letter by me written relative to the proceedings of the last session of Assembly.”

If such a procedure does not manifest a premeditated affront, and an intention to do me a personal injury, let any man judge, who considers the several steps which have been taken in this affair, the many falsehoods which have been industriously propagated respecting the contents of the letter, and the present turbulent state of the Province.

Some, if not all of you, must have known that the pamphlet though called the Parliamentary Register, was not a publication authorized by Parliament, or of any more authority than a common magazine or newspaper. Nor can I doubt but that some of you must have seen or heard that what was lately published in that work, as the Speech of the Earl of Chatham, was publickly denied by his Lordship. It is well known to be as much the practice in England to write and publish speeches which were never spoke, as it is in America to publish extracts of letters which were never wrote by the persons to whom they are attributed.

Besides, gentlemen, as to the particular extract in question, I cannot but flatter myself that I am not so remarkable for writing nonsense and contradictions, but that you might have at least doubted the genuineness of the extract when you saw on the very face of it so glaring an absurdity as could not be supposed to have come from the pen of any man of common sense. Would you not have thought me extremely deficient in the common marks of respect which is due from one gentleman to another, and much more from one branch of Legislature to another, had I seen a pretended extract of a letter, said to be wrote by you to your Agent, or from him to you, containing evident nonsense and absurdity, and should order it to be read in Council, and entered on the minutes without making any inquiry as to the authenticity of it, until two days after? Would you not have construed such conduct into a designed affront, or suspected that it was calculated to expose you to ridicule, or to promote some intended injury, more especially in times so circumstanced as the present.

I cannot think that you have the least right to a sight of any part of my correspondence with the King’s Ministers, and I am convinced that you would deem it a very improper request, were I to ask you to communicate to me your correspondence with the Agent of this Province, at the Court of Great Britain. I will, however, thus far comply with your request as to assure you that “the said extract does not contain a true representation of the words or substance of my letter;” but had you, before you suffered it to be entered on your Minutes, applied to me, either in a private or publick way, I should have had not the least scruple to have let you seen the whole of what I wrote “relative to the proceedings of the last session of Assembly.” It has ever been my rule, as it is my duty, to represent matters exactly in the light as they appear to me from the best information I can obtain at the time of writing my despatches. If I afterwards find that I have been mistaken in any thing, I never fail to rectify the mistake as soon as discovered.

On the whole, gentlemen, I have very particular reasons to complain of the treatment I have received on account of this pretended extract. Great pains have been taken to propagate an idea that I wrote a letter to England inimical to the Province or to America in general. After it is produced nothing of the kind appears, nor should I have the least objection to the publication of my whole correspondence with the King’s Minister. You have on your Minutes a copy of a letter from Lord Shelburne, which will shew that the representations I made of the disposition and conduct of the people of this Province, at the time of the Stamp Act, a time somewhat similar to the present, were, to use his Lordship’s words, “much to its honour.” My sentiments respecting the present transactions I have no scruple to declare do not entirely coincide with those of either party. But I trust that those who know me best will do me the justice to allow that no office or honour in the power of the Crown to bestow, will ever influence me to forget or neglect the duty I owe my Country, nor the most furious rage of the most intemperate zealots induce me to swerve from the duty I owe His Majesty.

WM. FRANKLIN.

1. Resolved, That the laying of the Parliamentary Register before this House, containing a publication said to be an extract of a Letter, from Governour Franklin to Lord Dartmouth, so far from doing or carrying an appearance of intending an injury to the character of his Excellency, or deserving of those personal reflections contained in his Message to the House of this day, had, in the opinion of this House, a tendency to do him real service, by giving him an opportunity of exculpating himself from the charge of writing the said Letter or extract, if the charge had been groundless.

2. Resolved, That Mr. Fisher, Mr. Kinsey, Mr. Tucker, Mr. Paxon, and Mr. Hinchman, be a Committee to consider of the said Message; and make report to the next sitting of Assembly.

On the question, Whether the House agrees to the said Resolutions or not? It passed in the affirmative:

Nay. Mr. Barton.

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, with the House, waited upon his Excellency, who was pleased to prorogue the General Assembly to the 20th day of June next, then to meet at Burlington.

NEW-YORK COMMITTEE.

The Committee met, by adjournment, Monday, 15th May, 1775. Present:

A Letter, dated Philadelphia, 13th May, 1775, from John Lamb, received and read.

Mr. P. V. B. Livingston, from the Committee of Correspondence reported and read, the draft of an Answer to a Letter, dated Tryon County, 19th April, 1775: also an Answer to one received from Thomas Barclay, dated Philadelphia, May 11th, 1775, which being approved of,
Ordered, That the same, be forwarded.

Mr. Remscn moved seconded by Mr. Laight, in the words following:

Whereas the inhabitants of this City have reposed a trust of great importance in this Committee, which we are bound in honour to discharge with fidelity; and as the purposes of our appointment may in a great measure be defeated unless the members are in a situation to be assembled on sudden emergencies; I therefore move that it be

Resolved, That no member do absent himself out of Town longer than forty-eight hours at a time, without leave first obtained from the Committee, or from the Chairman; and that every member be served with a copy of this Resolve.

The following Address was presented by Captains Lasher, Ritzma, Stockholm, Banker, Fleming, and Lott:

We, the subscribers, who, by the unanimous consent and approbation of many of our fellow-citizens, have formed different