xxni THE QUESTION OF WAR TAXES 297 



intended. Franklin, who was clerk to the Assembly, 

 makes fun in his Autobiography of one of its votes, for 

 " wheat or other grain," which the governor interpreted 

 to include gunpowder, but there is no evidence of its 

 being so intended. The opposition to the war taxes 

 brought the House into frequent collision with the 

 governor, with whom it had other causes of disagreement, 

 especially the exemption of the proprietary estates from 

 bearing their share of taxation, the giving of secret instruc- 

 tions by the Proprietaries to the governor whom they 

 sent out, and sundry encroachments by the Crown upon 

 the charter of the province. The Assembly followed the 

 precedents set in English history, and frequently refused 

 the voting of a tax until they could obtain a quid pro quo 

 in the removal of some cherished grievance. 



