Money raised or which shall be raised by any Act hereafter to be made within Our said Province, be issued out by Warrant from You, by and with the advice & Consent of Our Council, and disposed of by you for the Support of the Government, and not otherwise.

And We do hereby give you the said Francis Bernard full Power and Authority to order and appoint Fairs, Marts and Markets, as also such and so many Ports, Harbours, Bays, Havens and other Places for the Convenience and Security of Shipping and for the better Loading and unloading of Goods and Merchandize, as by you, with the Advice and Consent of Our said Council, shall be thought fit and necessary.

And we do hereby require and command all Officers & Ministers Civil and Military, and all other Inhabitants of Our said province to be obedient, aiding and assisting unto you the said Francis Bernard in the execution of this Our Commission, and of the Powers and Authorities herein contain'd; And in Case of your Death or Absence out of Our said Province, to be Obedient, aiding and assisting unto such Person as shall be appointed by Us to be Our Lieutenant Governor or Commander in Chief of Our said province, to whom We do therefore by these presents give and grant all and singular the powers and Authorities herein granted to be by him executed & enjoyed during Our pleasure, or until your arrival within Our said province.

And if upon your Death or Absence out of Our said province there be no person upon the place commissionated or appointed by us to be Our Lieutenant Governor or Commander in Chief of Our said province, Our Will & Pleasure is, that the eldest Councillor whose name is first placed in Our said Instructions to you, and who shall be at the time of your Death or Absence residing within Our said province of New Jersey, shall take upon him the Administration of the Government,

& execute Our said Commission and Instructions and the several Powers and Authorities therein contain❜d, in the same Manner and to all Intents and purposes as other Our Governor or Commander in Chief of Our said province shou'd or ought to do, in Case of your Absence untill you return, or in all Cases untill Our further Pleasure be Known therein.

And we do hereby declare, ordain and appoint, that you the said Francis Bernard shall and may hold, execute and enjoy the office & Place of Our Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over Our province of Nova Cæsarea or New Jersey, together with all and Singular the Powers and Authorities hereby granted unto you for and during Our Will and Pleasure. In Witness whereof We have caused these our Letters to be made Patents. Witness Ourself at Westminster 1758 in the thirty first year of

the

day of

Our Reign. And for so doing this shall be your WarGiven at Our Court at St James's the

rant.

of

1758 in the thirty first year of Our Reign.

day

Report of the Lords of Trade upon the Petition of the Agent of New Jersey, respecting a Bill for issuing £89,000 in paper Bills of Credit.

[From P. R. O. B. T., New Jersey, Vol. 16, Page 55.]

To the Right Honble the Lords of the Committee of His Majesty's most Honble Privy Council for Plantation Affairs.

My Lords,

Pursuant to Your Lordships Order dated the 16 of Nov! last, We have taken into Our Consideration the humble Petition of Richard Partridge, Agent for & in

behalf of the House of Representatives of the Colony of New Jersey, humbly praying, for the Reasons therein contain'd that His Majesty will be graciously pleased to signify his Royal Pleasure to the Governor or Commander in Chief of the said Colony for the Time being, to give his Assent to a Bill prepared by the said House of Representatives In March last, intitulated, an Act for making current £60,000 in Bills of Credit, to be emitted on Loan within the Colony of New Jersey, the interest whereof to sink the further Sum of £29,000, to be also made current for the immediate Service of the Crown if the same should be needed, otherwise for the Relief of the said Colony. And having been attended by the said Agent & his Counsel, & heard what they had to offer in Support of the Petition, We beg leave to acquaint your Lordships, that this Bill appears to us to be liable to many very material objections. 1st by the manner in which the Clause of appropriation is expressed, the House of Representatives seem to have assumed to themselves not only a power or joining with the Gov! & Council in the disposal & issuing the money granted for his Majesty's Service, but likewise to have made themselves judges of the Services to which it is to be applied.

2dly The Surplus of the interest arising from the Loan of the Bills of Credit, which shall remain after sinking the £29,000 granted for his Majesty's Service, is to be substituted as a Fund for sinking Bills of Credit heretofore emitted, in lieu of Taxes which have been already establish'd for that purpose.

3dly The Bills of Credit are declared to be legal Tenders in payment of all Debts & Contracts.

With respect to the first of these objections, We must observe that the Assembly's assuming to themselves a Right to join in the disposal & issuing of publick money is in all Cases a deviation from the fundamental Principles of the Constitution of that

Colony, as establish'd by His Majesty's Commission & Instructions. That, independent of this consideration, as the Services to be performed by this Grant ought not to be in their nature either local or provincial, the Assembly cannot be the proper judges of them; & therefore the money granted by this Bill to his Majesty's Use ought to have been appropriated to such Services in general, as His Majesty or the Commander in Chief of his Forces in America should think proper to direct or recommend, to be issued & disposed of by Warrant of the Gov! & Council to such Services only.

With respect to the 2a of these objections, it will be necessary to state to your Lordships, that in the Years 1755, 1756, & 1757, paper Bills of Credit, to the Amount of £82,500, have been issued & made current for five years, & Taxes are imposed to constitute a Fund for sinking them within that term. That by substituting the Interest of this Loan in Lieu of those Taxes, the provision made for sinking them within a reasonable time will be set aside, & the currency of them protracted to a much longer time, which is such a violation of the Publick Faith, as has in other Colonies always produced a Depretiation of the Credit of the Paper Currency, and was one of those Evils which gave rise to the necessity of the Act of Parliament passed in the Year 1750 for restraining the Paper Currency in the four Colonies of New England.

With regard to the third objection; the making Bills of Credit legal Tenders in all payments is contrary to the sense of Parliament, as express'd in their Resolutions of the 5th of April 1740, & in the above mentioned Act passed in the year 1750, as we have frequently had occasion to observe in former Reports; in which we have declared, that, tho' a Paper Currency may be advantageous to a Trading Colony, yet that it ought never to be admitted, unless it can be effected without

enforcing the legality of the Tender of the Bills so to be issued; which we are of opinion is by no means impractible, if some part of the Interest raised upon such Bills should be appropriated to support their Circulation; & this Method, We believe might not only be easily and successfully pursued, but wou'd be likewise with the strictest propriety an application of the whole & every part of the money so raised to the publick Service. But however this be, We were of opinion in our former Reports, & still continue to be so, that the Inconveniences of making Bills of Credit legal Tenders so greatly overballance the advantages which can accrue to the Publick from the Interest of them, that the latter ought not to be accepted, unless the former can be avoided.

Having stated to your Lordships the Objections to which this Bill appears to be liable with such Observations as have occur'd to Us in support of them, it only remains for Us to take Notice of the two principal Reasons assigned in the Preamble of the Bill for establishing this Paper Currency, namely, the inability of the People in their present circumstances to carry on Trade or even their Dealings for the Common necessaries of Life, & to continue their Assistance to the common cause in carrying on the War against his Majesty's Enemies.

With respect to the first of these Reasons, we find, upon enquiry into the present State of the paper currency in New Jersey, that the Bills now outstanding & current in that Colony amount in the whole to about £107,000; & as that sum appears to Us sufficiently large for all purposes in the ordinary Course of commercial Dealings, we conceive there can be no room to pretend an immediate necessity of that sort. As to the Plea of necessity arising from their Inability to contribute towards the Prosecution of the War, it may be obviated by His Majestys' permitting his Gov!