YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARV

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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Mifcellaneous Reprefentation s

RELATIVE TO

OUR CONCERNS
IN AMERICA
25o copies printed Submitted [in 1761] to the EARL OF BUTE,
by HENRY M'CULLOH. Now firft
printed from the Original MS., with
Biographical and Hiftorical Introduction
by Wm. A. Shaw, Editor of the < Calendar
of Treafury Books and Papers '

GEORGE HARDING
Dealer in Economics, Hiftorical Works, &c.
64 Gt. Russell St., London, W.C.

\

YALE

/for A
ncj

Edinburgh : T. and A. Constadli;, Printer! to His Majesty

INTRODUCTION ,HE author of this tract was
responsible for the financial
proposal which provoked the
American War of Independ
ence. If the reference to the
Stamp Duties, which will be found on
p. 1 2 infra, stood alone, it might be possible
to treat the writer as an irresponsible
pamphleteer. But there are official
papers among the Treasury Records at
the Public Record Office and among the
Newcastle and Hardwicke papers at the
British Museum which establish Henry
M'Culloh's claim to consideration as
something much more than an irre
sponsible pamphleteer. The extracts
which are here printed from these records
prove conclusively that George Grenville
was not the author or parent of the
proposal to extend the Stamp Duties to
the American Colonies ; but that he
took it ready cut and dried from the
hands of an official, just as any modern
minister does at the hands of the per
manent

[vi]

manent officials of his department. It
is one of the ironies of history that the
permanent official, the man who works
in the dark, the one person who is in
very truth the wire-puller, should pass
away unnoticed, leaving his personal
record almost untraceable, whilst the re
sponsible minister, the mere puppet who
dances to his directions, should have the
fierce light of publicity beating ever upon
him, should bear through all time the
blame or praise for proposals for which
he was merely the mouthpiece. It is so
m this particular case. No one knows
the name of Henry M'Culloh, and his
personal record is most difficult to trace,
whilst GrenvilleJs name is held up to
execration in every text-book.
It is probable that at the outset of his
official career M'Culloh was connected
with the Custom House, or he may have
been in the Plantation Office. There
are references to him as early as 1733
in the Treasury Records, and he had
apparently acquired an exact knowledge
of the financial affairs of the American
Colonies. In 1738 he submitted to the
Treasury two memorials concerning the
Carolina quit rents, in. which he laid bare
the frauds which were practised in the
disposal

[vii]
disposal of lands and the collection of
the quit rents there, and petitioned to be
employed in the improvement of the said
revenue. (See Treasury Board Papers,
vol. ccxcviii., No. 38, and Colonial Office
Records: Plantations General, vol. xii.,
No. 30.) The application was successful,
for in the following year he was appointed
Inspector for improving quit rents in
North and South Carolina (Treasury
minute of appointment dated January 2,
1738-9, royal warrant of appointment
dated May 16, 1739). The instructions
which were given to him for guidance
in this employment are appended to the
royal warrant, and may be read in the
King's Warrant Book : Treasury, vol. xxxiii.
pp. 281-91. It is clear that his duties
brought him into sharp conflict with both
populace and officials in the Carolinas, for
the officials were as deep in the frauds
connected with the grants of lands as the
colonists themselves. A very interesting
account of his experiences is contained in
a series of papers which he forwarded
to the Treasury in November 1741
(Calendar of Treasury Books and Papers,
vol. iv. p. 503). In these papers he
styles himself Commissioner for super
vising, inspecting, and controlling His
Majesty's

[ viii ]
Majesty's revenues and grants of lands in
the Province of South Carolina. It is
also clear from the letters which will
be noticed below that the provincials
managed to starve him out. His salary
was payable out of quit rents ; that is, out
of such seizures as he should make. As
in the course of a few years he was in
arrear many hundreds of pounds with
that salary, it may be inferred that the
Colonists contrived to make his office of
none avail, prevented discoveries and
seizures, and so left him without a fund
out of which his salary could be- paid,
and thus reduced him to extremities. In
March 1744-5 he petitioned the Treasury
to allow him to return to England, and
that his salary might be paid out of the
Four-and-a-half per cent. duty. This
latter proposal the Treasury Lords de
clined to accede to (Calendar of Treasury
Books and Papers, vol. v. p. 674).
After the New Englanders had captured
Louisbourg in 1745 M'Culloh seems to
have been transferred thither, for he sub
sequently describes himself as Naval
Officer at Cape Breton. On the 29th
of October 1746 he writes to Andrew
Stone, of the Duke of Newcastle's Office,
that he is proposing to sail at once from
London

[ix]
London to take up his new duty. 'The
Foulston man-of-war will sail the latter
end of this week, in which I propose to
go passenger to Virginia and so proceed
to Cape Breton as soon as I can,' and as
his employment is new in that place, he
asks for letters of recommendation from
Stone, ' without which I may not be well
looked upon by the Governor : I rely
wholly upon your friendship for my
support ' (Newcastle Papers, Addit. MSS.
32,709, p. 119).
But at the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle
in 1748 Cape Breton was given back to
the French, and M'Culloh found himself
out of employment. At the time when
his _ letters in the Newcastle Papers
begin he had been out of employment
for upwards of four years, and he is be-
sieging the Duke with applications for
relief. The place he specially desired
was the reversion to the Secretaryship of
North Carolina, ' when there is a further
account of Mr. Rice's death, who was
given over by the physicians, when the last
ship came from thence the 27th January
last, with the gout in his bowels and
stomach ' (H. M'Culloh to the Duke of
Newcastle, 26th March 1753, Addit.
MSS- 32,73J»p. 410). b But

[x]

But in this application M'Culloh
reckoned without his host. Poor Mr.
Rice did not die immediately of the
gout in his bowels, and further, the
petitioner experienced somewhat ill-tem
pered treatment at the hands of the Earl
of Halifax, who was then President of the
Board of Trade. On the 6th of April
1 75 3 M'Culloh writes thus to theDuke: —
' I waited of Lord Halifax (in your Grace's
name) yesterday, and I informed his Lordship
of the death of the Secretary of North Carolina,
which he was pleased to tell me he knew before,
and asked me what of that, and was in a violent
passion with me, and told me he was surprised
that I kept running teasing your Grace so
after [his] formerly telling me his resolution
upon the first affair ; and further insisted that
I had never given your Grace in the state of
the former affair, and that I asked everything,
and that he supposed I wanted twenty places,
and that I was one of those sort of people
that could never be contented. I humbly
beg'd his Lordship would be pleased to con
sider the great hardships of my case by my
great loss of time, and I hop'd as he was
no way engaged in this before your Grace's
application for me, that he would be pleased to
give me this or the first as either of them he
thought proper wou'd content me, but his
Lordship was far from giving me any promise
or the least hopes.' (Ibid., p. 338.)
The

[xi]
The other place to which M'Culloh
here refers was the naval office of the
Lower District of James's River in Vir
ginia. On the 22nd of June of the same
year, 1753, he writes to the Duke as
follows : —
'Lord Halifax promised Mr. Conolly that
he would give me either the naval office of the
lower district of James's river in Virginia or
the Secretaryship of North Carolina, and that
until he gave me the one he would keep them
both open. The season being now far advanced
it will be dangerous soon to go on the American
coast, and unless something be done shortly it
will be impossible for me to get out this year.
And I have reason to fear his Lordship will
not come to any determination which of those
places he will give me until he hears from the
Governor of Virginia. The many years I have
been unemployed since the surrender of Cape
Breton, and now this great uncertaintity in point
of time, lays me under the greatest difficulties
to support myself together with a wife and
numerous family, which makes me now most
humbly implore your Grace ... to speak to
Mr. Pelham that he will be pleased to grant
me a small sum of money for a present relief
untill I succeed, which is the only means and
hopes I now have left to preserve my little
family and self from utter ruin. Last year
Mr. Stone was so good at the request of Mr.
Conolly to apply to Mr. Pelham on the same
subject

[xii]

subject in my behalf, in answer to which Mr.
Pelham told him it could not be done in His
Majesty's absence, but when he returned he
would do everything in his power to serve
Mr. Conolly.' (Addit. MSS. 32,732, p. 86,
and a further letter relating to the same subject
in Addit. MSS. 32,731, p. 177, of date Feb. 13,
17 S3-) In the Court and City Register Mr.
Nathan Rice appears as the Secretary of
North Carolina in the year 1756. If this
was the same Mr. Rice who was troubled
with the gout in his bowels, it would
appear that he lingered on for some three
years after the above applications of Mr.
M'Culloh. But in the year 1757 Henry
M'Culloh appears in the same Register
as Secretary and Clerk of the Crown for
North Carolina, so that his long period
of anxious waiting had evidently been
rewarded at last. In the succeeding
volumes of the Court and City Register
he occupies the same post in the years
1758 and 1760. The year 1759 is blank
— he was possibly in England on fur
lough. The year 1761 is also blank,
possibly also for the same reason. Then
in the year 1762, and so thenceforward,
Thomas Falkner appears as Secretary
of North Carolina. In March 1761
M'Culloh

[ Xiii ]

M'Culloh was living at Turnham Green,
and he was certainly in London during the
greater part of 1763. This is the last bio
graphical fact which I have been able to
ascertain about M'Culloh. But there are
a few references to him during this last
period of his life which transcend all the
others in historical importance. In Feb
ruary and March 1756 he petitions the
Duke of Newcastle for relief in connec
tion with the meeting of the bills drawn
on the Receiver of the quit rents in South
Carolina (Addit. MSS. 32,862, p. 394 ;
32,863, p. 316; 32,864,^.536; 32,866,
pp. 156, 357). And in the following
year he submits to the Duke a proposal
for the introduction of Exchequer Bills of
Union into the Colonies, with the object
of enabling the provincial (that is, colo
nial) soldier to pass from province to
province without having to use the local
provincial bills (Addit. MSS. 32,874, p.
308). This proposal was an eminently
practical one, and would have had an
effect much wider than M'Culloh in
tended, had it been carried out. His
purpose was simply to remove the one
great obstacle to the general recruiting
and service of the colonial soldier, but if
carried out it must certainly have had the
effect

[xiv]
effect gradually of driving out the various
paper currencies of the. Colonies, and re
placing them by English Exchequer Bills
and bank-notes. Important as this pro
posal however was, it passes into insignifi
cance by the side of the proposals which
he advanced in the years 176 1 to 1763.
The first form of these proposals is doubt
less contained in • the present tract, the
immediate object of which was twofold,
viz. firstly, to convince Bute of the value
of the Canadian possessions, and so raise a
voice against the idea of giving back to
France either Canada or Guadeloupe with
out some equivalent in the negotiations
which ultimately resulted in the Treaty of
Paris ; and secondly, to suggest some source
of taxation by which the Colonies could be
made to contribute a quota to the cost of
the late war. The proof of the deep
impression which M'Culloh's paper made
is contained in the Hardwicke Papers
at the British Museum. Under date ioth
October 1763 there is a long tabular state
ment running to twelve folio sheets, con
taining an exact scheme of the articles to
be included in a Stamp Act. It is en
titled ' A state of the several articles
proposed by Mr. M'Culloh to be stamped,
and the duties thereon ; likewise a state of
all

[xv]

all the different articles which are now
stamped in Great Britain, in order to fix
upon the articles which are to be inserted
in the law intended for imposing Stamp
duties in America and the West Indies.'
This paper is drawn up in three
columns, the first giving 'the present
English duties,' the second giving ' duties
proposed by Mr. M'Culloh,' and the third
giving ' duties intended by the Treasury.'
On the back of the last sheet is the
important indorsement, ' 10th October
1763, was presented to Mr. Greenvill, who
approved it' (Addit. MSS. 35,910, p. 137).
In another volume of the Hardwicke
Papers there is a further paper relating
to the same transaction, and dated only
two days later. Jt is entitled 'Minutes
and observations taken in conference with
Mr. M'Culloh upon considering of his
scheme for an American Stamp law. To
be considered with the said scheme by the
Board of Stamps,pursuant to the [Treasury]
Commissioners' order, dated 30th Sep
tember 1763, in order for the perusal of
the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury.'
This paper is indorsed ' Draft of confer
ence with Mr. M'Culloh, 12th October
1763. Copy for the Board [of Stamps] '
(Addit. MSS. 36,226, p. 357). It

[xvi ]

It must be clearly borne in mind that
what is here asserted as to Henry M'Cul
loh's responsibility for the proposal of an
American Stamp Act, relates only to the
actual introduction of that proposal into
the domain of practical politics. As to
how far the idea was in very truth an
invention of his at this time, or was an
adaptation by him of older proposals of
which he may have been cognisant in his
official career many years before, we can
not say. But in all such matters the
name which the Muse chronicles for fame
or infamy in the temple of human history
is not that of the inventor who first
originates an idea, but that of the prac
tical man who first brings that idea into
direct relation with the needs of this or
that particular conjunction of events in
human life. For this reason Henry
M'Culloh is justly entitled to the fame
or infamy of being the one man respon
sible for the proposition which led to the
revolt of the American Colonies.
WM. A. SHAW.

The original manuscript from which the present tract is
printed was purchased at Sotheby's. It formed Lot 407
in the sale of Feb. 17, 1905. The previous history of the
MS. IJiavc been quite unable to trace. It is now in the
possession of the publisher.

MISCELLANEOUS
REPRESENTATIONS

RELATIVE TO

Our Concerns in
America
SN Order to form a right
Judgment of the Import
ance of Canada, with
refped to it's Trade and
Commerce, it may be proper to
confider an Eftimate of the Profits
which heretofore accrued to France,
from the faid Commerce.
The Furr and Skin Trades was
farmed out to particular Perfons, who

&ffh

PI

Bi, |f(
who thereby had an exclufive Right |;,j|
to the faid Trade; and the Cou-
rieurs des Bois a&ed under Licenfes,
which they purchafed from them :
the Amount of which Trade,
according to the beft Informa
tion I have been able to get,
was one Year with another, about
£240,000. 3 Their Trade in Shipbuilding,
Corn, Tobacco, and Lumber, fent
to France and to their Iflands,
amounted to about £180,000
per Ann.
Their Fifhery at Cape Breton,
the Coafts of Gafpefie, and the
Coafts of Newfoundland, amounted
to upwards of £400,000 more
per Ann.
The Freight upon all the afore
faid Trade, upon a moderate Com-
putatn amounted to upwards of
£2 20,000 per Ann. And there ^|J
were annually employed in the l^A.
faid 't'M: '>

[3]
faid Fifhery and Trade, upwards
of g 000 Seamen.
In this View ofthe French Trade
from Canada and the Parts adja
cent, it will be found, that, after all
the immenfe Expence the French
Government put themfelves to, in
fupporting that Colony, the princi
pal Advantages arifing to them
therefrom was in the Fifhery, and
in having a large Nur fer y for Sea
men : But their Views extended
further, as their Defign was to
form a Line of Communication be
tween Canada and Miffifippi ; and
if pollible afterwards to open fome
Ports upon the Weftern Ocean.
But as they have mifcarried in thofe
Views ; and that we have now the
Government of Canada in our Pof
feffion, it may be proper to inquire
into the Situation of the French in
the Miffifippi or Louifiana Govern
ment, and to endeavour to demon- ftrate,

I' I ; >j

[4]
ftrate, that, if they even ceded to
us the whole Governm1 of Canada,
and afterwards exerted their whole
Force in the Louifiana Govern
ment, they would be ftill able to
annoy us, and to carry on a large
and extenfive Trade with the Indian
Nations, which border upon the 5
Great Lakes, as well as thofe which
lie between the Miffifippi and the
Apalatian Mountains.
Before the French made any
Settlement on the Miffifippi, the
Indian Trade as before obferved
was farmed out to private Perfons
who refided in the Canada Govern
ment ; and feveral of thofe Farms
were hereditary : which excluded
thofe in the Miffifippi Government
from having any Share in the Trade
in Skins and Furrs with the Oua-
bacs ; the Illinefe j the Kikapefe ;
the Puants; the Outagamefe ; the
Malamonefe

/

/

f

[5]
Malamonefe ; or any of the Indian
Nations to the North and North
Eaft ofthe Miffifippi. But it is to
be prefumed that if the French
ceded to us the whole Government
of Canada, they would renew their
Licences to fuch as live in the
Province of Louifiana, and ufe all
the Methods in their Power to
cultivate a Friendfhip with the faid
Indians. And confidering the
great Emnity that has always fub-
fifted between the Nations of
Indians in their Intereft, and in
ours, it is more than probable that
the French would be ftill able to
continue the faid Indians in their
/intereft ; and to make ufe of them
in annoying our Frontier Settle
ments, unlefs we fortify and navi
gate three of the 5 Great Lakes ;
which may be a good and effectual
Means, under proper Regulations in
the

X

[6]
the Indian Trade, to draw feveral
of the faid Indians into our Views
and Intereft.
In this Light as conceived it will
appear, that, if the French are left
in Pofleffion of Louifiana, our hav
ing Poffeffion of Canada will not
free our Frontier Settlements from
being annoyed by the Indians, un-
lefs we regulate our Commerce
with them, and fortify the Lakes :
and that if wee have Poffeffion of
the Lakes and the Territories be
longing thereto, and alfo the whole
Province of Acadia, the Remainder
of Canada exclufive of the Fifhery
is not an Object of any great
Moment to this Kingdom.
Guardeloupe is an Ifland of
great Importance, and capable of
Improvement \ and yet if it fhould
be ceded to us, the French Settlers
having a Right to all the Lands in
faid

.*"~\

[7]
faid Ifland, and being from their
religious as well as political Prin
ciples ftrongly prejudiced in favour
of France, great Part of the Advan
tages arifing from faid Ifland would
from thofe Caufes center in France ;
and many Kinds of French Com
modities might be introduced
among them by means of their
Connections with the neighbour2
French Iflands. And it might
not only have an ill Effect in this
Refpect, but the fd Ifland might
alfo be made a Storehoufe for the
Introduction of many French Goods
amongft the Englifh Settlements in
the Weft Indies, and on the Main
of America. Therefore, I appre
hend that if the 4 neutral Iflands of
St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Dominica,
and Tobago (in which we have a
Foundation of Right) were entirely
furrendered to us, it might have a
better Effect, than even the keeping of

[8]
of Guardeloupe upon the aforefaid
Terms. And if the Lands fettled
by the French in the faid Iflands
were difpofed of, in the Manner
the French Lands were in St.
Chriftophers, they wou'd produce
feveral hundred thoufand Pounds
to the Crown.
Goree and Senegall are not of
that Importance the Public con
fidered them at firft, yet, in many
Refpects, it might be for our Intereft
to continue them in our Poffeffion ;
but if it is thought neceffary upon
any future Treaty to furrender them
to the French, as humbly concd,
great Care fhould be taken to word
it, fo as to prevent the French
from claiming an exclufive Right
of trading along that Coaft. And
as the French have for many Years
claimed an exclufive Trade to the
Gum Coaft, great Care fhould like- wife

rf

?**£-'

[9]
wife be taken to regulate their Pre-
tenfio'ns on that Head.
The Acquifitions we have made
in the Eaft Indies, are of great
Importance, even more than is
generally conceived. For, as we
are enlarging our Settlements in
America, and as the Planters there,
as they grow rich, increafe in
Luxury and Expence, it will be
found, that America will in time
be a moft profitable Mart for the
Commodities of the Eaft, and that
vaft Quantities of them will be
confumed there.
Under this general View of
Things it will appear evident, that
as a trading Nation, it is our In
tereft to preferve Part of moft of
the Acquifitions we have made,
and not to be content with any one
Part, (fuch as Canada) in confidera-
tion of all the Reft. Efpecially,
B as

[io]
as the enlarging our Footing in
diftant Parts of the World will
enlarge our Navigation, and affift
us in our general Commerce by
making one Part of Ufe in the
Improvement of another.
By the Treaty of Utretch, there
was a great Enlargement intended
to our Territories in America ; by
allowing us all the Lands which of
right then belonged to the 5 Indian
Nations, which included the 5
Great Lakes and the Territories
thereunto belonging : but by ne
glecting to form a Syftem in
American Affairs, all the Advan
tages which might have arifen to
us, by wife and proper Regulations,
were loft • and the French were
thereby encouraged to make thofe
Incroachments which gave rife to
the prefent War. Therefore as the
want of Syftem was the main Inlett
to the prefent War, if we do not
regulate,

[11]
regulate, or eftablifh a proper Courfe
or Rule of Proceeding, all the Ad
vantages we fondly hope for, will
vanifh into Air. And in the Con-
fideration of this Point, there are
feveral Matters to be attended to,
which have a neceffary Connection
with, and Dependance upon each
other. So, that if any one Part is
neglected, the whole may fall to
the Ground.
The ist is, To afcertain our
Bounds in America, and to have
the Sovereignity ofthe Indians, who
fall within the faid Bounds.
Secondly, To form a Syftem in
Indian Affairs, in regulating the
Trade carried on with them ; in
which, particular Care ought to be
taken to have all the Colonies act
upon one Syftem. And as it will
require confiderable Sums to make
Prefents to the Indians, and to
put thofe Concerns upon a proper
Footing,

[-12 ]
Footing, it will be abfolutely necef
fary to eftablifh proper Funds in
America, by a Stamp Duty on
Vellum and Paper; and alfo by
regulating and lowering the Duties
upon French Rum and Molaffes.
Thirdly, If Funds are eftablifhed
to anfwer the Expence of the
Government in America, it will be
alfo neceffary to regulate the Cur
rency in tlie refpective Colonies,
and to have it "the fame in all.
And if this is done, it becomes
equally neceffary, to regulate the
Courfe to be obierved in collecting
and accompting for the Revenues
in America ; as there are at pre
fent Openings for many fhamefull
Abufes. Fourthly, As all leffer Syftems
muft depend upon the Syftem ob-
ferved in the Mother Country, no
thing propofed can have it's due
Effect, unlefs the Offices abroad are fo

;¦ • [13]
fo regulated as to tranfmit every
Matter of Importance, either with
refpect to the, Revenue or any
other Matter, in America, to the
Plantation- Office : And then, the
Succefs of the, whole depends upon
the Rc Honbl the Lords of Trade
and Plantations making a due and
full Report to the Crown of all
Matters that come under their In-
fpection. For, if the Channels of
Information can be obftructed, or
varied by different Modes of Appli
cation, it will leave Room for Con
nections which may defeat the
whole of what is propofed.
Fifthly, In the forming of new
Syftems of Government in diftant
Colonies, many Difficulties may
arife with refpect to the Preroga
tives of the Great Boards here;
therefore, as humbly conceived, if
anything of this Nature takes effect,
it muft arife from the Wifdom and
Goodnefs

[ h]
Goodnefs of the Sovereign, in
appointing a Special Committee
for thofe Purpofcs.*
The Syftem of the Great Offices
here, with refpect to America,
ought likewife to be attended to;
for, if our Courfe of Proceeding at
.Home is found to be irregular, it
is impoffible to redrefs the Griev
ances compld of in America.
Whereupon I pray leave to obferve,
that by the Syftem or Courfe of
Proceeding in the Exchequer, the
Lord High Treafurer or Treafury
[Lords] when in Commiffion, have
not (as hb]y concd) a Power to take
Cognizance of any Matter but what
is properly within the View of the
faid Court. And from this Caufe
it was, that all the Officers em
ployed in the Collection of the
Revenues
* In 1667, Special Committees were appointed
for Matters of State and Grievances, and if renewed
may be of Infinite Ufe in cftablifhing a System of
Action in American Affairs.

[iS]
Revenues of the Crown in Nor
mandy, were obliged to accompt
in the Exchequer ; as the Lord
High Treafurer was not at that
Time thought to have any Power or
Direction over fuch Officers as were
not brought within the View of the
sd Court. But from Cuftom of long
ftanding, and from the Want of
forming a Syftem in American
Affairs, the Receivers of His Ma-
jefty's Chief Rents in America, and
the Auditor .General of the Planta
tions are not brought within the
View of the Exchequer, nor is there
any regular Check or Reftraint
upon the faid Officers, so as
effectually to guard the Revenues
of the Crown, and the Property
of the Subject. And there are
Openings left whereby they may be
at liberty to do many Acts both
prejudicial to the Rights of the
Crown, and thofe of private Perfons. Now

[i6]
Now as the Auditor General of
the Plantations, and the Receivers
of His Majefty's Chief Rents in
America, do not give in Bond in
the Exchequer for the due Execu
tion of the Truft repofed in them ;
nor bring in their Accompts to be
paffed and cleared according to the
Rules of the faid Court, it puts it
in the Power of the faid Officers,
to opprefs and harrafs fuch Perfons
as may be liable to their Refent-'
ment. A recent Inftance of which
may be given in a prefent Attempt
agst me.
There is another Thing, which
as humbly conceived, ought to be
carefully attended to, and which
has hitherto ftood in need of great
Redrefs ; viz1 That in Petitions of
Complaint arifing in America, there
is no fettled Courfe of Proceeding
with refpect to the Method or
Form which ought to be obferved. As

[17]
As they are at prefent ufually
referred, and put into a Courfe of
Juftice, without firft examining
(which as conceived, fhould always
be done) whether the Perfons pre
ferring the Complaints are pro
perly Parties, and aggrieved by the
Matters complained of; or in Cafe
the Complaint arifes from Officers
of the Crown, whether the Matters
complained of come properly
within the View of their refpective
Offices.'* The Omiffion of which
previous Examination is often pro
ductive of great Injury to the
Innocent ; and leaves an Opening
for many litigeous and ill difpofed
Perfons to injure fuch as are ex-
pofed to their Refentment. For
altho' the Matters may be really
falfe, yet the Delay and Expence
given in getting rid of fuch falfe
Charges, may prove ruinous to the
Innocent Party accufed. And for
C this

[i8]
this Evil, there is not, as I know
of, any Remedy or Compenfation :
For the Courts of Law in the
Plantations cannot take Cogniz
ance of a Ma iter which has under
gone the Confiderat11 of the Council
Board ; nor does His Majefty in
Council ever grant Damages in
thofe Cafes to the Party aggrieved ;
nor do Matters of this Nature come
within the Rules or Redrefs of our
Courts of Law here. And this
Courfe of Proceeding has ftill a
further ill Tendency : For when
Factions are raifed againft His
Majefty's Governors in the Planta
tions, if fuch factious Perfons pro
ceed in an undue and irregular
Manner, it is in fad a Sufpenfion
of the Govrs Power, and obftructs
him in the Execut" of his Duty.
Therefore if the Complaints againft
Governors arife only from fuch
as have received no immediate Damages

[19]
Damages thereby ; or if the Matters
complained of are only from loofe
and general Suggeftions, in thefe
Cafes, as humbly concd, there fhould
be the greateft Care taken to dif-
countenance and filence fuch Re
ports, and to put a ftop to them in
the firft Inftance. But, on the
other Harich, if any Perfons were
really injured by the Gov" acting
contrary to his Inftructions, or by
his obftructing the due and legal
Courfe of Bufinefs, the Subject ought
to meet with Encouragement and
Releif. But in order to do this,
and to diftinguifh properly between
thofe who have been oppreffed, and
thofe who act from factious Prin
ciples, all Complaints fhould be
originally lodged at the Plantation
Office, where the Records from
the Plantations are fuppofed to
center. And this feems to have been
the Intention of Lord Sommers in
his

[20]
his Plan of a Board of Commerce,
and of the Crown in making all the
principal Officers of State extra
Members of the faid Board.
The preferring of Petitions of
Complaint to His Majefty in
Council, or to the King by the
Hands of the Secretary of State,
and afterwards referring them to the
Plantation Office, may in many
Cafes have an ill Effect, as it is
apprehended, that the Rc Honbl the
Lords for Trade and Plantation,
are^ thereby in a great Meafure
limited with refpect to their Report:
As they have not, (and as humbly
concd cannot upon thofe Occafions)
reported upon any Matter that is
not within fuch References. But
in the other Courfe of Proceeding,
as their Lord fhips would judge by
the Records, they would be able
to diftinguifh properly between
Complaints which arife from Op-
preflion

[21]
preffion, and thofe which arife from
factious Principles.
By a Statute of 38th Edward
the 3d, Chapt. the 9th, it is enacted,
that whofoever made Complaints
to the King, and could not prove
them againft the Defendant, fhould
be imprifoned, until he fatiffied the
Damages and the Slander fuffered
upon fuch Occafions, and after
make Fine and Ranfom to the
King. There is likewife a Statute
of the 11th and 12th Wm the 3d for
the Punifhment of bad Conduct in
His Majefty's Govrs which wants
much to be explained. The firft-
mentioned Statute cannot now be
put in force, becaufe fuch Matters
were originally determinable before
the King in Council, or before the
Star Chamber. But thefe Ads,
if renewed and enforced, under
proper Regulations, might have an
exceeding good Effed with refped to

[ 22 ]
to the Courfe of Proceeding in
Complaints preferred to His Majefty
in Council. And if the Regulations.
above mentioned are carried into
Execution, it will be likewife
neceffary to obtain a Law to
enable the Sovereign to punifh
all fuch Officers of the Crown as
deviate from their Duty under
fuch Regulations.

YALE