Afternoon

The House met: Present, the Earl of Stirling, John Stevens, Esquire, the Chief Justice, Stephen Skinner, and Daniel Coxe, Esquires.

The Speaker, with the House of Assembly, came into the Council Chamber, when the Deputy Secretary read to both Houses his Majesty's Proclamation, proroguing the General Assembly to Tuesday, the fourteenth day of March next, then to meet at the City of Burlington.

ASSEMBLY OF NEW-JERSEY.

Votes and Proceedings of the General Assembly of the Colony of New-Jersey, at a session began at Perth Amboy, on Wednesday, January 11, 1775, and continued until the 13th clay of February following; being the third session of the twenty-second Assembly of New-Jersey.

NAMES OF THE REPRESENTATIVES.

City of PERTH AMBOY.—Cortland Skinner, Speaker, and John Combs.

County of MIDDLESEX.—John Wetherill.

MONMOUTH.—Edward Taylor and Richard Lawrence,

ESSEX.—Stephen Crane and Henry Garritse.

SOMERSET.—Hendrick Fisher and John Roy.

BERGEN.—Theunis Dey and John Demarest.

MORRIS.—Jacob Ford and William Winds

City of BURLINGTON.—James Kinsey and Thomas P. Healings.

County of BURLINGTON.—Henry Parson and Anthony Sykes.

GLOUCESTER.—John Hinchman and Robert F. Price.

SALEM.-Grant Gibbon and Benjamin Holme.

CAPE MAY.—Jonathan Hand and Eli Eldridge.

HUNTERDON.—Samuel Tucker and John Mehelm.

CUMBERLAND.—John Sheppard and Theophilus Elmer.

SUSSEX. —Nathaniel Pettit.

Perth Amboy, Wednesday, January 11, 1775.

Pursuant to his Excellency's several prorogations of the General Assembly from time to time till this day, the House met, and, for want of a sufficient number of Members to proceed upon business, adjourned till tomorrow morning, ten o'clock.

Thursday, January 12, 1775.

The House met.

Ordered, That Mr. Kinsey and Mr. Combs do wait on his Excellency and acquaint him that a sufficient number of Members to proceed upon business are now met, and are ready to receive any thing he may please to lay before them.

Mr. Kinsey reported that Mr. Combs and himself waited on the Governour, pursuant to the order of the House, who was pleased to say the House should hear from him.

Friday, January 13, 1775.

Mr. Kinsey laid before the House a duplicate of his Majesty's allowance of the Act entitled "An Act for establishing the Boundary or Partition Line between the Colonies of New-York and Nova-Caesarea or New-Jersey, and for confirming the Titles and Possessions."

A Message from his Excellency, by Mr. Deputy Secretary Pettit:

Mr. SPEAKER: His Excellency is in the Council Chamber, and requires the immediate attendance of this House. Whereupon,

Mr. Speaker left the Chair, and with the House went to wait upon his Excellency, and being returned, Mr. Speaker resumed the Chair and reported that the House had waited on his Excellency, who was pleased to make a Speech to the Council and House of Assembly, of which Mr. Speaker said he had, to prevent mistakes, obtained a copy, and the same, by order of the House, was read, and is as follows, viz:

Gentlemen of the Council and Gentlemen of the Assembly:

Although not more than ten months have elapsed since your last meeting in General Assembly; yet, as there are several matters of importance, which require the particular attention of the Legislature, I have thought it proper to give you as early an opportunity of transacting the publick business, as was consistent with your conveniency.

Gentlemen of the Assembly:

The support of Government having been expired ever since the first of October, I must recommend that matter to your early consideration.

The Barrack-master's accounts for the expenditure of the money granted last year for the supply of the King's Troops, shall be laid before you as soon as they can be prepared.

Gentlemen of the Council and Gentlemen of the Assembly:

It would argue not only a great want of duty to his Majesty, but of regard to the good people of this Province, were I, on this occasion, to pass over in silence the late alarming transactions in this and the neighbouring Colonies, or not endeavour to prevail on you to exert yourselves in preventing those mischiefs to this country, which, without your timely interposition, will, in all probability, be the consequence.

It is not for me to decide on the particular merits of the dispute between Great Britain and her Colonies; nor do I mean to censure those who conceive themselves aggrieved, for aiming at a redress of their grievances; it is a duty they owe themselves, their country, and their posterity. All that I wish to guard you against, is the giving any countenance or encouragement to that destructive mode of proceeding which has been unhappily adopted in part by some of the inhabitants of this Colony; and has been carried so far in others, as totally to subvert their former Constitution. It has already struck at the authority of one pf the branches of the Legislature, in a particular manner. And if you, gentlemen of the Assembly, should give your approbation transactions of this nature,, you will do as much as lies in your power to destroy that form of Government of which you are an important part, and which it is your duty, by all lawful means, to preserve. To you your constituents have entrusted a peculiar guardianship of their rights and privileges. You are their legal Representatives, and you cannot without a manifest breach of your trust, suffer any body of men, in this or any of the other Provinces, to usurp and exercise any of the powers vested in you by the Constitution. It behoves you particularly, who must be constitutionally supposed to speak the sense of the people at large, to be extremely cautious in consenting to any act whereby you may engage them as parties in, and make them answerable for measures which may have a tendency to involve them in difficulties far greater than those they aim to avoid.

Besides, there is not, gentlemen, the least necessity, consequently there will not be the least excuse for your running any such risks on the present occasion. If you are really disposed to represent to the King any inconveniences you conceive yourselves to lie under, or to make any propositions on the present state of America, I can assure you from the best authority, that such representations or propositions will be properly attended to, and certainly have greater weight coming from each Colony in its separate capacity, than in a channel, of the propriety and legality of which there may be much doubt.

You have now pointed out to you, gentlemen, two roads, one evidently leading to peace, happiness, and a restoration of the publick tranquillity, the other inevitably conducting you to anarchy, misery and all the honours of a civil war. Your wisdom, your prudence, your regard for life true interests of the people, will he best known when you have shown to which road you give the preference. If to the former, you will probably afford satisfaction to the, moderate, the sober, and the discreet part of your constituents. If to the latter, you will, perhaps, for a time, give pleasure to the warm, the rash and the inconsiderate among them, who, I would willingly hope, violent as is the temper of the present times, are not even now the majority. But it may be well for out to remember, should any calamity hereafter befall them from your compliance with their inclinations, instead pursuing al as you ought, the dictates of your own judgment, that the consequences of their returning to proper sense of their conduct, may prove deservedly fatal to yourselves.

I shall say no more at present on this disagreeable sub-