THE PROVINCIAL LAND BA^'K. 51 



that by far the majority of representatives for 1740 were subscrib- 

 ers to or favorers of the scheme, and they have ever since been dis- 

 tinguished by the name of the Land-Bank House. 



"Men of estates and the principal merchants of the Province 

 abhorred the project, and refused to receive the bills; but great 

 numbers of shop-keepers who had lived for a long time on the 

 fraud of a depreciating currency, and many small traders, gave 

 credit to the bills. The directors, it was said, by a vote of the com- 

 pany, became traders,* and issued just such bills as they thought 

 proper, without any fund or security for their ever being redeemed. 

 They purchased every sort of commodity, ever so much a drug, for 

 the sake of pushing off their bills; and, by one means or other, a 

 large sum— perhaps fifty or sixty thousand pounds— was floated. 

 To lessen the temptation to receive the bills, a company of mer- 

 chants agreed to issue their notes, or bills, redeemable in silver and 

 gold at distant periods, much like the scheme in 1733, and attended 

 with no better effect. The governor exerted himself to blast this 

 fraudulent undertaking— the land-bank. Not only such civil and 

 military officers as were directors or partners, but all who received 

 or paid any of the bills were displaced. The governor negatived the 

 person chosen speaker of the House, being a director of the bank; 

 and afterwards negatived thirteen of the newly elected counsellors, 

 who were directors or partners in, or favorers of, the scheme. But 

 all was insufficient to suppress it. Perhaps the major part in num- 

 ber of the inhabitants of the Province openly or secretly, were well- 

 wishers of it. One of the directors afterwards acknowledged to me 

 that, although he entered into the company with a view to the 

 public interest, yet, when he found what power and influence they 

 had in all public concerns, he was convinced it was more than be- 

 longed to them, more than they could make a good use of, and 

 therefore unwarrantable. Many of the more sensible, discreet per- 

 sons of the Province saw a general confusion at hand. The author- 

 ity of the Parliament to control all public and private persons and 

 proceedings in the Colonies, was at that day questioned by nobody. 

 Application was therefore made to I'arliament for an act to sup- 

 press the company; which, notwithstanding the opposition made by 

 their agent, was very easily obtained, and therein it was declared 

 that the act of the Sixth of King (Jeorge I., chapter xviii., did, 

 does and shall extend to the colonies and plantations of America. 

 It was said the act of George I., when it was passed, had no relation 

 to America; but another act, twenty years after, gave it force, even 

 from the passing it, which it never could have had without. This 

 was said to be an instance of the transcendent power of Parlia- 

 ment. Although the company was dissolved, yet the act of Parlia- 

 ment gave the possessors of the bills a right of action against every 



•See foregoing paragraph where It is said that debts to the bank 

 might be paid in manufactures and produce. 



