resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole House to consider of the said Proceedings.

Ordered, That leave be given to bring in a Bill for appointing Commissioners to settle the accounts of the Militia lately drawn out into actual service, and for making provision to pay the same; and that Mr. Mercer and Mr. Mason do prepare and bring in the same,

Saturday, June 3, 15 Goo. III. 1775.

Resolved, That an Address be presented to his Excellency the Governour, requesting that his Lordship will be pleased to communicate to this House the best information he has had respecting the number of the Militia lately drawn out into actual service in defence of this Colony, by his Excellency’s command, and the probable expense attending the same; and that his Lordship will inform this House what Militia his Excellency has ordered on duty since the conclusion of the late Indian expedition, and for what purposes.

Ordered, That the said Address be presented to his Excellency by Mr. Mercer and Mr. Thomas Walker.

Monday, Juno 5, 15 Geo. III, 1775.

A Message from the Governour by Mr. Blair:

MR. SPEAKER: I am commanded by the Governour to lay before this House his Excellency’s written Message in answer to their Address relative to the Militia lately drawn out into actual, service, together with the other Papers which the Message refers to. And he presented the same at the bar; and the Message was read, and is as followeth, viz:

Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Burgesses:

In answer to a Resolution of your House, brought to me by two of your members, that an Address be presented to me requesting me to communicate to you the best information I have had respecting the number of the Militia lately drawn out into actual service in defence of this Colony by my command, and the probable expense attending the same; and that I inform yon what Militia I have ordered on duty since the conclusion of the late Indian expedition, and for what purposes: I can only from recollection (not having been furnished with exact returns) acquaint yon that the body of militia which Colonel Andrew Leicis conducted, and that with which I marched in person, amounted together to about three thousand men, officers included; but I refer you to the Lieutenants of the Counties from whence the Militia were draughted for that service, to the Commanding Officers, of the different Corps, and to the Captains under them, from the returns and lists of whose respective companies you will obtain the information in regard of number and from that of expense, which you require, in the best and most particular manner.

With respect to what Militia have been ordered on duty since the conclusion of the Indian expedition: it was thought requisite to continue a body of one hundred men at a temporary fort near the mouth of the Great Kenhawa, as well for taking care of the men who had been wounded in the action between Colonel Andrew Lewis’s division and the Indians, as for securing that part of the back country from the attempts of straggling parlies of Indians, who might not be apprised of the peace concluded, or others of the tribes which had not joined in it. It was likewise necessary to keep up a small body of men at Fort Dunmore, in like manner for the security of the country on that side, and also for guarding twelve Indian prisoners belonging to the Mingo tribe, which had not surrendered or acceded to the peace concluded only with the Shawqnese; and seventy-five men were employed at this place for these purposes. Twenty-five men were likewise left at Fort Fincastle, as a post of communication between the two others; and all together for the further purpose of forming a chain on the back of the settlers, to observe the Indians until we should have good reason to believe nothing more was apprehended from them; which, as soon as I received favourable accounts of, I ordered the several posts to be. evacuated, and the men to be discharged.

I have ordered my letters to be laid before you for your further information, which contain all the orders I gave for the embodying and drawing out the Militia upon the occasion of the Indian disturbances; and likewise the substance of the peace agreed to between me and the Indians, which has not been formally ratified, that having been deferred to a meeting intended to be held at Fort Dunmore this spring, where all the Ohio Indians, for the greater solemnity, were to be present, but which I have not been able to find time to proceed to.

If there be any thing further which the House shall require to be informed of, I shall be ready to give them all the satisfaction in my power.

DUNMORE.

Ordered, That the said Message, and the Papers therein referred to, do lie upon the table, to be perused by the Members of the House.

Mr. Treasurer reported from the Committee appointed to draw up an Address to be presented to the Governour, that the Committee had drawn up an Address accordingly, which they had directed him to report to the House; and he read the same in his place, and afterwards delivered it in at the Clerk’s table, where the same was read, and is as followeth, viz:

MY LORD : We, His Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Burgesses of Virginia, now met in General Assembly, take this opportunity, which your Excellency hath given us, to express our great concern at the alarming situation of our Country and those evils brought upon us by a departure of His Majesty’s Ministers from that wise system of administration under the influence of which the Colonies of North America had so long and happily flourished.

However strangely this Country may have been misrepresented, we do solemnly avow the firmest and most unshaken attachment to our most gracious Sovereign and his Government, as founded on the laws and, principles of our excellent Constitution, and we shall think ourselves happy in giving His Majesty every future testimony of our loyalty and affection.

We assure your Lordship that we will pursue the most speedy measures for defraying the expenses of the late military expedition against the Indians. That proper provision has not yet been made for those gallant officers and soldiers who so nobly exposed their lives in defence of this Country, cannot be justly imputed to any delay or neglect on our part, this being the first opportunity your Lordship hath been pleased to afford us of paying a proper attention to their signal services and giving them their due reward.

The occlusion of our Courts of justice can only be ascribed to a combination of untoward and distressing incidents, which we have long and deeply lamented. These Courts, my Lord, were established by different Acts of our General Assembly. In order to enable the officers of justice to receive such fees as were adequate to their services, our ancestors judged it necessary to settle and limit them by an express act of their Legislature. This law had existed and been continued with various amendments, such as the fluctuation of affairs made necessary, through a long tract of time. The late House of Burgesses, in May, 1774, finding that the Fee-Bill had expired just before they were convened, and that other most valuable acts were near expiring, proceeded to the continuance and revival of them; but their endeavours to discharge these and other important duties to their Country were arrested and cut short by a sudden and unexpected dissolution of the Assembly. Since this, my Lord, our situation has under gone a total change. For just and well known reasons, this Country, as well as our sister Colonies, have been driven to the necessity of suspending their commerce with Great Britain, Ireland, and the West-India Islands. There still, however, remained within the line of former parliamentary regulations, several other valuable branches of export to different parts of the world, which we well hoped would have enabled the inhabitants, of this Country to discharge their debts more expeditiously than they could have done by continuing their usual exports and exceeding imports to and from Great Britain, so that we are convinced their creditors could have had no reasonable cause of complaint. But we have now, my Lord, received information, too well grounded it is to be feared, that these resources are to be entirely shut up by an act of the British Parliament, cutting off all our trade with all other parts of the whole universe except the Islands of Great Britain, Ireland, and the West-Indies.

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