for the Dispatch of business. The opposition will be Considerable, but there is not the least doubt but the present Administration will stand, if they continue to have the full Support of the Crown, which if for no other reason but the necessity of it, I think they must have.

You will be so obliging as to Present my proper Acknowledgements to the House of Representatives, and to believe me to be with the greatest Honour and and Regards,

Sir, Your most ffaithful most oblged
& most obed' hble Servt

HENRY WILMOT

Circular Letter to all the Governors of America, requesting them to give an exact estimate of the annual charge of maintaining the entire establishment of their respective Provinces; also the mode of imposing quit-rents, and of granting lands.

[From P. R. O. America and West Indies, Vol. 270 (291).]

WHITEHALL Dec 11, 1767-66.

To all the Governors on the Continent of
America.

I am to signify to You His Majesty's Pleasure that You will with as much Dispatch as may be transmit. to Me for His Maty's Information an exact Estimate of the annual Charge of maintaining & Supporting the Entire Establishment of His Majesty's Colony of

distinguishing the different Funds & the different Services to which those Funds are appropriated. You will be very particular in specifying what Funds are

fixed & regular, from those which are annually granted or which expire in a given time.

It is also His Majesty's Pleasure that You transmit to me at the same time, a full & clear account of the manner of imposing Quit Rents, & of levying them as also the mode of granting Lands in Your Colony, specifying the Amount of Arrears of Quit Rents, & the Number of Grants hitherto made, & to whom, how many Acres to each, & at what time the Grants have been made.

I am &c2

SHELBURNE

Letter from Governor Franklin to the Earl of Shelburne, concerning the Murders and Violences committed on the Indians, and the New Jersey Act for supplying the Barracks.

[From P. R. O. B. T., New Jersey, Vol. 9, K. 64.]

BURLINGTON December 16th 1766

Right Honoble the Earl of Shelburne Secretary of State

My Lord

I am honoured with your Lordships Letters of the 9th of August, & two others of the 13th of September, which I should have acknowledged by the last Packet, but that I was at that time greatly indisposed with a Fever.

His Majesty's Commands to direct my Dispatches henceforward to your Lordship could not but be extremely agreeable to me; and I shall not fail paying strict Obedience to those Orders I may from Time to Time have the Honour to receive from your Lordship.

I communicated to the Council your Lordship's Letter mentioning the gracious Reception His Majesty was pleased to give their Address, which was greatly pleasing to them. The Assembly have not met since it came to hand, but when they do I shall communicate it to them likewise, and doubt not but it will afford them equal Pleasure. His Majesty's gracious Approbation of my Conduct gives me peculiar Happiness, as it has always been my highest Ambition and constant Endeavour to render myself in some Degree worthy of it. And I cannot but hold myself greatly indebted to your Lordship for the very obliging Manner in which you have been pleas'd to express yourself on the Occasion.

In answer to your Lordship's Letter of the 13th of September, relative to the Violences & Murthers which have lately been committed on the Indians under the Protection of His Majesty, I can assure you Lordship that whatever may be the Case in the other Colonies, nothing of the kind has been suffered to pass with Impunity in this Province. This I believe, His Majesty's Commander in Chief, & the Superintendant for Indian Affairs will do me the Justice to acknowledge. There has been lately two Persons executed here for the Murder of two Indian Squa's, belonging to a small Tribe settled in the interior Parts of the Province, on Lands given them by the Publick. These Men were not Inhabitants of this Colony, but were passing thro' in their Way to N. York, and happening to meet the Squa's on the Road, they robb'd and murdered them in a most barbarous Manner. I omitted nothing in my Power to have the Villians apprehended, & was so lucky as to have them taken in a few Days after, and brought to Justice. I have likewise been indefatigable in my Endeavours to have another Murderer apprehended who killed an Oneida Indian on the Frontiers of this Province, in which after a great deal of Trouble

& Management, I have happily succeeded, and I doubt not but he will likewise be brought to condign Punishment, at a Court of Oyer and Terminer to be held this Day in the County of Sussex.-These are the only two Affairs of the kind which have happened in this Province during my Administration; & I hope these Instances of Attention and Regard to the Indians will prove an Advantage to the British Interest with them, as well as of Service to those Colonies where they have not met with the same Justice. We are, indeed, less interested in keeping up a good Understanding with the Indians than almost any other Colony in N. America, as they do not pretend any Claim to Lands within our Limits, and as we have no Trade or Intercourse with them except now & then a Hunter of the Six Nations straggles down among our Frontier Settlements.

I send herewith Copies of the Minutes of Council & Twenty two Acts pass'd at the last Sessions of General Assembly. They are chiefly for the draining and Banking of Meadows, repairing of Roads, and other purposes of that kind; but none of them are of a new or extraordinary Nature. I should mention however, that in the "Act for supplying the several Barracks'

The people of New Jersey having complained to the Governor and to the Assembly of the evils aud inconveniences arising from the billeting upon them of the British soldiers, the Legislature, on April 15, 1758, appointed commissioners to erect suitable barracks for the accommodation of the troops at Burlington, Trenton, Perth Amboy, New Brunswick and Elizabeth-Town, at each of which places such barracks were erected, to accommodate three hundred men.-Nevill's Laws, II., 188; Allinson's Laws, 218. At the close of the French war the furniture was sold off, and the barracks rented. The agitation occasioned by the Stamp Act led to frequent movements of troops through the Province again, and in the Summer of 1766 the Legislature passed an act " appointing commissioners for supplying the several barracks erected in the Colony with furniture and other necessaries for accommodating the King's troops in or marching through this Colony," which being objected to by Governor Franklin, as above, failed to receive the Royal sanction and was disallowed May 13, 1767.—Allinson's Laws, 296. All the barracks were ordered sold by act of June 1, 1786, and were disposed of. A full and interesting account of the movements which led to the erection of these barracks will be found in a paper read by Adjutant-General William S. Stryker, before the New Jersey Historical Society, January 20, 1881, on "The Old Barracks, at Trenton, New Jer

erected in this Colony with Furniture & other Necessaries, for accomodating the Kings Troops in, or marching thro' this Colony" they have, instead of specifying the several Articles required to be furnished by the Act of Parliament, impowered the Barrack Masters to provide "Firewood, Bedding, Blankets & such other "Necessaries as have been heretofore usually fur"nished to the several Barracks within this Colony." I did all I could to prevail on them to insert the very Words of the Act of Parliament, and to impower the Barrack Masters to furnish, at the Expence of the Province, the same Articles as were therein required. But it was to no Purpose. They said they had always furnish'd every Thing which was necessary; that the Officers & Soldiers who had been quartered here never complain'd, but on the contrary, many of them ac knowledg'd they were better accomodated here than they had ever been at Barracks in Europe. They added that they look'd upon the Act of Parliament for Quartering Soldiers in America to be virtually as much an Act for laying Taxes on the Inhabitants as the Stamp Act; and that it was more partial, as the Troops were kept in a few of the Colonies, whereby others were exempted from contributing any Thing towards the Expence. I was therefore obliged to take the Act as it was tendered, or to let His Majestys Troops remain unprovided with Necessaries. I have, however, the Pleasure of finding the Regiment stationed in this Province perfectly satisfied with their Quarters. No Complaints whatever have been made to me, & I believe there are but few, if any Articles of Consequence required by the Act of Parliament but what they are furnished with here.

sey." A description of the barracks at Perth Amboy is given by Mr. Whitehead in his history of that place, 256-8. The barracks at New Brunswick were, by act of June 18, 1783, authorized to be transformed into the jail and court-house for Middlesex county, at the expense of the county.-Wilson's Laws, 336-7.-[W. N.]