An apology for the length of this treatise; and a brief state of the province at this period.
The new assembly, after a session of four days, suffered to adjourn themselves without proceeding to business, for want of having the intelligence then in the governor's hands in due form imparted to them.
Being re-convoked, the governor informs them, that a party of French and Indians had passed the mountains, and were encamped within eight miles of the capital, and, after a liberal intermixture of upbraidings and self-sufficiencies, demands a supply; premising, that it might be raised by an emission of any sum in paper, provided funds were found for sinking it in five years, &c.
A reference to the only act of parliament extant, and that an ineffectual one, to prevent the oppressions practised by provincial governors.
Politics of various kinds, and from various quarters, presented to the assembly.
The assembly reduce and rectify the matter of alarm communicated by the governor; and advise such measures as might reclaim the Indians, &c.
A new message concerning the depredations of the Indians.
Sixty thousand pounds granted, to be struck in bills of credit, which were to be sunk by a tax of six-pence in the pound; and a poll-tax of ten shillings a head, yearly, for four years; which the governor refuses, and talks of setting off for the back counties.
A new message, reporting, that the Susquehanna Indians had offered their service to the province, provided it was accepted without delay.