Excellency our hearty Thanks for the early Advise you gave the Members of the General Assembly, of the Necessity of their meeting on a Matter very important to the Welfare of this Colony, and for your favourable Speech at the opening the Session.

We assure your Excellency, that we entertain the most grateful Sense of his Majesty's paternal Care over his Colonies, and shall exert ourselves to the utmost of our Power, to add as great a Number of Troops to his Majesty's Army, as our Circumstances will Admit of.

We esteem the great Blessings of Providence on his Majesty's Arms, as a certain Indication of the Justice of his Cause; and with the utmost Thankfulness, adore the Divine Goodness, in the extraordinary Interposition of Heaven in our favour.

The Steadiness and Wisdom of his Majesty's Councils; the Confidence of the Nation in his Ministers: the Bravery of his Forces both by Sea and Land, give us the most joyful Expectations that he Will, by the favour of Providence, be enabled to Oblige the French King to submit to equitable Terms of Peace, and to restrain him from making such unjustifiable Encroachments on his Neighbours, as have occasioned, in their Consequences, the Ruin of his Navy; loss of his Trade; the dismembering his Dominions, and the greatest Distress among all his Subjects.

The Letters from the Right Honourable M Secre-tary Pitt, and his Excellency General Amherst, laid before the house by your Excellency, convince us of the necessity of Supplying Troops for the General Service; and we have resolved to send this year a Complete and well appointed Regiment into the Field, to Act under the direction of his Majesty's Commander in chief, and hope that both the Officers and men will support the Credit and honour our Regiment hath justly Obtained in the Course of the American Wars.

We shall take effectual Care to authorize proper persons to receive and place in the Treasury, the Sum allotted for the Quota of this Colony, out of the money which the Tenderness of his Majesty and the British Parliament, for those Infant Colonies, have induced them to grant in Aid of the heavy Taxes to which the Vigorous Prosecution of this War has subjected the Colonies; and we most thankfully receive this Bounty. By order of the House,

March 22 1760.

Gentlemen

SAMUEL NEVILL Speaker.

His Excellency's Answer.

I thank you for this dutiful Address, wherein your Loyalty and Gratitude to his Majesty, are so fully and forcibly expressed: I shall take Care to represent it so, that you may still appear in that favourable Light, in which you have been deservedly placed.

Letter from Governor Bernard to the Lords of Trade -commenting on the Bill for raising troops in the Province.

[From P. R. O. B. T. New Jersey, Vol. 8, I. 94.]

PERTH AMBOY Mar 29. 1760

Rt Honble Lords Comm'rs for Trade & Planta

My Lords

tions.

Having received his Majesties orders from M' Sec'ry Pitt to provide for the next campaign I called the Assembly with all possible expedition. They accordingly met & having resolved to do no other business but bring in the bill for raising the regiment, they

passed that bill with great Unanimity & dispatch & I accordingly enacted it on the 25th inst. The Bill is in the same words with the former except two special clauses at the end of it. As to the offices appointed by the bill. I named the paymaster myself having particular occasion so to do: as this was assented to against the general opinion of the house, I left it to them to appoint the Commissaries, whom I had no reason but to approve of. In regard to the times of sinking of the money, I thought it unnecessarily prolonged & signified my disapprobation of it by a Message, in which I proposed that if they would add a clause to appropriate all the Money that had been or should be granted them by Parliament to the sinking the money now raised, the times for sinking it by Taxes. might stand as it was. This being readily agreed to I waived my objection, as it is most probable that the Money granted by Parliament alone will sink the whole sum now raised being 45,000 pounds in less than 4 years. This is the subject of the two last clauses before mentioned. As for another objectionable part of the bill, that the paymaster &c have power to draw on the treasurers without the Medium of the Governor and Council, All the reasons that I gave for complying with it last year have the same or greater force now. To which another forcible one must be added, that it would be improper for me to begin a dispute which must be left to my Successor to finish: it will be much better for him to chuse his own time & manner to introduce a reform, which will at all times require nice conduct.

The good Temper which the people of the province are now in, will appear from the addresses of the Assembly; which, tho' expressed in terms too favourable to me, must be considered as the best evidence of a general good disposition to government. I make no doubt but that M' Boone will be easily placed in the

same state of confidence & credit that I am in; as my connexions will be opened to him, and my policy, as it is very simple, will be easily explained.

I have not yet received the commissions, the packet boat, which is now due, not being arrived: Neither has M' Boone fixed any time for his arrival here. Gov Pownall writes me now, that I must, if possible be at Boston by the middle of May to be ready to open the New Assembly which meets at the end of May. I hope there will be no danger but that Mr Boone & the Commissions will arrive before that time

I have the honour to be My Lords

Your Lordships most obedient

& most humble Servant

FRA. BERNARD

Petition of the Earl of Stirling and others to the King -praying for payment of the purchase money for Long Island, granted to their ancestors.

[From New York Colonial Documents, Vol. VII.,

p. 430.]

TO THE KINGS MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY IN

COUNCIL.

The humble Petition of William Earl of Stir

ling, who is nearest heir male to William the first Earl of Stirling, And also to Henry the last Earl of Stirling, who died in the year 1739, and of William Phillips Lee of the City of New York Esq And Mary Trumbull of East Hampstead Park in the County of Berks Sp" which said William

Phillips Lee and Mary Trumbull are Heirs at Law of the said Henry the last Earl of Stirling

Sheweth

That His late Majesty King James the first by Letters Patent bearing date the 3 day of November 1621, did grant to the Council for the Affairs in New England in America, their successors and assigns "All the "land of New England in America lying and being in "breadth from 40 Degrees to 48 Degrees of Northerly "Latitude, and in length of and within the breadth "aforesaid throughout the Main Land from Sea to Sea."

That the said Council did in the year 1635 among other things grant to William Alexander Earl of Stirling, "All that Island or Islands theretofore called by the name or names of Matawock, or long Island, and thereafter to be called by the name or names of Isle or Isles of Stirling, situate, lying and being to the Westward of Cape Cod or Narohigansets, within the Latitude of Forty or forty one Degrees or thereabouts, abutting upon the Main Land between the two Rivers there known by the several Names of Connecticut and Hudson's River, with all the Islands abutting or opposite to the same within 5 leagues of the Main.

That in the year 1636 the said Earl of Stirling deputed Capt. James Forrest his Agent and Governor for the said Island, whom he, that same year, sent over with a number of People for Planting the same, who arrived safe there, and made the first English Settlement in that Country, and in a few years it became a flourishing Colony and all the settlers were tenants to the Earl of Stirling.

That the said William Earl of Stirling died in the year 1640 and was succeeded by his grandson William, who died a few months after him, and the said last named Earl was succeeded by his Uncle Henry, who