The Petition and Memorial of BERNARD ROMANS most humbly sheweth:

That your petitioner and memorialist having, since the 28th day of August last, been employed on the business of erecting and building fortifications in this Province; and that, on the 2d day of October last, he was, by the honourable Committee of Safety, examined as to the situation and nature of the ground pitched upon for a fort in the Highlands, of all which your petitioner and memorialist gave ample information and a plan; that the honourable Committee of Safety then directed your petitioner and memorialist to produce a draught of such works as your petitioner and memorialist thought most adequate and proper to be there erected, for the defence and obstruction of the navigation of the North River, as also an estimate of expense that might accrue in erecting the same, which plans were, to his great satisfaction, approved of; that the honourable Committee of Safety then inquired on what terms your humble petitioner and memorialist would engage to build and erect said works; that, in answer to such inquiry, he, your humble petitioner and memorialist, proposed to undertake the matter for a sum nearly equal to the sum mentioned in the aforesaid estimate, which was, for reasons unknown to him, rejected; but, in lieu thereof, was, by the said honourable Committee, appointed Engineer for the Province of New-York, with the rank and pay of a Colonel, which appointment your petitioner and memorialist thought the height of favour bestowed on him, and therefore accepted it, without any considerations beyond those of gratitude, and that it was a great honour that such a trust should be reposed in him; and your humble petitioner and memorialist only took the freedom to request knowing whether it was meant as an establishment or not, to which your humble petitioner received an answer in the affirmative; that your humble petitioner and memorialist expected a commission and instructions for a line of his conduct would have been granted to and made out for him, and by the first opportunity sent up to him, in full confidence whereof your humble petitioner and memorialist immediately repaired to the post intended, where he has exerted himself to the utmost of his power, under the limited circumstances he has been obliged to labour under; that your humble petitioner has not received any such written appointment nor instructions, which makes him think that he labours under uncertain circumstances. Your humble petitioner and memorialist, thinking himself, as projector, entitled to be director of the above works, has found himself grossly mistaken, and his orders continually counterordered and his plans contradicted, especially in an erroneous distribution of labourers and artificers, which he made complaint of to the honourable Committee the first time he appeared before that Board, for the truth whereof he appeals to the memory of the members present; and this distribution has since been still altered greatly for the worse, and by this, especially, expenses have accrued which he never intended should in any ways originate; as also in the building of a sudden addition of barracks, which, however, was, by your humble petitioner and memorialist, judged to be in obedience to the orders of said honourable Committee, and therefore gave directions for the same, which have been by every method contravened, and an erroneous plan substituted. Your humble petitioner and memorialist has often expostulated with the Commissioners on this head, remonstrating that hereafter it would be asked who was Engineer, but never who were Commissioners; and that he has at length delivered to them the annexed instrument of writing, to which they have given him an answer, and he again made a reply. Your humble petitioner and memorialist, therefore, prays that you would give him his commission, as promised, and take him out of this dreadful dilemma, where, at first setting out, his character cannot fail to suffer, and appoint him in the field, or elsewhere, where his abilities may stand a fair trial. Your humble petitioner and memorialist is not one of those men who consider themselves injured, if the first appointment in the State is not conferred on them. No. But if it be thought requisite to continue him here, he begs that it may please you to alter his appointment, so that the Commissioners must consult him in every thing, that he may at least have some shadow of the dignity of the office he bears, for he knows that in all states whatever an Engineer, whose plan is once approved of, knows no superior, but in the execution thereof his word is law. Your humble petitioner and memorialist does not mean to have any thing to do in money matters, but he begs leave to observe, that had the Engineer been told “such a sum is to be expended; you must consider this, and regulate your plan accordingly; and the Commissioners are directed to go by no means beyond those limits;” in that case, the Engineer must have been lost to all sense of honour, if he had not fixed his pride in making a good work, and endeavoured to contract the expense below the limits of his estimate; but, as your humble petitioner and memorialist is now placed, the treatment he receives must grate a man of but a grain of spirit, as it makes him contemptible in the eyes of the workmen, and continually places him in the situation of a man conscious of his own abilities under the absolute command of a schoolboy. Your humble petitioner and memorialist begs leave to observe to the honourable House, that his office is a very exercising one, keeping body and mind constantly employed together, and therefore humbly prays that an assistant may be granted to him; and as persons in some measure acquainted with the art are certainly most proper for this purpose, he begs leave to request that he may retain with him in the service a man of whose talents and fidelity he has had an experience for years together, and who is now with him—submitting this, however, to the discretion of the honourable House: your humble petitioner likewise prays some allowance of provisions for the maintenance of a servant. Your humble petitioner and memorialist hopes that this prayer and memorial may not any ways be construed as originating in ill will, or other sinister intent against the Commissioners. By no means; his acquaintance with three of them, at least, forbids it; he judges them to be honest, well-meaning men, who, in their Country’s cause, have self not so much at heart, but would sacrifice life and property for liberty; yet their anxious care for the pecuniary affairs of their Country leads them into such methods of saving as a little experience will soon convince them and all the concerned are very expensive; and this only has given ground to the premises. By granting the above prayer to your humble petitioner and memorialist, he will ever think himself in duty bound, &c.

BERNARD ROMANS.

Highlands, November 15, 1775.

COLONEL ROMANS TO THE COMMISSIONERS FOR FORTIFICATIONS.

Martelaer’s Rock, November 16, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: As I am a great hater of epistolary altercation, I was not willing to answer your long starter of difficulties, which seems to me a declared commencement of a paper war, instead of an answer to my reasonable remonstrances of the 2d inst.; but as I am determined that you should not think yourselves unanswerable, I resolved, this morning, to honour your long answer with as short a reply as the nature of things will allow; at the same time assuring you that this is the last paper I shall blacken on this head, and that I will take care that my pen shall proclaim the voice of truth.

Your introduction seems intended to be of the humourous kind. You play on my words, and call a conspicuous light what I called a rank. I will do no more than think as I did then; and as in a private station I have more than once exerted myself for America, you may rely on it that I will do no less now I am honoured with the post and rank the Congress has conferred on me, the dignity of which commission I shall try to preserve with military vigilance and spirit.

To your first, wherein you say “it was my duty to let the Commisioners know the proportion of labourers wanted to the artificers,” I knew my duty, I did it; and so I did to the Committee of Safety; which last, I dare say, remember my complaint about it. And if the Commissioners’ memory fail them, some one of them may remember, when one evening we were on that topick, I ventured to say,