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united efforts of their respective Agents to obtain for us some relief from the Burdens we already labor under as well as to prevent any additional ones that may be intended.1

Your recommending to the Court the Choice of an Agent who was a native of the Country prevented your Friends at this sessions moving the joining of your Brother, indeed the members of the Court (which met at this time solely with a view to prepare the Petition abovementioned) at this Busy Season were in such an hurry that they [woud] not have been perswaded to enter upon an affair, which it is probable woud have taken some time to have settled, had this affair have come under consideration I believe they woud have determined not to have sent any person from this side of the Water as it woud have been very expensive; You have all the necessary papers respecting the several Boundaries and doubtless you will employ the best Councill you can obtain upon these matters; If it woud not be too much trouble I shoud be obliged to you to inform me in what forwardness the settlement of the Boundaries betwixt this Province and New York is. If I mistake not Mr. Bollan wrote some time ago that it was determined in our Favor but it was thought not expedient

colonies shall pay their Share of the National Expence; and I fear the Majority and Minority will both agree in this. The Merchants talk much, but cannot bring them to act. unite They say why don't the Agents white, apply, and take the Lead? The Agents say the Merchants will be much better attended to than they. Some of the Agents will not meet, and but one has ever come near me to facilitate such a Meeting. However, I don't despond, as all the North American Merchants have some Esteem for me; nor am I upon Ill terms with any one in the Ministry." Mass. Arch., xx11. 426. February 6, 1765, a bill for imposing Stamp duties in the Colonies was introduced into Parliament and no member could be found willing to present the petitions of New York, Virginia, and Massachusetts.

1 Copies of the petitions from Rhode Island and New York are in the Society's collections (012.4, ff. 156, 158).

to give Judgement till the war was over for fear of giving offence to any of the Colonies. please also to inform when the Boundaries betwixt this Province and Connecticutt is likely to be settled.1 I am with great Respect Your most humble Servant, THOMAS CUSHING.

SIR,

THOMAS CUSHING TO JASPER MAUDUIT

BOSTON, November 17, 1764.

This will be handed you by Mr. Bela Lincoln, a Gentleman of my acquaintance whom I recommend to you[r] Patronage. Any respect shown him will be gratefully acknowledged; His Father is one of our Council, he himself is a Member of the House and Represents the Town of Sherburne and can inform you, more particularly than I can do by Letter, of the Sentiments of the Members of the General Court respecting the late Act of Parliament as also relative to that which is proposed to be pass'd the next Sessions. The House of Representatives were clearly for making an ample and full declaration of the exclusive Right of the People of the Colonies to tax themselves and that they ought not to be deprived of a right they had so long enjoyed and which they held by Birth and by Charter; but they coud not prevail with the Councill, tho they made several Tryalls, to be more explicit than they have been in the Petition sent you. In short they were reduced to this alternative, either to join with the Council in the Petition forwarded you by the Secretary, or to petition by themselves; and considering they had wrote you fully upon the matter of Right the last session and had sent you a small tract entituled The Rights of the British Colonies in

2

1 A letter from the General Court to Mauduit, dated November 27, 1764, and relating to the boundary disputes with New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut, is in Mass. Arch., LVI. 432 2 By James Otis.

general and of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in particular briefly Stated, which they then desired and expected you woud make the best use of in your Power, they thought it the less necessary to remonstrate by themselves at this time, and therefore upon the whole determined to have the weight of the Council as far as they coud, and so concluded to join with them in the present petition tho' not so full as they coud have wished. You will therefore collect the sentiments of the Representative Body of People rather from what they have heretofore sent you than from the present Address. As the People throughout this Continent are greatly alarm'd at this Infringement, as they apprehend, of their most Essential Rights, I hope their Sentiments will have their due weight with the Parliament. I conclude with great Respect Your most humble Servant, THOMAS CUSHING.

GENERAL COURT (?) TO JASPER MAUDUIT1

BOSTON, November 28th, 1764.

SIR, — The two Houses in their Petition to the House of Commons have represented, that the Duty laid upon foreign Molasses by the late Act is so high, that it must undoubtedly have the Effect of an absolute Prohibition.2

1 "The Copy of this Letter was sent to Jasper Mauduit, Esqr., November 28th, 1764: and to Mr. Jackson in the Spring following 1766.” — Note on the Ms., which is in this Society's collections (024.3).

2 "I have had the taking off or lowering the Duty on Foreign Molasses much at heart, and have tried various measures to get a Bill into the House for that purpose; but the Ministry will make no Alterations at present, and the New England Merchants are against its being brought in this Session; the former say we ought not Repeal an Act before it has been tried: the latter say they are as yet too much in the dark to support the Reasons I have drawn up, and particularly that they have not now sufficient Authority from their Correspondents to say the Trade cannot bear it, and will not be carried on at 3d per Gallon Duty. The English Distillers say, we will send the Americans

our own Corn Spirits. The Sugar Planters say, we will send them Rum. The Ministry

It seems the Advocates for the Colonies in the House of Commons thought the Trade would bear two Pence; this we learn by a Letter from a Member of Parliament to the Committee of Merchants in this Town; his Words are these: "The Reason we put it so high as two Pence was, the French suffering our Vessels to go to their Islands, and to carry off Molasses without the Expence of Passports, or the Risque of Seizure. This having been lately established by Proclamation, you could afford two Pence as well as the Penny you were always willing to pay before this Indulgence, and Security took Place." Whether there was ever such a Proclamation as above mentioned published or not, we can't take upon us to determine; but we can affirm with Certainty, that the French are more difficult and exact with respect to granting Liberty for Trade than heretofore; they will suffer none to trade without Permits, and these Permits are very costly: The Business must be transacted by such a Person as they appoint, who is allowed Ten per Cent. for doing the Business; he charges the Molasses as he pleases, and no Questions must be asked; In short, the Fees are as high, and the Insecurity as great as ever: If therefore the Reason abovementioned was what induced the Parliament to put the Duty so high, that Reason not subsisting, it is presumed they will not continue it at the present Rate; However, admit that the French would allow us to trade without the least Burthen or Incumbrance; admit the Trade would bear the present Duty on Molasses, and notwithstanding the many Burthens and Embarrassments it is attended with, it should still be in some measure

say, they may Distill their own Corn; and also that the Ceded Islands will in a little time make Molasses enough: 'tis not difficult to give a fair and full answer to these, but politicks are not founded in Argument." Mauduit to the Committee of the General Court, March 8, 1765.

continued, the Revenue arising from it, and from the other Articles charged with a Duty, cannot in any Measure be equal to the Expectations of the Ministry, or any Ways adequate to the Expence of collecting it. As to the Duties on Cambrick, Lawn, Callicoes and other foreign manufactures imported into the Colonies from Great Britain; these are only Articles of Luxury, which we can easily dispense with the use of; and as our Trade must be greatly cramped by the Scarcity of Money, arising from the constant Exportation of as much of it as the Duties may annually amount to; necessity will oblige us to do without them; we shall find it difficult to pay for as many coarse Goods as we really want, little or none of those Articles therefore will be imported; it will be much the same case with Spanish and Portugal Wines, when charged with two Freights and the Duties; and with the Impost and Excise laid upon them by this Government they will be too high for Consumption: The only Articles therefore, on which any Duty worth mentioning will be raised, are Wines from the Islands, and foreign Molasses and Sugars.

As to Wines, it is computed, about 400 Tons are annually imported into this Province, which at £7. per Ton is about £2800. But as our Trade will be lessened, we shall not have Means left to pay for so much, by one half; we must use Cyder and Malt Liquors; the first we have plenty of; the latter we can make near equal in Goodness to any in Great Britain.

As to Molasses, it is supposed we import as much as all the other Governments together; and the Extent of what we have annually imported is about ten Thousand Hogsheads, which (if the Duty had been paid on all that has been imported) at three Pence per Gallon would not have exceeded £10,000. The Quantity of brown Sugars may be

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