will not suffer a few individuals to remain any longer burdened with the charge of measures which were designed for, and really tend to the benefit of the whole community; that the Memorialists therefore pray the House will be pleased to make such provision, in the premises, as in their wisdom shall seem proper; and beg leave to present herewith an exact account of their expenses for the purposes aforesaid, omitting many others (although vastly superior to those exhibited) which they have been necessitated to incur; that the Memorialists also beg leave to inform the House, that it will be necessary to retain in pay one Drummer and one Fifer for each Company, and an Adjutant and a Fugleman for each Battalion, whose pay the Memorialists would wish the House to regulate.

Ordered to lie on the table.

A Petition from Captain Benjamin Loxly, of the City of Philadelphia, Storekeeper of Artillery, was presented to the House and read, setting forth, that by the direction of several members of the honourable House, and at the request of the Committee of the City and Liberties of Philadelphia, the Petitioner hath provided divers carriages for the ordnance, and stores of various kinds, whereby a balance of three hundred and fifty-three Pounds seven Shillings is now due to him, which he prays the House will order to be paid.

Ordered to lie on the table.

The House adjourned to ten o’clock, to-morrow morning.

Saturday, October 28, 1775.

The House met pursuant to adjournment; and, taking into their further consideration the Resolve of Congress for raising a Battalion in this Province, find it necessary that money should be advanced to the several Captains, for that purpose.

Resolved, therefore, That the Congress be requested to order a sufficient sum of money to be put into the hands of the Committee of Safety of this Province, to be immediately applied in raising the said Battalion.

The House adjourned to Monday next, at four o’clock, P.M.

Monday, October 30, 1775.

The House met pursuant to adjournment.

A motion was made and seconded, that the Freeholders and other Inhabitants qualified to elect Members of Assembly be admitted to hear the debates of the Committee of the Whole House to-morrow; and after some time spent in the consideration thereof, the question being called for, and put by the Speaker, it passed in the negative:

The House adjourned to ten o’clock, to-morrow morning.

Tuesday, October 31, 1775.

The House met pursuant to adjournment.

Mr. Pennock and Mr. Allen, this day appearing in the House, were qualified as usual, and took their seats accordingly.

A Petition and Remonstrance from the Committee of the City of Philadelphia was presented to the House, and follows in these words, viz:

“To the Honourable the Representatives of the Freemen of the Province of PENNSYLVANIA, in General Assembly met:

“The Petition and Remonstrance of the Committee of the City and Liberties of PHILADELPHIA, most humbly sheweth:

“That your Petitioners have seen the copy of an address to your honourable House, intituled ‘An Address of the people called Quakers,’ which, in the opinion of your Petitioners, bears an aspect unfriendly to the liberties of America, and maintains principles destructive of all society and government, and highly reflecting upon the glorious Revolution which placed the present royal family upon the British throne. Though we are firmly persuaded that a majority of that society have too much sincerity, candour, and good sense, to be influenced by such principles, yet our duty to ourselves, to our Country, and to our posterity, at this alarming crisis, when every thing dear and valuable is at stake, constrains us to use our utmost endeavours to prevent the fatal consequences that might attend your compliance with the above application. These gentlemen want to withdraw their persons and their fortunes from the service of their Country, at a time when their Country stands most in need of them.

“If the patrons and friends of liberty succeed in the present glorious struggle, they and their posterity will enjoy all the advantages derived from it, equally with those who procured them, without contributing a single penny, and with safety to their persons. If the Friends of liberty fail, they will risk no forfeitures, but be entitled, by their behaviour, to protection and countenance from the British Ministry, and will probably be promoted to office. This they seem to desire and expect.

“Though such conduct manifestly tends to defeat the virtuous and wise measures planned by the Congress of the thirteen United Colonies, and appears, at the first blush, to be selfish, ungenerous, and unjust, yet we beg leave to animadvert upon the arguments they have used to induce the honourable House to favour and support it.

“The addressers say, They are of a religious society who, for above an hundred years past, have declared to the world that they could not, for conscience sake, bear arms, nor be concerned in warlike preparations, either by personal service, or by paying any fines, penalties, or assessments, imposed in consideration of their exemption from such services. ‘That these principles are founded’ on the example and express injunction of Christ, our Lord and Lawgiver.’ That ‘although they were assured that our honourable proprietor, William Penn, was united with them in religious profession and principles,’ yet their ancestors obtained from him a charter, by which the enjoyment of these principles is secured inviolate forever; and that they hold the doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance.

“Your Petitioners will not undertake to say how long this society have held such principles, but they do positively say, that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament must be wrested and tortured with rnore than Jesuitical art, to furnish a single argument to support them. They also deny that the clause in the Proprietary Charter, which they cite, is by them truly construed; and humbly conceive this will be evident, not only by a due attention to the words themselves, and a consideration of the Royal Charter granted to the said William Perm, but also from the Act of Assembly intituled ‘The Law concerning Liberty of Conscience.’

“If the people called Quakers held these principles ‘upwards of an hundred years ago,’ and the first proprietor of this Province, the Honourable William Penn, Esq., was united with them in religious profession and principles, which they expressly allege, it is very unaccountable to your Petitioners that the said William Penn should receive a Charter from King Charles II, in the year 1681, in the sixteenth section of which we find ‘a power given to him, his heirs and assigns, by themselves or their Captains or other their officers, to levy, muster, and train all sorts of men, of what condition soever, or wheresoever born, in the Province for the time being, and to make war, and to pursue enemies and robbers, as well by sea as by land, even without the limits of this Province, and, by God’s assistance, to vanquish and take them, and, being taken, to put them to death by the laws of war, or to save them, at their pleasure; and to do all and every other thing which unto the charge and office of a Captain-General of an army belongeth, or hath accustomed to belong, as fully and freely as any Captain-General of an army hath ever had the same.’

“If, also, none but Quakers came over at first to this Province, with the said proprietor, and the Colony was intended for them, as the addressers seem to intimate, your Petitioners cannot conceive that any other persons could be made Captains or officers, or could be Levied, mustered,

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