veniently situated for that purpose at least one Calendar Month before the Day to be by them so appointed for the said first meeting you do repair to our said city on the Day so appointed and there hold Your first meeting from which Day and any future Days of adjournment you may adjourn to such time and times Place and places as may be most Convenient to you for the furtherance of the Business committed to your Care hereby directing that of the Commissioners present at any Meeting he who is first named in the list of Commissioners shall preside at such meeting and shall Issue out the necessary Summons for such Witnesses as either party shall require and in case five of you shall not be present on the Day of your first Meeting or on any other Day of adjournment then such as shall be present or a Majority of them shall and may adjourn the further Execution of this Commission in manner aforesaid And We do direct that at the first meeting at which five of you shall be present you do make choice of one or more Clerk or Clerks to enter Your Minutes and proceedings, and also make choice of one or more Skilful persons as Surveyors to make and prepare Draughts and plans of the Country or Boundaries as from time to time there shall be occasion and to Discover survey and mark out such River or Rivers Branch or Branches thereof Latitudes Lines or Stations as You shall think Necessary, and that you do Administer to such Clerks Surveyors and other persons as you shall employ an oath, or (if they be of the people called Quakers) an affirmation for the due and faithful Execution of their Trusts which oath or affirmation the Commissioners presiding at your respective meetings are hereby impowered to administer

And our further Will and Pleasure is, that in case either of our said Colonies shall neglect to send to you our said Commissioners at Your first or second Meeting where five of you shall be present a plain and full

state in writing Signed by two or more of the Agents named on each side as aforesaid of the Demand or Pretensions of our said Colonies respectively, Describing where and in what place the Boundaries in Question do begin or Terminate whether that Termination be by a Line or Lines Latitude or Longitude by Rivers or other Waters by Branch or Branches of Rivers and Waters by Hills or Mountains or by any other Mark or Marks whatsoever and to what other Station or Stations the said Boundaries ought to run and in what manner and how far the same ought to run and Extend (to the End that Copies thereof may be mutually Exchanged in order to prevent any unnecessary Delay and that each party may come fully prepared) and in case either of our said Colonies shall neglect to send to you our said Commissioners at your first or second Meeting where five of you shall be present the Names and places of abode of two of the said Agents of each side residing in their respective Colonies on either of whom or at whose place of abode any Notice Summons or Final Judgment of you our said Commissioners may be served or left, that then in each or either of these cases you our said Commissioners or any five of you do proceed Exparte in the execution of this our Commission.

And We do further Direct and command that no Witness or Witnesses be admitted to give Evidence but such as shall be Sworn or being of the people called Quakers shall take a Solemn Affirmation before you in open Court which oath or affirmation, You or any five or more of you are hereby Impowered to ad minister, and that all Interrogatories and Questions which shall be put to such Witnesses before you shall be set down in Writing and that the whole of what such Witnesses shall depose also be set down in writing by the said Clerk or Clerks in the presence of you and of the respective Witnesses, and that the same be

read over to and signed by the respective Witnesses— And that you shall appoint such time as you shall find reasonable, within which time all the Witnesses on each side shall be produced to be Examined And We do further order and Direct that Entries be made of all Charters Grants Deeds plans and other Written Proofs received by you as Evidence, and also of all your proceedings and Resolutions and that such plans Maps or Draughts of such Boundaries as shall be agreed upon by you with a full description thereof be annexed to Your Determination And our further Will and Pleasure is that when you shall have made Your final Determination and signed the same copies thereof shall be forthwith sent to the two Agents of each of our said respective Colonies whose Names and places of abode have been certified unto you as before mentioned together with notice of another meeting to be held by you at the distance of two Months or at such further reasonable time not exceeding three Calendar Months as you shall appoint at which future meeting the said Colonies or either of them who shall think themselves aggrieved may by two of their Agents as aforesaid enter their appeal to us in our privy Council with a Declaration what parts of the Determination made by you they respectively abide by or appeal from, But if either of our said colonies shall not enter their respective Appeals against such Determination at such last meeting, Our Will is that then no appeal shall be afterwards received or admitted, And in case neither of our said Colonies shall then enter any Appeal the Determination of you (be confirmed by us in Council) shall be final and Conclusive to both our said Colouies, And further our Will is that each of our said Colonies be permitted to take at their own respective Expence Copies of the whole or any part of your proceedings to be attested by five or more of you our Commissioners, And that you do re

turn this our Commission together with all your proceedings thereto annexed attested by five or more of you to us in Council. And Lastly our Will is that the Charge of this Commission and of Carrying it into Execution and of You our Commissioners Your Clerks Surveyors and Officers be born and paid in equal Moieties by each of our said Colonies as in the aforementioned Acts of their respective General Assemblies is Stipulated to be done and performed In Witness whereof We have caused these our Letters to be made patent

Letter from Secretary Shelburne to Governor Franklin, conveying the King's displeasure with the Assembly of New Jersey for avoiding complete obedience to an Act of Parliament in regard to punishing mutiny and desertion.

[From P. R. O. America and West Indies, Vol. 172 (190).]

Gov Franklin,

WHITEHALL 18th July 1767.

Sir, I have had the honour to lay before the King your Letters of the 18th Dec 1766, from which it appears that the Assembly of New Jersey have avoided a complete Obedience to an Act of the British Parliament for rendering more effectual in America, an Act for punishing Mutiny and Desertion

The singular Decency and good Order of that Province amidst the Disturbances occasioned by the late Act, imposing Stamp Duties in America, has made this Instance of Disobedience the more to be regretted, whilst it has probably had the Effect of delaying any Marks of Parliamentary Displeasure in the reasonable Expectation that the same just Spirit of Constitutional

Acquiescence would soon induce that Assembly to return to a proper Sence of its Duty.

I have in Command from His Majesty to acquaint you of the displeasure he has unavoidably conceiv'd at the improper Conduct, in a Province, of whose Behaviour he had formed so favourable an Opinion, and that He expects and requires that the Assembly of New Jersey will render an exact and complete Obedience to the Mutiny Act. You will therefore, Sir, in His Majesty's Name require of the Assembly that they will make those Provisions for the Supply of the Kings Troops, which, by that Act they are directed to do; & I cannot entertain a Doubt but that that Assembly will, upon due Consideration discover a just and proper Sense of their Duty to His Majesty: and of their Obedience to Parliament, who cannot ultimately suffer its Legislative Power over any Part of His Majestys' Subjects to be questioned or disobeyed.

I am &c

SHELBURNE.

Draft of an instruction to the Governors in North America, forbidding any alteration in the number of the Assembly.

[From New York Colonial Documents, Vol. VII., p. 946.]

ST JAMES 24, July 1767.

To Our trusty and Wellbeloved [naming the Governors of the Several Colonies and Plantations]

Whereas Laws have at several times been passed in many of Our Colonies and Plantations in America, by which certain Parishes and Districts have been Em