the Importers & Exporters of Beaver Skins, or the hazard of increasing Smuggling.

How far it may be proper or expedient, from a Consideration of the Effect it will have upon the Revenue, is a Question not before us; but we humbly apprehend, that the Loss, if any, to the Revenue as it now stands, by such an Alteration, will be found too inconsiderable to be put in Opposition to a Measure, so expedient in its general principle, and so necessary to the Relief of the Manufactures of this Kingdom.

As to the proposition of taking off the duty upon the Importation of Whale Fins, the produce of the American Seas, which is the last point proposed at present to be submitted to your Majesty's Consideration, We humbly presume it will appear highly reasonable and expedient, in a Commercial View, not only as it is a Material of Manufacture, for a supply of which we do now in great Measure depend upon other Nations; but as it will be no inconsiderable Encouragement to the Whale Fishery in general in the American Seas.

This Whale Fishery, which was intirely neglected by the french, has been prosecuted with great Spirit and Vigour, since Canada has been in your Majesty's possession; in so much that great Quantities of Oil have last year been exported from this Kingdom to

France, which never happened before; and therefore we humbly submit to your Majesty, whether a Trade, of so much Advantage to these Kingdoms, is not deserving of the Relief, which the Legislature has in its wisdom thought proper to give to the Whale Fishery of your Majesty's Subjects in the Greenland Seas; and therefore whether it may not be advisable, that the duties now paid upon the Fin of Whales, caught in American Seas, imported into this Kingdom, should be intirely taken off.

All which is most humbly submitted.

[From Book AAA of Commissions, Secretary of State's Office, Trenton, fol. 389.]

GEORGE the third by the Grace of God of Britain France & Ireland King Defender of the Faith &c. To our Trusty & well beloved CHARLES READ Esq. Greeting we reposing especial Trust & Confidence in your Integrity impartiality, prudence and Ability have assigned, Constituted & appointed and we do by these Presents assign Constitute and appoint you the said Charles Read to be our Chief Justice of and in our Province of Nova Ceesarea or New Jersey in America. Giving and by these Presents Granting unto you the said Charles Read full Power and Authority in our Supreme Court of Our said Province to hear, try and

determine all Pleas whatsoever, civil Criminal and mixed according to the Laws, Statutes & Legal Usages of our said Province that are not Repugnant to the Laws and Statutes of that part of our Kingdom of Great Britain Called England and according to such Laws and Statutes of our said Kingdom as now do or hereafter shall be made to extend to our Plantations in America, and executions of all Judgments given in our said Court to Award, and from time to time to make such Rules and Orders in our said Supreme Court in our said Province for the Benefit of the Inhabitants of Our said Province as you shall Judge to be Convenient and Usefull for the more easy speedy and impartial Administration of Justice, and the preventing Unreasonable & unnecessary delays and as near as may be Agreeable to the Rules and Orders made in the like Cases in our Courts of Kings Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer in Our Kingdom of Great Britain, To Have and to Hold and enjoy the said Office and Place of Chief Justice of and in our said Province of Nova Ceesarea or New Jersey in America with all and singular the Rights, Priveledges, Advantages, Emoluments, Salarys, profits, fees, and perquisites to the said Office & place of Chief Justice belonging or in anywise appertaining or that of right ought to belong or Appertain to the said Office, as fully and amply as any other our Chief Justices of our said Province have or of right ought to have held & enjoyed the same, to you the said Charles Read for and during Our Will and Pleasure, In Testimony whereof we have caused these Our Letters to be made Patent and the Seal of our said Province to be hereunto Affixed Witness Our trusty and well beloved William Franklin Esq. our Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over Our Province of Nova Ceesarea or New Jersey and territories thereon depending in America Chancellor and Vice Admiral in the same &c. at our City of Perth

Amboy in our Province aforesaid the twentieth day of February in the Fourth year of our Reign and in the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred & Sixty Four.

Memorandum that on the 21st day of February 1764 the within named Charles Read Esq. took the Oaths and made and Subscribed the Declaration appointed by Law and an Oath of the due performance of the Office of Chief Justice of this Province of New Jersey in Councill.

The within Commission (with the above Memorandum) is Recorded at Perth Amboy in Book C. No. 2 of Commissions page 267.

Letter from Governor Franklin to the Lords of Trade informing them of the death of Chief Justice Robert Hunter Morris, and of the appointment of Charles Read, Esq., to succeed him; also recommending Richard Stockton, Esq., to supply the vacancy in the Council.

[From P. R. O., B. T., New Jersey, Vol. 9, K. 40.]

BURLINGTON, New Jersey Feb 28, 1764

Right Honourable Lords of Trade & Plantations

My Lords

Robert Hunter Morris, Esq who acted as Chief Justice of this Province, having departed this Life on

the 27th of last Month,' I did, with the unanimous Advice of the Council, appoint Charles Read Esq to that Office, during His Majesty's Pleasure. This Gentleman is one of the Council, and has for a considerable Time acted as one of the Judges of the Supream Court, with great Credit to himself. M Nevill the other Judge of that Court, has been long rendered incapable of Business by a Stroke of the Palsy, so that M: Read has been obliged to perform his Duty for him, in going the Circuits, &c. As there was an absolute Necessity, in order to prevent any Interruption to the usual Proceedings of the Courts of Law, that some Person should be immediately appointed Chief Justice and as M Read was so well entitled thereto by his Services, I hope his Appointment will meet with your Lordships Approbation. He has, I understand, been formerly recommended to your Board by Governor Barnard, for the obtaining his Majesty's mandamus appointing him Chief Justice, and I now recommend him to your Lordships as a Person well qualified by his Character, Abilities, and Experience for that Office.

In August last I recommended to your Lordships, the Appointment of James Parker, Esq. of Perth Amboy to be one of His Majesty's Council for this Province. And as the Death of M Morris has occasioned another Vacancy in the Council, I would like

I William Smith, the provincial historian of New York, in a letter to Horatio Gates, describes the circumstances attending the death of Chief Justice Morris. It occurred at Shrewsbury, N. J., where he had a cousin residing, the wife of the clergyman of the parish. On the evening of the 27th of January, 1764, there was a dance in the village, at which all the respectable families of the neighborhood were present. The Chief Justice led out the clergyman's wife, danced down six couples, and then, without a word, or a groan, or a sigh, fell dead upon the floor. "Unhappy New Jersey has lost her best ornament," continues Mr. Smith; "Franklin has put Charles Read in his place upon the bench, and filled up Read's with one John Berrian, a babbling County Surveyor, not fit to be a deputy to any sheriff in England." In 1778 William Smith, who had for a long time wavered, espoused the royal cause, and in 1783 left the city of New York with the British troops. For his fidelity to the crown he was subsequently rewarded with a high judiciary office at Quebec.