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Doctor Jonathan Potts having sent to this City twenty Provincial Muskets, accompanied with his account of sundry repairs made by the different people who he collected them from, and which he applies for the payment of,

Resolved, That an order be drawn on the Treasurer of this Board for the same.

Which order was accordingly drawn, in favour of said Potts, on Michael Hillegas, Esq., Treasurer, for fifty-two pounds, five shillings and three pence.

Resolved, That the Committee appointed to view Liberty-Island, repair, as soon as the season will admit, to that place, with Doctor Rittenhouse, Robert Smith, and John McNeal, and determine on, and lay out, such work as they shall think sufficient to defend it; and that those

given to them, report three Petitions to the King, viz: One of June 6, 1766; one of September 22, 1768; and one of March 5, 1771; one Petition to the House of Lords, dated September 22, 1768; also, two Petitions to the House of Commons, dated January 14, 1766, and September 22, 1768; and that they are informed by the Clerk of Assembly My of this Province, that no Answer has been given to either of the above-mentioned Petitions.

Resolved, That Mr. Clymer and Colonel Roberdeau wait upon the Congress with the above-mentioned copies of Petitions.

Extract from the Minutes:

WILLIAM GOVETT, Secretary.

MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN: We, your Majesty's dutiful, loyal, and faithful subjects, the Representatives of the Freemen of the Province of Pennsylvania, in General Assembly met, under a deep sense of your Majesty's great condescension and justice, beg leave to render to your Majesty our unfeigned thanks for your most gracious assent to the act repealing the law granting certain Stamp duties in America. The paternal concern for the welfare and prosperity of all your Majesty's subjects, however remote, which your Majesty has demonstrated on this very important occasion, cannot fail of fixing in the hearts of the good people of this Province the most inviolable affection and loyalty to your Royal person and Government, and exciting their sincerest prayers for the long continuance of your Majesty on the Throne of those extensive dominions, whose happiness and glory have been the invariable objects of your care and attention.

The assurance which your Majesty has been pleased to give us, of "your approbation of the dutiful behaviour of the Province of Pennsylvania, amidst the too prevailing distractions which have agitated the other Colonies," fills our breasts with sentiments of the most respectful gratitude, and demands our warmest thanks. This instance of your Majesty's condescension and goodness must engage the people we represent to continue to recommend themselves still further, by their dutiful behaviour, to your Royal favour and protection.

We humbly entreat your Majesty will further permit us to embrace this opportunity of expressing the high sense we entertain of the justice and tenderness of your Parliament, who, ready to hear and consider the aggrievances of your Majesty's subjects, have, upon a just representation of the unhappy circumstances of your Colonies, manifested their good dispositions and lenity to us in our late distressed situation.

Fully sensible how much the happiness of your people depends on a perfect harmony and connection between Great Britain and her Colonies, we assure your Majesty, that no care or endeavours shall be wanting, on our part, to promote and establish that union of affections and interests so essential to the welfare of both, and to preserve that loyaltyally and affection to your Majesty's person and Government, which we esteem to be one of their first and most important duties.

Signed, by order of the House,

JOSEPH FOX, Speaker.

That we, your Majesty's faithful subjects, the Representatives of the Freemen of Pennsylvania, in General Assembly met, humbly ask permission to offer to your Royal wisdom our dutiful supplications.

In our last Petition to your Majesty, we prayed relief of a grievance which the good people of this Province suffered, by duties being imposed upon them by act of Parliament, for the sole purpose of raising a revenue; and, though that act has been repealed, as to part of these taxes, yet the duties on Tea, and other enumerated goods not made in Great Britain, but from thence exported to these Colonies, are still retained, with intent, as we have great reason to fear, of establishing thereby a precedent for repeating such taxations upon us hereafter. Thus we lose the possession of our property, and the title to the remainder becomes extremely precarious; for, as we cannot, from our situation be, in any manner, represented in Parliament, your Royal wisdom will perceive, that we can call nothing our own which others assume a right to take from us without our consent.

The aggrievance still continuing, notwithstanding the late repeal, our confidence in your Majesty's transcendent goodness induces us to hope, that, through your gracious interposition, we may yet obtain redress.

If we attempted to promote innovations, we might deserve censure. We only endeavour to avoid them. We presume not to request the grant of any new right in our favour, nor any diminution of the Royal prerogative, but only to be restored to that which we constantly, till of late, enjoyed: the invaluable, exclusive privilege of demonstrating our affection for our Sovereign, and our duly to his Government, as heretofore, by voluntary gifts of our property to him. This privilege, repeatedly recognised by your Majesty, and former Kings and Parliaments, our ancestors transmitted inviolate to us; we possessed it without abuse, and have lost it without offence; for, we beg leave to assure your Majesty, that none of your subjects are, or can be, more affectionately and firmly attached to your Majesty's person, family, and Government, than your faithful people, the inhabitants of Pennsylvania.

Most gracious Sovereign: Fully confiding that your Majesty will always make the preservation of the constitutional rights of your subjects a principal object of your attention, and that your Royal disposition delights in the freedom and happiness of your people, we most humbly and earnestly implore your Majesty, by your Royal authority, influence, and recommendation, to procure us relief from the grievance now most respectfully represented.

Signed, by order of the House,

JOSEPH GALLOWAY, Speaker.

That your petitioners apprehend, whenever measures are pursued inconsistent with the principles of that freedom on which the British Constitution is founded, it cannot be thought improper to make application for redress to your Lordships, the hereditary guardians of British liberty, and, therefore, they beg leave to represent to your Lordships the following aggrievance, which greatly affects His Majesty's most faithful American subjects, and to implore your concurrence with the other branches of the British legislature, in relieving them from their present distress.

That the people of this Province, gratefully sensible of your Lordships' wisdom and justice, in the repeal of the late act of Parliament imposing Stamp duties in America, were led to hope, that, in all future time, they should enjoy the right of granting aids to the Crown by representatives Constitutionally chosen by themselves. That, greatly disappointed in this expectation, they find another act, passed in the seventh year of his present Majesty's reign, imposing new duties on the people of America, for the purpose of raising a revenue, equally subversive of this right, and tending to render their property most precarious and insecure.

Your petitioners humbly conceive, that it is essential to the liberties of Englishmen that no laws can be made to take away their property without their consent. Upon this equitable principle, the security of the subject's estate, whether in the mother country or the Colonies, is most justly founded; nor can British freedom, or publick happiness, without it, any where exist. Hence, the people of this Province, by their Representatives in Assembly, have ever exorcised the power of disposing of their own property; and, whenever requisitions have, been made by His Majesty, or his Royal predecessors, for the defence of America, they have most cheerfully, and liberally, granted their full proportion of aids for that Important purpose. This power being founded on the Constitution of the Government of the Province, and having often received the sanction of the Crown, and full approbation of the British Parliament, your petitioners hope your Lordships will not think any reasons sufficient to deprive His Majesty's faithful subjects, in this Colony, of a privilege so essential to their security and happiness. They, therefore, humbly pray your Lordships to take the premises into your serious consideration, and that you will also be pleased to pursue such measures as you shall, in your wisdom, think most proper, to relieve them and the people they represent from the aggrievance complained of.

Signed, by order of the House,

JOSEPH GALLOWAY, Speaker

PHILADELPHIA, September 22, 1768.

That, taking into their most serious consideration the statute passed in the fourth year of his present Majesty's reign, prohibiting the further emissions of Bills of Credit from being lawful tender in the Colonies; and attentively weighing the mischiefs which must attend the continuance of the said statute; the obstructions to the growth and increase of this young, and lately flourishing Colony; and the diminution of its commercial intercourse with Great Britain which it must necessarily occasion, we find ourselves under the unhappy necessity of making our application to your honourable House for a repeal of the said law.

That it is known, from the most evident experience, that the growth and increase of this Province has been, in a great measure, occasioned by the moderate sums of paper money which from time to time have been emitted, by and under the direction of its legislative authority. That before these emissions were made, the progress of the Colony, in its wealth and settlement, laboured under the greatest difficulty, and proceeded in its course by degrees almost imperceptible. The inhabitants being under a necessity, from the want of a medium of commerce, to negotiate a great part of their business and traffick in the inconvenient mode of barter and commutation; but, that, upon striking the first Bills of Credit, this disadvantageous method of commerce was soon laid aside; contracts multiplied; personal and real estates rose to their proper value; our numbers increased; trade became extended; and the settlement of the country proceeded with more rapidity than the most sanguine expectations could suggest; and that the same happy and fortunate effects have ever flowed from the further emissions of piper Bills of Credit, in proportion to the sums emitted, without the least inconveniency or prejudice to the merchants of Great Britain or the people of this Province.

That we apprehend no arguments can be necessary, to prove that commerce cannot be carried to any beneficial extent, without a proper medium of circulating cash, destitute of which, the trade or this Colony must, in a short time, be confined to the restricted limits of