42 Early New York Paper Currency. 



message : — "I am come to give my assent to the bills that 

 are ready for it, as the highest instance I can give of my 

 care for the credit and welfare of the colony, and the confi- 

 dence I have in your honor." 



The reverse in the governor's determination was in- 

 duced by several circumstances. He was convinced that the 

 country was quite unanimous in approving the course of 

 the assembly, and that a new election would only result, as 

 it had already, in the return of men not otherwise minded 

 than their predecessors. Again, there were appearances 

 of a rupture between England, France and Spain, and he 

 wished to avail himself of the assembly's present sitting, to 

 place the province in a proper state of defence ; and finally, 

 because the assembly had become still more resolute in 

 their intentions, from a recent example in the province 

 of New Jersey, where the governor had given his consent 

 to a revenue bill whereby the money was all specially ap- 

 plied. 1 To these reasons should be added, personal necessi- 

 ties, the usual supplies having been so long withheld that 

 the governor had even sold some of his estates to enable 

 him to support the government. 2 He apologized to the 

 lords of trade for his unexpected action, on the ground of 

 the precedent set in New Jersey, but asked their favorable 

 allowance of the bills on account of the feeling existing in 

 the province, assuring them that he had thereby secured a 

 greater state of quiet than had been known for forty years 

 before. 



On the representations of London, Liverpool and Bristol 

 merchants, in June, 1739, 3 a series of resoluions were intro- 

 duced in parliament, praying his majesty that an account 

 might be prepared of the rate at which gold and silver 



1 Iu former acts no applications had been made of the funds, except 

 for the salaries of treasurer and members of assembly : — the remainder 

 being generally appropriated "for the support of his majesty's government." 



*Col. Does., vi, 160. 



3 House of Common's Journals. 



