- Transcription
I have Received your Replication to my Answer to your Address, insisting under Various Suggestions upon my Passing the Court Bill Immediately, before you have Prepared an Aid Bill to be Passed, Tho' it is of the Utmost Consequence to have passed an Aid Bill previous to all Others, as Called by his Majestys Orders at this Important Crisis for that Very purpose: And find now that being Misled by Some of his Majestys Servts. you are Determined to proceed on No Business until You know the fate of those Bills—
I Must therefore Inform you that those Self Interested Gentlemen who have procured the Repeal of the former Laws, and have taken upon them to Conduct those Bills and Mislead the Assembly; have been the Cause that those Salutary Laws as well as the Aid Bill have not been already passed, by Clogging those Bills with Unnecessary Clauses, to Diminish his Majestys Prerogative, And Lay me under a Dilemma (to Serve their own Secret Ends) of betraying my Trust and Disobeying his Majestys Orders and Instructions if I Comply with Your Request, or to Raise Flame against my Administration in Case I Should Refuse to Pass these Bills, which one of those Gentlemen hath as far as in his Power already Raised contrary to his Duty to the Crown, in Order to Throw the Blame upon me, and Excuse himself from having been the Cause of Repealing the former Bills, by the Artfull Advice and pretences he laid before his Majesty and Council to Repeal the former Bills which he would now Reenact with Restraining Clauses Contrary to my Instructions from his Majesty So that the Loss of the Superior Court Bill if not Passed must be laid at his Door—
You make use of the Licentious behavour of Great Numbers, and Traiterous and Dangerous Conspiracies, Breaking open Prisons &c to Shew the Necessity of passing the Bills; Yet for So long a time as Eight Months no Complaint was ever made to me to have the Laws now in force put in Execution, by a Commission of Oyer & Terminer in Case Such facts are true, which Might for the present have Answered the End, And if not Sufficient You ought to have formed Bills not lyable to Objections, and ought in Decency to have Applyed to me to know Whether I could by my Orders and Instructions pass those Clauses which Might have been done early in the Session, and all the Bills might have been long Since passed—
But Since nothing will Satisfye you but knowing the fate of those Bills I must with great Concern Inform you that I cant betray my Trust to the Crown, Nor Shall I Disobey his Majestys Orders and Instructions So that nothing will Induce me to pass the Superior Court Bill but by making it Temporary until his Majestys Pleasure be known upon it, or by Striking out the Exceptionable Clauses, Show that all the Regard I can Shew to your Application is that after the Aid Bill and Other Bills are passed (in Case you give any Aid) I Shall then put an End to the Session & prorogue the Assembly for a day, and you may then Reconsider the Bill and either Expunge the Exceptionable Clauses Contrary to the Articles of Instructions which I herewith lay before you or make it Temporary a year or Two, until his Majestys Pleasure is known, Otherwise the Bill I Could pass it, as it is now framed, may be again repealed & the Province be the Same Situation again as at present—
This Answer I send you with great Regret in being brought under So dissagreable a Dilemma by Cunning Designing persons, who endeavour to bring this Province into Confusion to Serve their own ends, And Shall heartily Con[sult] with you in every Measure (Consistant with my Duty) to promote the Peace, Saf[ety] and Happiness of this Province—
[North Carolina]
His Excellency Answer to the Assemblys Replication about Passing the Court Bills
