CHAP. XX.

 

Representation of the Assembly to governor Hunter; and his answer.

 

Pursuant to the resolutions of the house, an address was prepared, and

sent to the queen, and a representation to governor Hunter: This last is a

particular answer to the charges, and was as followeth:

 

"The humble representation of the general assembly of her majesty's

province of New-Jersey.

 

"To his excellency Robert Hunter, Esq; captain general and governor in

chief of the provinces of New-Jersey and New-York in America, and

vice-admiral of the same, &c.

 

"May it please your excellency;

 

"When the lord Lovelace was pleased to let the representative body of this

province know, that her majesty desired to be informed of the causes of

the differences between the gentlemen of the council and them; nothing

could be more satisfactory; because they entirely depended, that a person

of so much justice and veracity, would put things in their true light; and

had he lived long enough to have complied with her majesty's commands, we

had not now been under the necessity of laying the following

representation before your excellency. "We are very sorry we have so much

reason to say, it was lately our misfortune to be governed by the lord

Cornbury, who treated her majesty's subjects here not as freemen who were

to be governed by laws, but as slaves, of whose persons and estates he had

the sole power of disposing. Oppression and injustice reigned every where

in this poor, and then miserable colony; and it was criminal to complain

or seeth any way sensible of these hardships we then suffered; and

whatever attempts were made for our relief, not only proved ineffectual,

but was termed insolence, and flying in the face of authority: the most

violent and imprudent stretches of arbitrary power, were stamped with the

great name of the queen's prerogative royal; and the instruments and

strenous assertors of that tyranny, were the only persons who in his

esteem and their own, were for supporting her majesty's government:

Bribery, extortion and a contempt of laws, both human and divine, were the

fashionable vices of that time; encouraged by his countenance, but more

by his example; and those who could most daringly and with most

dexterity trample upon our liberties, had the greatest share both in the

government of this province and his favour: This usage we bore with

patience a great while, believing, that the measures he took proceeded

rather from want of information or an erroneous judgment, than the

depravity of his nature; but repeated instances soon convinced us of our

mistaken notions; and that he was capable of the meanest things, and had

sacrificed his own reputation, the laws, and our liberties, to his avarice:

No means were left unessayed, that gave hopes of gratifying that sordid

passion: The country was filled with prosecutions by informations of the

attorney general, contrary to law. Those of her majesty's subjects who

are called Quakers, were severely harrassed, under pretence of refusing

obedience to an act of assembly for settling the militia of this province,

when neither the letter nor meaning of that act justified the severities

used on that account; the measures that were then taken, being chiefly

such as the implacable malice of their adversaries suggested: The rights

of the general proprietors, which upon the surrender of the government,

were promised to be preserved inviolable to them, and which her majesty,

by her instructions, had taken all possible care to do, were by him

invaded in a very high degree; their papers and registers being the

evidences they had to prove their titles to their lands and rents,

violently and arbitrarily force from them, and they inhibited from selling

or disposing of those lands; by which means their titles were made

precarious, the value of lands through the whole province fell very much,

and a great stop was put to the settlement and improvement of it: To be

short, all ranks and conditions of men grossly abused, and no corner of

the country without complaints of the hardships they suffered from the

exercise of a despotick and mistaken power: An administration so

corrupt, so full of tyranny and oppression in all its parts, induced the

assemby to have a regard to the cries of that unhappy country they

represented, and accordingly, in a most humble manner, remonstrated to

his lordship their grievances; who was of opinion, their remonstrance lay

open to a very ready answer; but that he might give them no occasion to

say he had done it with heat and passion, he took some few days to do it;

but with what coolness and temper it was done, those who have seen it

can judge; they both lie before your excellency (No. 1 and 2). Sometime

after the assembly were adjourned; and when we met again, made a reply

to that answer; which reply (No. 3) lies before your excellency; but

neither the one nor the other procured the desired effects; on the

contrary, the number of our grievances were increased, some of the most

considerable of our inhabitants deserted the province, and many of those

that remained thought themselves unsafe in it; the only hopes they had,

was the arrival of the lord Lovelace, which supported their sinking

spirits, and gave them an expectation of better days.

 

"Upon the first sitting of the assembly, after his arrival, he

communicated to them a paper, called, The address of the lieutenant

governor and council of New-Jersey. It was no surprise to us, to find any

thing indecent or virulent proceeding from such men; but it was with

some concern, we beheld what endeavours they had used, to render her

most gracious majesty disaffected with her honest and loyal subjects

here, by accusations which were not only false, but what they knew to be

so, at the time of their writing of them, and which we had made appear to

be so, had they not used evasions and shifts to avoid coming to the test,

in the time of lord Lovelace, and while the assembly was sitting; then

they seemed to be for reconciling matters, and burying every thing in

oblivion, in hopes their own deeds of darkness might partake of the same

covering; and hoped the sweetness of that noble lord's temper, and

inclinations to peace, might secure them from that examine which was

necessary to expose them in their true colours; and how much on that

occasion they fawned and flattered, appears by an address of theirs to

him, which for the peculiarity of the language (and we might say the

unintelligibleness of the terms) ought never to be forgotten: It begins

thus, Your lordship has not one virtue or more, but a complete

accomplishment fall perfections, &c. and at the same time they were

deifying him (if such an address could do it) they were caballing and

articling against him, triumph'd in his death, and have barbarously

treated his memory; and notwithstanding the laws of heaven and nature,

(as they are pleased to express themselves) and all the fine things they

say of you, added to the justness of your administration, they'll give you

the same treatment when they can; the knowledge we have of their

practices, has made us trespass a little longer on your excellency's

patience than we at first designed: But to return to the address; be [we?]

believe the gentlemen of the council have transmitted something to one

of her majesty's secretaries of state, which they called proofs, and with

all the secrecy they could, hoping it may obtain at that distance,

especially when backed by some whose interest it is, that all they have

said be credited: To prevent the ill consequences that may attend the

belief of what they have said, or indeed can say, we shall endeavour to

prove every article of the said address false; and that the subscribers

knew several of them to be so at the time of their signing; what we say is

publick, not carried on in darkness, to prevent that reply, which the

gentlemen concerned to justify themselves, and upon the spot, may make

if they can.

 

"We begin with the title of the address; which is, The humble address of

the lieutenant governor and council of Nova-Caesaria or New-Jersey in

America.

 

"This carries a falsehood in the very front of it; for it was no act of

council; but signed by some in the western, and by others in the eastern

division of New-Jersey, by one or two in New-York, at different times,

being privately carried about by a messenger of my lord Cornbury's; and

some were raised out of their beds to sign it; it never pass'd the

council; was never minuted in the council books, and the lieutenant

governor has several times protested he signed it without ever reading it:

The gentlemen of the council cannot deny the truth of this; if they do, we

can prove it; but to justify themselves they say, it was signed by the

lieutenant governor and the gentlemen of the council, though not in

council: So that it's plain, they designed to abuse the queen, by giving

it the stile of an act of council, which her majesty and every body that

reads it would take to be so, when they knew in their consciences it was

not so; but that their malice or servile fears induced them to sign it, and

may not improperly be called, forging an act of council; it's apparent that

Roger Mompesson, esq; signed it by himself; that it was brought to him

as an act of council, and that as such he thought himself obliged to sign

it, as by his reasons for signing it appears; which reasons could have had

no weight, had he not understood it to be so; for he owns he never

examined into the particulars of it.

 

"The first article is, We the lieutenant governor and council of her

majesty's province of Nova-Caesaria or New-Jersey, having seriously and

deliberately taken into consideration the proceedings of the present

assembly or representative body of this province, thought our selves

bound, both in duty and conscience, to testify to your majesty our dislike

and abhorrence of the same. This is true, if signing any thing without

reading or examining into the particulars of it, and by some between

sleeping and waking, be arguments of seriousness, and deliberation,

otherwise not; except by the words seriously and deliberately, be meant,

their resolutions on all occasions to do what the lord Cornbury commanded

them; as indeed their signing this address, and their conduct in every

other thing, did but too plainly evince, to be the only seriousness and

deliberation they were capable of: When Col. Quarry signd that address, we

believe he was misled, and depended too much on the credit of others; we

must do him the justice to own, that he has of late declined joining with

them in many of their hot and rash methods, and behaves himself at present

like a man of temper, who intends the service of the queen and good of the

country. These addressors tell her majesty, that they were in duty and

conseience bound to testify their dislike and abhorrence of the same to

her: Had they abhorred falsehood, and discharged their duty as in

conscience they were bound to do, in refusing to join with the lord

Cornbury, in all his arbitrary and unjust measures, and particularly in

that scandalous address, (pardon the expressions) the country would not

have had that just cause to complain, as now they have, and in probability

always will, while they continue in their present stations: There were no

proceedings in that assembly that any honest man had reason to dislike;

and their endeavours for the good of the country, deserve the highest

praise, and ought never to be forgotten by New-Jersey.

 

"The second article is, That the unaccountable humours and pernicious

designs of some particular men, have put them upon so many irregularities,

with intention only to occasion divisions and distractions, to the

disturbance of the great and weighty affairs which her majesty's honour

and dignity, and the peace and welfare of the country required: The so

many irregularities are, we suppose, what the lord Cornbury mentioned in

his answer to their remonstrance; which that house replied to; as may be

seen in their reply (No. 3) and whether they were irregularities or no,

the world can judge; but be they what they will, the addressors are never

able to prove, that the unaccountable humours of some particular men put

them upon them; they may indeed boldly say they did, and if that will do,

they may say again, that it was with intention to occasion divisions, &c.

but that neither proves, that any particular men influenced that assembly,

nor that the intentions of doing so, were as they say; that being

impossible for them to know; and if we may be allowed to know the

intentions of that assembly, they were far otherwise than what the

addressors represent them to have been.

 

"The 3d article was, That we had highly encroached upon her majesty's

prerogative royal.

 

"The 4th, That we had notoriously violated the rights and liberties of the

subject.

 

"The 5th, That we had manifestly interrupted justice.

 

"These three articles are what the lord Cornbury, in his answer to the

remonstrance, charges that assembly with, which are fully answered in the

aforesaid reply, and proved to be false charges; and this the addressors

knew when they signed the address, if ever they read the reply or address

(which is very much to be questioned) and we believe, if the truth were

known, notwithstanding their pretensions to seriousness and deliberation,

they had little more hand in it than setting their hands to it, as we

shall endeavour to evince: It is undeniably true, that it was signed at

different times, and in different places; it then must be true, that

it was brought ready drawn to the signers, and its very probable that they

did not read it, certainly not with any consideration: The lieutenant

governor, as we observed before, has owned he did not, and the late chief

justice, Roger Mompesson, Esq; a man as likely to read and consider as

any of them, owns under his hand, he never did examine the particulars

of it; which is, in other words, owning he did not read it; and its not

very likely the rest should: These three articles are the very words used

by the lord Cornbury in his answer: the whole address seems to be an

abridgment of that answer, several sentences the same, the stile the same,

and the same vein of intemperance and ill nature through them both; and

in all likelihood done by his lordship, who made the addressors father

whatever his lordship was ashamed to own.

 

"The 6th article is, That the remonstrance was a most scandalous libel.

 

"The 7th, That the lord Cornbury made a full and ample answer to it.

 

"The 8th, That the reply of the house of representatives of the province

of New-Jersey, was a scandalous and infamous libel; and they add on that

head, this last libel came out so suddenly, that they had not time, as

yet, to answer it in all its particulars.

 

"Certainly it is impossible, that ever men in their right wits, after

reading such an address, should sign it! Was it ever known, that any book

or paper wrote by a house of commons, was called a libel, and a most

scandalous and infamous libel? If the gentlemen had intended to shew their

talents of railing and abusive language; they could hardly have taken a

more effectual way, than by that address, which if it prove nothing else,

proves them to be very much masters of those qualifications; but we cannot

be of opinion, that their calling the remonstrance or reply a libel,

proves them to be so; nor had they any reason to expect it would be taken

by her majesty, for any thing more than a demonstration of their want of

temper; for if those two papers were libels, then the house of

representatives might have been punished for them, or at least prosecuted;

and if so, any vote, resolve, address or remonstrance that they made, or

any other house of representatives could make, would subject the said

house of representatives (the authors of them) to the same inconveniency,

whenever the gentlemen of the council were pleased to call them so: This

is so contrary to the known practice of England, to the laws, to the

rights and privileges of the house, that it is a needless labour to prove,

either that the gentlemen never read what they signed, or knew what they

signed to be false at the time of their signing of it: But to say a little

more, the remonstrance and reply are so far from being false, that they

are most true: Several of the facts are owned by the lord Cornbury, and

where he either evades or denies them, they are made out in the reply: His

bribery was proved by a cloud of evidences in the house; and whatever else

is charged upon him, he knew to be true; and it is neither in the power of

his full and ample answe; nor even of the address itself, to persuade the

contrary: The assembly say indeed in their remonstrance, Had the afairs of

New-York admitted his lordship oftener to attend those of New-Jersey, he

had not then been unacquainted with their grievances; and that they were

inclined to believe they would not have grown to so great a number. This,

perhaps, may be one of the falsehoods the addressors mean; and truly it

ought to be acknowledged, that the then assembly had no reason to believe

his lordship's presence in this province would have any other effect, than

the increasing, instead of diminishing their grievances; but when the

addressors say that the reply came so suddenly out, that as yet, they had

not time to answer it in all its particulars: They seem to imply, that

they had answered it in some of them; which has not been done, no, not as

yet, though it has been out above three years: And, its coming out so

suddenly, &c. is a great mistake, to say no worse of it; for it had been

out above six months before their address was signed: This is another

proof that they never read the address before they signed it; or if they

did, that they knew what they signed to was false, at the time of their

signing.

 

"The 9th article is, That these disturbances are owing wholly to Mr. Lewis

Morris and Samuei Jenings, men of turbulent, factious, uneasy and disloyal

principles; men notoriously known to be uneasy under all government, and

men never known to be consistent with themselves.

 

"The 10th article is, That to these men are owing all the factions and

confusions in the governments of New-Jersey and Pennsylvania.

 

"These articles are not only the stile of the lord Cornbury's answer to

the remonstrance; but for the most part the very words. If Mr. Morris, and

Mr. Jenings, were such men as the addressors say they are, viz. turbulent

and factious, uneasy under all governments, and the causers of the

factions and confusions of New-Jersey and Pennsylvania; then certainly to

continue thus turbulent, &c. evinced they were not inconsistent with

themselves, but constantly pursued the same measures: This was an

expression the lord Cornbury was very fond of, and very much used, and the

addressors here have been but the parrots of his thoughts; and all they

have said of these gentlemen (one of whom is in his grave, viz. Mr.

Jenings) is a notorious abuse; for whatever was done by the assembly (if

it's their proceedures they call disturbances) was not done either by the

influence of Mr. Morris or Mr. Jenings, but from a just sense of their

duty, in discharge of the trust reposed in them by the country, and to

prevent the ill effects of an arbitrary and unjust use of power, by the

lord Cornbury, so much encouraged by the slavish compliants of the

addressors, men never known to be inconsistent with themselves, nor we

fear never will.

 

"We should not trouble your excellency longer on this head, did we not

know this is an article which the addressors think they can justify, and

which they suppose will prove a sufficient defence for all they have said;

therefore, to put this matter in some measure out of dispute, we say, in

the first place, that should they be able to prove what they say in that

article, yet it would not justify their other accusations, nor the severe

reflections they have unjustly made on the representative body of this

province: 2dly, It plainly appears by the journals of the house, that the

assembly insisted on the same things, when neither Mr. Morris nor Mr.

Jenings were among them; and now endeavours to evince to your excellency,

that their proceedings were reasonable. 3dly, The disturbances in Jersey

or Pennsylvania, ascribed to Mr. Morris or Mr. Jennings, were no other

than the opposition of an unlawful and unjust authority, and that during

the proprietors government, before it was surrendered to the queen; so not

a fit matter to have been at that time seriously and deliberately meddled

with by the addressors, and could be done with no other intent but to

mislead the queen, into a belief that Pennsylvania and New-Jersey, were

then disturbed by these gentlemen; 4thly, We do not find, that ever Mr.

Morris was concerned at all, even during that time, in the western

division of New-Jersey or Pennsylvania.

 

"The 11th article is, That this is done with design to throw off the

queen's prerogative royal, and consequently to involve all her majesty's

dominions, in this part of the world, and the honest and good well meaning

men in them, in confusion, hoping thereby to obtain their wicked purposes.

 

"It is evident from this article, that the accusations of Mr. Morris

and Mr. Jenings, were to mislead the queen into such a belief as we have

instanced; 1st, from their using the terms (is done) being in the present

tense: 2dly, they assign the reason why tis done, viz. not only to

encourage this government, but all the governments in America, to throw

off her majesty's prerogative royal, and as a consequence of that, to

involve all her dominions in this part of the world, &c. in confusion;

which is in plain English, throwing off our allegiance, and revolting from

the crown of England; the addressors in the first place, suppose all the

plantations on the continent of America inclinable to a revolt, whenever

they have an opportunity; or at least if they don't believe it themselves,

would have the queen believe so, and be apprehensive of some danger

from it; which if she had, it's natural enough to suppose such severe

methods would have been taken, as would prevent any such thing; so

that what the addressors have said, is not only an accusation of all the

plantations in America, of want of loyalty and affection to her majesty;

but an endeavour to alienate her affections from them: We thank God it

has not had the ill effects they intended, and hope no representation

founded on the malice of any men, ever will; but that the authors of them

may always meet with as little credit as they deserve: Can it be thought,

or could the addressors themselves ever seriously and deliberately think,

that the province of New-Jersey, (one of the most inconsiderable of all

her majesty's colonies, and the most incapable of making any defence,

having no fortification that exceeds a stone house, and of them but very

few; a great part of whose people are quakers, who by their principles are

against fighting, would be so unaccountably mad, as to throw off their

allegiance (especially to be the first in doing it) and expose themselves

to unavoidable ruin and destruction? Whoever can seriously think this, and

with deliberation assert it, ought very seriously, and without much

deliberation, be confined to the society of mad-men, as persons that can

seriously and deliberately believe and say any thing; which is all we shall

say to this ridiculous, as well as malicious charge, and pass to the 12th

article; than which nothing more untrue, and knowingly so, could be

asserted, as we shall by what follows, make out; the article runs thus:

That the assembly are resolved neither to support the queen's government

with a revenue, nor defend it by settling a militia.

 

"Now it is plain, that this house never did deny to raise a sufficient

support for the government, and took proper care concerning the militia,

as by the several acts for those ends does more largely appear; nay, when

the expedition against Canada, was on foot we gave three thousand pounds

for that end, over and above the support of government; and the casting

vote for the raising that money, and the settling the militia now, was

given by Mr. Hugh Middleton, one reputed a quaker; so that it will very

easily appear, that accusation of the addressors, was not only very

untrue, but that they knew it to be so at the time of their signing of it;

nay more, we shall make it appear, that the gentlemen of the council have

used their utmost endeavours to defeat the government of a necessary

support, and to frustrate, as much as in them lay, the expedition against

Canada; so that the accusation lies most justly against them, and not

against us; for the acts for the support of the government, and settling

the militia, made in the time of the good lord Lovelace, was pass'd by

them with the greatest difficulty; and the act for raising three thousand

pounds, towards carrying on the expedition against Canada, was at their

direction, by Elisha Lawrence and Gershom Mott, two of their tools, who

were members of this house, (and were not quakers) voted out, and who on

the first and second reading, voted for it, concealing their design of

voting against it, 'till the time of their voting; and not being quakers,

were not suspected of voting against it, otherways care had been taken to

put it out of their power; and to make it appear, that it was done with

design, by direction of the lieutenant governor and council, to cast a

reflection on the house, and to justify their allegations in their

address, even at the expence of defeating the expedition; the lieutenant

governor colonel Ingoldsby, tho' assured by the speaker, and other members

of the house, that if the house was prorogued but for twenty four hours,

care should be taken the bill should pass; who presently after did,

notwithstanding, adjourn the house, from the thirteenth of June to the

twenty eighth of July following; a time so long, that if the house and

council had been never so willing, the season would by that time have been

so far advanced, that it had been of no use then to have raised either men

or money towards that expedition; as the lieutenant governor and council

very well knew; and had not the honorable colonel Nicholson, and Col.

Vetch, in an extraordinary viz. on the twenty third day of June, neither

money nor men had been raised on that account: This we think comes up to a

demonstration, that these gentlemen, rather than not gratify their

resentments, and give some colour of justifying what they had said, chose

to sacrifice the service of the queen, and the common good, on so

extraordinary an occasion, to their private piques; and indeed their

proceedures ever since, have confirmed the country in that opinion, and

exposed their conduct to a just censure, and shewed that they have been so

far from endeavouring (as they say, in the last article) by application to

the governor, to remove the grievances, if any were; that if their best

advice was at any time offered, it was rather how to continue and render

them more intollerable: We are sorry we have so much reason to say this as

we have; but a long and uninterrupted series of despotick and arbitrary

government exacts it from us; and which we are sure they will, to their

power, continue as long as to the great misfortune of this colony, they

remain in any places of publick trust.

 

"To enter into a detail of their several male-admistrations, t'would take

up more time than we can at present spare, and stretch the bounds of this

representation to too great a length: We have already laid before your

excellency some proofs against Mr. Hall, one of the council, of his

extortion, and imprisoning and selling the queen's subjects; who, if

they had been guilty of the crimes alledged against them, ought to have

been prosecuted accordingly and not discharged on any hopes of private

gain; and if not guilty, ought not to have been laid in prison and in

irons, and by those hardships forced to become his servants, rather than

endure them: But a man that could, after taking up adrift several cask of

flour, deny them to the owner, and sell 'em, is capable of any thing that

is ill; and how fit for so honourable a post as one of her majesty's

council, or indeed any other place of trust in this government, is most

humbly submitted to your excellency's consideration.

 

"Were there nothing against Mr. Peter Sonmans, but his being indicted for

perjury; from which by a pack'd jury he was cleared, as appears by the

memorial (No. 4) there being but too much reason to believe he was justly

accused; it would be no mean reason to lay him aside from her majesty's

council; it being some sort of reflection to continue a person even

supposed guilty of so heinous a crime, in so high a post, which her

majesty in a particular manner has endeavoured to secure the honour of; by

directing in her instructions, that no person necessitous or much in debt

shall be of it; much less a person known to be a bankrupt, as Sonmans is,

and who at this time, and for some years past, has lived in open and

avowed aduldery, in contempt of the laws, which his being in power not

only protects him from being punish'd, but enables him to carry on his

wicked designs, by imposing on the honest and simple people, who suspect

no trick from a person of his rank; as appears by the depositions (No. 5)

relating to the Amboy petition against Dr. Johnston and Mr. Reid; and to

stretch and warp the laws, to the manifest prejudice, ruin and undoing of

many of her majesty's subjects, whose complaints from the several parts of

the province, (so unfortunate as to be under his direction,) we make no

doubt has long e'er this reach'd your excellency's ears; and which, we

persuade ourselves, will, when your excellency is satisfied with the truth

of them, have their proper effects.

 

"The courts of law in which the gentlemen of the council were judges,

instead of being a protection and security to her majesty's subjects, of

their liberties and properties, in disputes that came before them, became

the chief invaders and destroyers of them both; and what should have been

the greatest benefit, proved the greatest grievance; as we we shall

instance in a few of the many things we could: And first, notwithstanding

her majesty, for the ease of her subjects here, has been pleased to

appoint the supreme court of this province to be held alternatively at

Amboy in the eastern, and Burlington in the western division of this

province; yet the causes of one division are tried in the other, and

juries and evidences carried for that end, at the great and needless

charge of those concerned, as well as great expence and loss of time to

the people in general; who can receive no benefit by the courts being held

alternatively, if the ends for which they are so held, be not answered,

and causes tried in the same division to which they do belong; besides it

is a practice of very mischevious consequence, making the people entirely

depend on and be subject to the judges of the said court, who can by that

method, lay any persons they do not like, under the necessity of being at

the beforementioned charge, and make them that way sensible of their

resentments; which, as we have instanced, they have been too ready and

willing on all occasions to do: Secondly, the writ of habeas corpus, the

undoubted right, as well as great privilege of the subject, was by William

Pinhorne, Esq; second judge of the supreme court, denied to Thomas Gordon,

Esq; then speaker of the assembly; and, notwithstanding the station he was

in, was kept fifteen hours a prisoner, until he applied by the said

Pinhorne's son, an attorney at law, and then, and not before, he was

admitted to bail; which fact as well as other things, may appear by the

said Gordon's case (No. 6) now laid before your excellency. The

proceedings against a person in that station, and at that time, made it

but too evidently appear, that the said Pinhorne would not stick to join

with the lord Cornbury in the most daring and violent measures, to subvert

the liberties of this country; and cannot be look'd on by this house, or

any succeeding assembly, duly considering the procedure and the address

abovementioned, afterwards signed by him, but as a person ready and

willing on any occasion, to attempt upon their liberties, and overthrow

them if he can; and how safe we can think ourselves while he continues in

power to hurt, is most humbly submitted.

 

"Many persons prosecuted upon informations, have been, at their excessive

charge, forced to attend court after court, and not brought to tryal, when

there was no evidence to ground such informations on; but they kept

prisoners in hopes that some might be in time procured; and two of them,

to wit, David Johnston and his wife, after some weeks imprisonment, not

admitted to bail 'till they entered into a recognizance, the condition of

which was, That if the lord Cornbury was dissatisfied with admitting them

to bail, upon notice thereof signified to them, they should return to

their imprisonment: His lordship was dissatisfied, and Leeds and Revell,

who took the recognizance, sent their orders to them to return according

to the condition of it.

 

"Actions have been suffered to continue, after the persons in whose names

they were brought, have in open court disavowed them, declaring they had

never given orders for any such actions to be brought.

 

"Actions upon frivolous pretences have been postpon'd, and the tryals

delayed to serve particular persons, when the juries and evidences were

all ready, and attending on the tryals.

 

"Though it be the right of the subject, by proper writs, to remove actions

from any inferior to a superior court; yet at the court of sessions held

at Barlington, in December 1709, colonel Daniel Coxe, colonel Hugh Huddy,

colonel Thomas Revell and Daniel Leeds, esquires, justices of the said

county, did reject a writ of certiorari, obtained by Mr. George Willocks,

and allowed by Roger Mompesson, chief justice, and committed said Willocks

'till he entered into recognizance, to appear at the next court of oyer

and terminer.

 

"The case of Peter Blacksfield, who by a mistake or design, was divested

of his estate, and ruined; is so well known to your excellency, that we

need say nothing more about it.

 

"The people called quakers, who are by her majesty admitted to places of

the most considerable trust within this province, are sometimes admitted

to be evidences; as one Mr. Beaks, a quaker, was in a capital case against

one Thomas Bates, at a court of oyer and terminer, held by justice

Mompesson, Col. Coxe, Col. Huddy, and others; on which evidence, he was

condemned to be executed; and sometimes they have been refused to be

jurors or evidences, either in civil or criminal cases; so that their

safety, or receiving the benefit of her majesty's favour, seems not to

depend on the laws, or her directions, but the humours and capricios of

the gentlemen who were judges of the courts: We, with all humanity, take

leave to inform your excellency, that the western division was settled by

those people, who combated with all the inconveniencies attending a new

settlement; and with great difficulty and charge, have from a wilderness

improved it to be what you now see it is; there are great numbers of them

in it, and should they not be admitted as evidences or jurors, they would

be very unsafe; for it is in the power of ill men, to come into their

religious assemblies, and murder as many as they please, and with

impunity, tho' look'd on by hundreds of quakers; or break open their

houses and rob with safety; and the encouragement the gentlemen of the

council have given to the meanest of the people, to abuse them, confirms

us in the opinion, that there wants not those who have will enough to

perpetrate the greatest mischiefs on that people, when they can escape the

punishment due to their crimes.

 

"The procedure of the whole body of the council, in relation to Mr.

Barclay, is a demonstration of their arbitrariness and partiality, as by

his case, (No. 7) now laid before your excellency, will more fully appear:

When he produced a commission before them, from the proprietors in

England, which superceded that lame one given to Mr. Sonmans; they (as

appears by an order of council) took the said commission from him; than

which nothing could be more arbitrary and unjust; for that commission was

the property of Mr. Barclay, and he had the right of executing the powers

of it; and if any persons was aggrieved, or the commission not good, the

law was open to dispute it; and a copy of it sent to the queen would have

answered all the just ends that sending the original could do: It was

indeed a short way of determining in favour of Peter Sonmans, and putting

it out of the power of Mr. Barclay, to right himself, during that

administration: The gentlemen may call this a strenuous asserting of the

queen's prerogative royal; but we can call it by no other name than an

open robbery, committed in their judicial capacity, under a pretence of

authority; than which nothing could be worse, or of more pernicious

consequence.

 

"To conclude, all persons not friends to the gentlemen of the council, or

some of them, were sure in any tryal at law to suffer; every thing was

done in favour of these that were: Justice was banish'd, and trick and

partiality substituted in its place: No man was secure in his liberty or

estate; but both subjected to the caprices of an inconsiderate party of

men in power, who seemed to study nothing more than to make them as

precarious as possible. Your excellency's coming, has put a check to that

violent torrent of injustice and oppression, that bore down every thing

before it; and we hope, that during your administration, ill men will not

have authority to hurt, nor their representations gain any credit with a

person so able to discern the motives of them; which are no other, than

the gratification of their own resentments, even at the price of the

publick safety, as we have in great measure already proved; and their

proceedings now does plainly confirm what we have offered; for what can be

the intent of rejecting our bills without committing of them, but to

irretate us to that degree, that nothing might be done, either towards the

support of the government, or the settling of a militia, that they might

have wherewithal to justify themselves in what they have said of us?

 

What was the cause of their rejecting the bill for preventing of corruption

in courts of justice, but the consciousness of their own crimes, and the

fears they had of that examine, which must necessarily have exposed their

conduct to a due censure? What was it that made them throw out the bill

against bankrupts (though made by her majesty's express direction) and

profess themselves against any bill whatsoever on that head, but the dread

they had of feeling the just consequences of it themselves? Nay, one of

them, William Pinhorne, esq; by name, was pleased to say, it was with

horror and amazement he beheld a bill with that title; we are not so fond

of the bill as it was drawn, but that we would have readily joined with

the council in any reasonable amendments, had they offered them; but we

think no honest man could be against a bill that makes the estates of

persons becoming bankrupts, liable to pay their just debts; and we hope

New-Jersey won't long be a sanctuary for such. The bill, entitled, An act

for enabling persons aggrieved by on act for settling the militia of this

province, was, to make the distresses unreasonably and illegally made on

pretence of the militia act, returnable to the owners, and to punish the

persons that did it; but this they will not pass, knowing that so just an

act would be attended with consequences they can by no means bear; the

instruments of that oppression being to be protected by them at any rate,

and nothing to be heard against them, because they were officers of the

government, tho' their practices were never so unreasonable or unjust, and

her majesty's subjects left remediless, and must patiently sit down, after

having their houses and plantations plundered, and their persons abused by

a crew of needy and mercenary men, under pretence of law; but it was such

persons that were useful to them, and such they must for their own safety,

protect: 'Tis for this reason they combine together, to secure, as far as

they are able, Jeremiah Bass, their clerk, the secretary of this province,

and prothonotary of the supreme court; in all these offices his pen is to

be directed by them; they dread an honest man in these offices: How he has

behaved himself, is in some measure known to your excellency, especially

in the case of Dennis Linch, the Maidenhead people, and Peter Blacksfield;

the two last are notorious malversations in his office, and appear under

his hand, and by the minute books of the supreme court; and it is no

excuse in him, when men are turned out of their estates and ruin'd, to

say, it was a mistake; if such an excuse would do, it is very easily made

on any occasion; and in this province, can be safe, when such a person

continues in offices of so great trust. All the original copies of the

laws passed in the time of the just lord Lovelace, are somehow or other

made away with; Bass offers to purge himself by his oath, that he has them

not, nor knows any thing of them; and it may be so for aught we know; but

in this provmce where he is known, it is also known, that few men ever

believed his common conversation, and several juries have refused to

credit his oaths; he corroborates what he says with the evidence of Peter

Sonmans, one of the council, a person once indicted for peijury; and how

he was cleared, the aforesaid memorial makes out; so that we do not think

him a person of sufficient credit to determine that point. It is certain,

that the secretary's office is the place those laws ought to be in, and he

ought not on any pretence to have parted with them out of the province: It

is certain, the lieutenant governor ought, within three months after the

passing of them, to have sent copies of them to the lords commissioners

for trade and plantations, and duplicates of them by the next conveyance

after; and this under pain of her majesty's highest displeasure, and the

forfeiture of that year's salary, on which he should on any pretence

whatsoever omit the doing of it; how comes it then about, that neither the

secretary Bass, nor Mr. Cockrill, private secretary to the lord Lovelace,

and who lived six months after his master's death, was never examined

about them? Mr. Cockrill could have cleared up that matter while alive, if

the lieutenant governor could be thought so grossly to neglect what he

knew to be his duty; why did not Mr. Bass apply to him in all that time

for those laws? If he had parted with them, as he pretends, so much

against his will, it was very natural to suppose he would have used the

utmost application to get them again; yet no one enquiry is said to be

made after them, either by Bass or the lieutenant governor, of the lady

Lovelace, who staid in New-York long after the death of her lord, or of

his secretary; nor no noise at all made about them 'till this time, so

long after the arrival of your excellency; can any body think it was the

interest of either the lord or lady Lovelace, or his secretary, or any of

his lordship's friends, to destroy a law which gave the lord Lovelace

eight hundred pounds, and without which he could not have it? but it does

appear to be the interest of the lieutenant governor and his friends to

destroy it; for they had got an act passed, which took from the lord

Lovelace three hundred and thirty pounds of that money, and gave it to the

lieutenant governor; and two hundred and seventy pounds more of it was

given to him for the support of the government. Had he sent the act made

in favour of the lord Lovelace, to the queen for her approbation or

disallowance, and her majesty had approved of it, as in all probability

she would have done, then the act made in colonel Ingoldsby's favour had

been void; but had the other gone home first, there was an expectation it

might pass, the queen knowing no more about the first act, than that a

vote had passed in favour of the lord Lovelace. And to make it plainly

appear, that colonel Ingoldsby, and the gentlemen of the council, were

apprehensive of the danger of sending those acts to England; to the act we

have now past, for making the printed copies as effectual as if the

originals were in the secretary office, that your excellency may be

enabled to transmit them to her majesty; they have added a providing

clause, that the act made in Col. Ingoldsby's time, (which takes that

money from the lord Lovelace) shall not by this act we have past, be made

void in the whole or any part thereof; but continue in full force and

virtue, as if this act had never been made: This amendment they insist on,

tho' they knew, and do know, we will never agree to a clause so foreign to

the title and intent of the bill; but this is done by them, with design

that the bill shall not pass; by which means her majesty will be without

authentick copies of the acts, during that good lords administration; and

they hope will confirm the acts past in colonel Ingoldsby's time: What we

have said on this head, shews very plainly who are the persons that ought,

with most reason to be charged, with the making away those original laws.

 

"We are concerned, we have so much reason to expose a number of persons,

combined to do New-Jersey all the hurt that lies in their power: Her

majesty has been graciously pleased to remove colonel Richard Ingoldsby

from being lieutenant governor, and we cannot sufficiently express our

gratitude for so singular a favour; and especially for appointing your

excellency to be our governor: We have all the reason in the world to be

well assured, you will not forget that you are her subject; but will take

care that justice be duly administered to the rest of her subjects here;

which can never be done while William Pinhorne, Roger Mompesson, Daniel

Coxe, Richard Townley, Peter Sonmans, Hugh Huddy, and William Hall, or

Jeremiah Bass, Esqrs, continue in places of trust, within this province;

nor can we think our liberties or properties safe while they do; but if

they are continued, must with our families desert the province, and seek

some safer place of abode: We shall wait 'till your excellency can

transmit accounts of the state of this colony, to her majesty; and assure

you, that we will on all occasions very readily, to our power, comply with

her majesty's directions, and be wanting in nothing that may conduce to

make your administration happy, both to yourself and us.

"Signed by order of the house of representatives.

"WILL. BRADFORD, Clk.

"Die Veneris, A. M. 9 Feb. -- 1710."

 

This representation was received kindly by the governor; he answered, "that

her majesty had given him directions to endeavour to reconcile the

differences, that were in this province; but if he could not, that he

should make a just representation to her; and that he did not doubt, but

that upon the representation he should make, her majesty would take such

measures, as should give a general satisfaction."

 

The governor accordingly backing the remonstrance to the queen, got all the

councellors removed, that were pointed out by the assembly, as the cause

of their grievances, and their places supplied by others: The business of

this session being finished, the governor prorogued the house.