and for the provincial exigencies. Upon the same principle, it would be beneficial to suggest, that a fort is immediately to be built at the mouth of St. Mary's river; that lots will be granted immediately in Hillsborough town; that an officer of the customs and pilot shall be appointed, and trade encouraged.

That to add to this show, the surveyor should resurvey Hillsborough town; petitions for town lots be received and surveys ordered, and that a party of men should be sent there for the protection of the inhabitants; and whether any such plan of a fort is to be made use of or not, will depend entirely upon the executive. In the mean time, it may forward the settling of the country; and if the king's troops are not in danger of being cut off, they will be there stationed beneficially for the protection of the province.

Such was the project submitted for the farther establishment of a representative government and settlement in the province of East Florida.

Preparations having been accordingly made, Governor Tonyn met the upper and lower houses of assembly, and delivered to them a speech, in March, 1781, of which the following are extracts, showing the objects of government, the progress in legislation, fortification, and at length of taxation; which last was always looked to as a consequence inseparable from the privilege of the representative government, which it had been declared by the executive most for the interest of the inhabitants to defer on that account.

No quit-rents or taxes had hitherto been called for, and the

burden of contributing towards the expense of the government was unknown to the new legislators, who were much at a loss for expedients to raise the necessary revenues from the slender resources which presented themselves in the infant state of the colony.

Governor Tonyn's Speech on convening for the first time the Legislature.

I am happy that, during my administration of the government of this province, it hath arrived at such a state of affluence and importance, as to enable me with propriety to fulfil his Majesty's most gracious engagements, in his royal proclamation of the 7th of October, 1763, by establishing a provincial legislature, for the purpose of making constitutions, ordaining laws, statutes and ordinances, as near as may be agreeable to the laws of England, under such regulations and restrictions as are used in other colonies, for the public welfare and good government of this province and its inhabitants.

Of late, gentlemen, the increase of property, from your success in commerce and planting, has been considerable; and the industry and judgment of a few may evince to Great Britain, that ample returns in produce may be made, for money laid out in raising a produce equally beneficial to the planter and the mother country, in one of the most healthy and fertile climates upon earth.

As the King and parliament have, with an astonishing and unprecedented condescension, relinquished their just right of taxation, provided the provincial legislature will make due

provision for defraying a reasonable part of the expenses of the government of the empire at large, and for the internal government of the colony, I trust that you, gentlemen, in the first moment of your existence, will make a provision appropriated to these important purposes; more as a mark of your regard to justice, affection and gratitude, for the government under which we have been protected and generously fostered and maintained, than for any immediate real service our supply can afford it.

The quota you in your present circumstances can make, I am sensible, will not be adequate to the expenses of the provincial government, &c. &c.

Several bills were passed; the principal one of which, Magna Charta, met with much discussion and violent opposition, on the following grounds, viz.-That it was not clear, full, accessible, and not adapted to the understanding and capacities of those for whose conduct it was to be a rule.— That several essential articles intended to strengthen the hands of government, and insuring a revenue, as well as others declaratory of the rights of the colonists, were rejected. That instead of containing provisions calculated to extricate the inhabitants from difficulties which the laws of England could not reach, because none existed applicable to the then state of the colony, it left many important questions, which were the undoubted province of the legislature to regulate and to settle, to be determined by judges appointed by the crown; thus unnecessarily subjecting the inhabitants to a voluminous and multifarious code of laws,written, many of them,in a foreign lan

guage, and Saxon character; some obsolete, others useless, and only a few suitable to an infant colony.-That it did not require a declaration from the King and Parliament as a fundamental condition, that they would not impose any duty, tax, or assessment whatever, except only such as might be expedient for the regulation of commerce, and applicable to the use of the colony. That in tolerating different religions, and offering liberty to persons of different nations who should become inhabitants of the province, it excepted infidel negroes, which was an exception repugnant to the ancient bulwark of English liberty. That the governor and council are, by a clause in the act, vested with too extensive an authority-that of withdrawing licenses for the exercise of public worship, thereby establishing them judges of the doctrines of religion, and vesting them with an authority that must greatly restrain and circumscribe that spirit of toleration which this act is meant to establish, and which may prove prejudicial to the protestant religion.

Among the other bills which were passed, was one authorizing taxes, to a certain extent; but which, on their collection, did not go farther than a very inconsiderable sum, obtained for licenses to sell spirituous liquors; it did not amount to the salary of the Treasurer of the province. It was in agitation to oblige the grantees of lands either to improve them, or to relinquish their grants, which on a public sale were to produce a more efficient revenue; but this was interrupted by a political circumstance of no small magnitude, being nothing less than an express order from Sir Guy Carle

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General Leslie in Carolina, to evacuate the province, with the troops and such loyalists as were desirous of accompanying them. Thus the flattering hopes of the colonists were frustrated, when they were about to derive the hard-earned fruits of their attachment to the royal cause. This order, as harsh and inconsiderate on the part of its authors as it was mortifying and excruciating to the inhabitants, necessarily became the subject of a strong remonstrance, first to the Governor, and then to the King, depicting their disappointment, and the inevitable ruin that would ensue, if it was carried into execution. They were couched in the following

terms:

That this province had been held out as an asylum for the well affected in the other colonies to resort to, where they might expect every protection and assistance; which assurances were sanctioned with the royal authority.-That the loyal inhabitants who may be enabled to embark must depart this province devested of their property, and, in a state of the greatest indigence, be obliged, with their families, to look out for new habitations, or become burthensome to the government. Those who are obliged to remain must be in the most deplorable and distressed situation, without government, laws, or arms, surrounded on all hands by enemies and savages, and exposed to the depredations of every lawless banditti or hostile invader. And at all events, we must humbly request your excellency to apply to the commanding officer here, for such provisions and military stores as may enable us to make a defence, until we can receive further