Ordered to lie on the table for the perusal of the Members.

Resolved, That Messrs. Moulder, Lollar, Wallace, Hockley, Lowrey, Eachard, B. Dupue, McPherson, Clarke, Davidson, Cook, and Parry, be a Committee to consider of the proper time, place and manner of holding and regulating the ensuing election, and to fix a day for the meeting of the Representatives of the people so chosen.

A Memorial from the Patriotick Society of the City of Philadelphia was delivered at the table by a Committee from said Society, and read by their Clerk on special request.*

Ordered to lie on the table for the perusal of the Members.

The Conference adjourned to three o’clock P. M.

Friday, June 21, 1776, P. M.

The Conference met.

The Committee appointed to ascertain the number and proportion of Members to represent the Province in each particular City and County in Convention, made their Report, in the words following, viz:

“The Committee appointed for, &c., report, That your Committee, having conferred together and endeavoured to obtain the best intelligence that can be had, find that full information respecting the number of taxables in each County cannot now be had, and therefore cannot be adopted as a rule in fixing the number of Representatives for the City and Counties respectively. Your Committee, however, are satisfied that the number of taxables in the Counties respectively does not differ so much as to make it of any probable disadvantage to allow an equal representation from each County, especially as the Convention will probably vote by City and Counties (as in the preceding Conventions) upon the questions which shall come before them.

“We therefore recommend that it be resolved that eight Representatives be sent by the City of Philadelphia, and eight by each County in the Province, to the Convention.”

On motion, That the inhabitants of the City be divided from the County of Philadelphia, and that they be not admitted to vote or be voted for in the election of the County Member for the Convention,

It was moved that the previous question be put, viz: Whether this question shall be now put? And it was put accordingly, and carried in the negative.

Resolved, That this Conference approve of the Report of the Committee.

The Conference then adjourned to eight o’clock to-morrow, A. M.

Saturday, June 22, 1776, A. M.

The Conference met.

On motion, Resolved, unanimously, That the determinations of this Conference on the Representation of the City and of the County of Philadelphia, shall not be drawn into precedent in future.

An Address from the Committee of Privates of the Association of the City and Liberties of Philadelphia, was delivered in and read, praying this Conference to take into their consideration divers matters relating to the present state of this Province.

Ordered to lie on the table for the perusal of the Members.

On motion, Ordered, That the Petitions and Addresses from the Commanders of the Row-Galleys, the Patriotick Society, and the Committee of Privates of the Association of the City and Liberties of Philadelphia, be read a second time: and they were read accordingly.

A paper, being a copy of a Minute from the proceedings

any evidence to prove the truth of the matters contained in the appeal; but an inquiry was set on foot tending to exculpate the Commit tee of Safety from the guilt with which they might have been chargeable if the matters contained in our appeal were once proven. The characters, honour and reputation of your petitioners being wounded by said inquiry, they presented the enclosed memorial to the House of Assembly, praying to be heard in their own defence, and to have an opportunity of proving what they had alleged in their appeal; but although the House, by a motion which appears on their Journals, did agree to grant us a hearing, and appointed a Committee for the purpose, yet they broke up without complying with our request, leaving upon their votes a judgment in favour of the Committee of Safety, and condemning your petitioners unheard, signed by several members of the House, which has since been inserted in the publick papers. We are therefore obliged, in justice to our own characters, and the publick, in whose service we are, to apply to this House, the only Provincial body now existing under the authority of the people, to grant us that hearing which the honourable House of Assembly neglected to afford us. We wish to stand or fall by the judgment of our country, and are happy in thinking that we have everything to hope from the virtue and patriotism of this House which the justice of our cause may require. All we ask is a fair hearing; and if we are not able to support what we have declared to the publick, we shall cheerfully submit to any censure which this House may choose to inflict on us; and, on the contrary, should we make good our charge, and prove to the: satisfaction of this House that we have been unworthily treated, we have not the least doubt but this House will see us redressed.

Your petitioners do therefore pray this House to set apart a day for bearing their evidences in support of the matters contained in their ap peal, and to inquire into the state of the galleys and other vessels for the defence of this Province, during the actions of the 8th and 9th of May last. Your petitioners do further pray the support of this House against the proceedings of the Committee of Safety in the appointment of a Commodore, which seems evidently designed to lay your petitioners under the necessity of resigning, or being broke for disobedience, at least until this House has inquired into the matter, and discovered where the fault lies; as we wish, agreeable to the sentiments expressed in the en closed remonstrance to the Committee of Safety, to serve our country at the hazard of our lives, notwithstanding the many endeavours to disgust us with the service, and are determined at the same time to obey no orders of the present Commodore, whom the Committee of Safety has appointed in direct opposition to our remonstrance. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, shall ever pray, &c.

Signed for and by order of the whole.

* To the honourable the Conference of the several Committees of the Province of PENNSYLVANIA, now convened and sitting in PHILADEL-PHIA: The Memorial of the Patriotick Society of the City of P HILADELPHIA, humbly showeth:

That, in times like the present, when all authority is founded on con sent and convenience, and no permanent order is yet established, we conceive that necessity sufficiently justifies our present application to this House, as the only mode of regular proceeding which the present state of affairs will admit of, there being now no other Provincial representation in existence here; and because we likewise conceive that the late House of Assembly, by breaking up and dispersing in the very crisis of danger and difficulty, and that without a sufficient number present to authorize such an act, has thereby deserted the publick cause, dissolved themselves, and left the people, so far as respects that House, unrepresented. These are the grounds on which the reasonableness and necessity of our Sip plying to this House are founded.

The case which we have to lay before you needs neither apology nor solicitation. It is the case of all. This House, their memorialists, and their constituents in every part of the Province, are alike interested therein. We have, for a considerable time, beheld a difference subsisting between the Committee of Safety and the Captains of the Row-Gal leys, and it appears to us that the publick welfare is likely to be endangered thereby. The particular cause or progress of that difference we mean not to enter into; but, in general terms, we can say, that, on the part of the Captains, the publick seem fully satisfied, and have a clear confidence both in their attachment to the cause and their abilities for the service. On the part of the Committee we cannot make the same declaration; for though we have the highest esteem for the wisdom and integrity of several of its members, yet they are blended with others whose connections, interests and prejudices are opposite to the common cause. And it is to this unnatural and impolitick mixture of persons of contrary sentiments that we attribute the present distraction subsisting between the Committee and the Captains. This Province hath now resolved upon a change of Government, yet many of the members of the Committee are dissentients therefrom, and have entered into a remonstrance against it. They are in opposition to the very cause in which the Captains, as soldiers, are fighting; and we wonder not that they are endeavouring to discomfit and dishearten these men. More than that, the Associators throughout the Province are to this hour destitute of the quantities of ammunition necessary to enable them to exert themselves upon emergency for the common defence. We see the danger that is coming upon us from this narrowness of spirit, or, what is worse, a disaffection in principle. We have been patient till patience is become criminal- As members of the community at large, or as individuals, whose lives and properties depend upon a most vigorous defence, we can no longer sit still and suffer these things. The times will not now admit of ceremony. Our duty as citizens and as fathers compel us to these declarations. The charge intrusted to the Committee of Safety is too great to be left to the mere will and pleasure of a few individuals, especially when we consider that they were appointed under a Government which is both dissolved and suppressed.

The House of Assembly, while it existed, were in some measure ac countable to their constituents by a weekly publication of their proceed ings, and the members thereof were removable at elections; but the Committee of Safety, from the very nature of its business, have the privilege of secrecy, and the time of their duration is unlimited. These circumstances increase the importance of their trust, and render it necessary that they should be men removed as far from every temptation to disaffection as possible—men of the clearest and most unsuspicious political characters; yet many of them, we have strong reason to believe, are not so.

We have here pointed out a radical evil, but we know not how to apply a radical cure. We therefore pray this honourable House to take the important premises into their most serious consideration; and, as the most pressing necessity requires, to apply such timely and effectual remedy as in their wisdom they shall see meet; and their memorialists, as in duty bound, shall, &c.

Signed by order of the meeting.

FRANCIS WADE, Chairman.

June 21, 1776.