56 INTRODUCTION. 



should be passed, obliging the inhabitants of the province to take the oaths pre- 

 scribed by parliament, for the security of the government and of the protestant 

 relioion. The assembly complied, after a spirited debate, in which the measure 

 was resisted, because it seemed to impeach the loyalty of the province. The 

 collisions between the ministry and the governor on one side, and the assembly 

 on the other, continued without abatement. The governor, in 1749, renewed his 

 demand for provision for the support of government for five years, and when the 

 house refused, threatened the members with punishment, declaring that the crown 

 could abridge their rights and privileges at pleasure. The assembly resolved 

 that the governor's conduct was arbitrary, illegal and a violation of their privi- 

 leges. 



In the instructions to governor Osborne, in 1753, the ministry persisted in all 

 the obnoxious demands which had been so long and uncompromisingly opposed 

 by the assembly. The year 1754 was rendered memorable by the assemblage 

 of the congress of deputies of the several American colonies, at Albany, to devise 

 a plan of union for common defence against the French and Indians. A project 

 for a confederacy of the American colonies was prepared by Franklin. It em- 

 braced Massachusetts, New-Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode-Island, New- York, 

 New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina and South-Caro- 

 lina ; and proposed that each colony should retain its constitution, but a general 

 government should be estal)lished, with a president-general and council, to be 

 appointed by the crown, and a grand council to be composed of representatives 

 elected by the assemblies of the several states. The apportionment of members 

 in that council is worthy of notice, because it shows the relative population and 

 strength of the colonies at that period, varying essentially from the relative impor- 

 tance of the several states at the present time. Massachusetts was allowed seven 

 representatives, New-Hampshire two, Connecticut five, Rhode-Island two, New- 

 York four, New-Jersey three, Pennsylvania six, Maryland four, Virginia seven, 

 North-Carolina four, South- Carolina four. The powerful machine thus projected 

 for the support of the British throne, was twenty-one years afterwards successfully 



