trated thought upon a handful of letters. But the field is almost unexplored, and the results are historically important. Even where the conclusions cannot be accepted without reserve they are highly interesting.

I have rec and laid before the King your Dispatch of the 4th of April No 9 and most sincerely regret that any thing should have happened to obstruct that Harmony which it is so much for the Interest of Maryland should subsist amongst the different Branches of the Legislature.

I can by no means think that the Regulation of Trade with the Indians, tho' an Object of great Importance to some of the Colonies, is a Business of such a nature as to require a Congress of Commiss, nor do I think that the Appointment of Commissioners for such a purpose, or indeed for any other of a general Concern, is strictly regular without express Orders from His Majesty for that purpose, and is under all Events a Measure to which there are in sound Policy so many Objections as that it ought never to be adopted but in cases that cannot be provided for by any other means, which I apprehend is not the Case of the Business referred to the Consideration of the Colonies respecting Indian Trade, as a Law passed in any one Colony, and approved by the Superintendant, would be a sufficient Example for enacting a like Law in another.

It is with great Pleasure I acquaint you that the Queen was happily brought to Bed of a Prince this morning, & that Her Majesty and the young Prince are as well as can be desired. I most heartily congratulate you upon this Increase of the Royal Family, an Event which gives the greatest Satisfaction to all His Majesty's Subjects.

I had the Day before yesterday the Honor of receiving your Lordships Letter of the 5th June, which I take the Opportunity of acknowledging by a Ship that Sails To morrow, and rejoice with your Lordship on Her Majesty's safe Delivery, sincerely congratulating you on this happy Increase of the Royal Family. Permit me also, through your Lordship, to have the Honor of congratulating His Majesty on the Suppression of the late dangerous Insurrection of the Regulators in North Carolina by Governor Tryon's timely and spirited exertion of the Power he was invested with; and I sincerely hope Governor Martin will have no Occasion to take up Arms on the same Account. I cannot say I envy him his Situation, the Back Parts of that Colony where these Disturbances began having been long the Receptacle of Fugitives for Debt and Felony from the Adjoining Provinces, and Runaway Convicts from Virginia and Maryland. It is difficult, My Lord, very difficult, to bind People of that Kind, by any Laws; I wish that a Regulation in the inferior Courts of Justice there, (which is much wanted, and I hope will soon take Place) may be able to maintain Order among them. Your Lordship will I hope, excuse my touching upon this Subject, so foreign to my own Business, having, I make no Doubt, much better Information than I could give of the constitutional Defects in the

North Carolina Government, which human Prudence could not foresee, and will find perhaps difficult to correct Defects, previous to their late Worthy Governor's Administration, which was only disapproved by the Leaders of the unhappy infatuated Regulators. When Leisure from the more immediate Duties of my Situation will permit it, I shall at all times be happy in communicating to your Lordship any general Information in my Power which may promote the prosperity of His Majestys Dominions, or the Tranquillity of any part of them. On that Principle, I shall perhaps take a future Occasion to trouble your Lordship with some short Strictures on American Affairs, hoping my Intention therein, if it deserves not praise, will escape Censure.

The Bounty on White Oak Staves imported from America, granted the last Session cannot fail giving great Satisfaction to His Majesty's American Subjects: it has long been wished for, and will, I have no Doubt be found equally advantageous to the Colonies and their Mother Country.

I agree with your Lordship that the Regulation of the Indian Trade is an Object of great Importanee to some of the Colonies, though not to this, as I had the Honor of mentioning in my last, which your Lordship will admit, when I assure you I have never been troubled with a Complaint from the Indians or against them since I came into the Province. I was indeed present at a Talk at Williamsburg, when the Cherokees came down to Lord Botetourt with Complaints against some of the back Settlers beyond the Frontiers of Virginia and this Province alluded to in S William Johnson's Letter to your Lordship, as also against some of the Northern Indians, who they said, were more particularly patronized by S William Johnson, and at that Time making War against them. My Recommendation to enact, and Assent to, when enacted, any Law the Legislature here may adopt to restrain the Indian Traders if we have any shall not be wanting. Our Assembly meets early in October, And I hope will cordially take into serious Consideration the (to them) more important Object of the expired Inspection Law.

Before I conclude, I beg leave to congratulate your Lordship

on the return of that Confidence and Harmony between the King's Subjects on the different sides of the Atlantic to promote which has so long been the Object of His Majesty's Royal Attention. That a like Return of Peace and Quiet at Home may soon take place and that a factious Rabble may no longer disturb the Tranquillity of His Majesty's Government, and His Ministers in the Execution of the same, is

My Lord

With due Respect

The sincerest Wish of Your Lordships
Most obedient & very humb: Serv!

Rob Eden.

HILLSBOROUGH TO EDEN.

Whitehall 4th Decem: 1771.

Deputy Governor Eden

Sir,

I have received and laid before the King your dispatch of the 4th of August.

I am very much obliged to you for your very sensible and pertinent Remarks on the State of Affairs in North Carolina, and shall be more so for those on America in general, which you are so good as to promise me. I have no doubt that the Province of Maryland will co-operate on their part, as far as their Interest is concerned, in any general Plan that the Colonies may adopt for regulating the Indian Trade, and I cannot suppose they will act so inconsistently with their more important Interest in respect to the Staple of Tobaeco, as not to revive the Inspection Law.

I see with the greatest Satisfaction a return of Confidence and Harmony between Great Britain and her Colonies, and I trust that all real Friends to the Interest and Happiness of both will exert themselves to cherish and encourage it.

I am &c.

Hillsborough.

My Lord.

EDEN TO HILLSBOROUGH.

Annapolis 21st August 1772.

A severe fit of Illness prevented my transmitting to your Lordship an Account of the Proceedings of Our last session of Assembly; and since my Recovery the Interesting Situation of my Affairs from the Decease of the Lord Proprietary will, I hope, excuse me to your Lordship for this short Delay in transmitting the printed Votes &c and the Laws then enacted.

Your Lordship will observe that, on Account of the old Difference between the two Houses concerning the Officers' Fees, and the Clergy's Salaries, there has been no revival of the Inspection law, so that our Staple is under little Regulation; and the high price Tobacco has continued to bear at Home and here, ever since that Law dropt, has as yet prevented the Planters from being sensible of the Loss of it. Should my Conduct during the session require any Vindication I trust the Review thereof to your Lordship's Candor, and beg Leave to refer you to the Address to me Page 63, of the Votes and Proceedings, and my Answer page 80, as also to the general proceedings of the Conference betwixt the two Houses, which are occasionally inserted in the Votes and Proceedings of the Lower House.

I have not before this been able to acknowledge the Receipt of your Lordship's of 4 December (N° 22) as also the circular Letters of the 5th and 8th Feb And can only add My Lord, that I shall ever endeavour to merit a Continuance of your Lordship's favorable Opinion, in my present or any other Situation. How long I may continue in this, is at present very uncertain, as I cannot foresee how soon, from the critical situation of my private Affairs with Regard to the Disposition made of this Province by Lord Baltimore's will, I may be under a Necessity of Soliciting your Lordship to procure me His Majesty's Leave to be a short time in England to attend thereto. Mr Eden goes now Home on this Business with my Brother, by whose Ship I for