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is emphasized and we may doubt if they found general circulation in Massachusetts.

There were at least two attempts to raise money for the province by lotteries during this period. The only gain that was proposed for the government out of these transactions was the temporary use of the prize money. The first of these' was in February, 1750-51. Eighty-nine hundred tickets were to be sold for three milled dollars each, thus producing, if sold, $26,700. Two thousand two hundred twenty-five prizes amounting to $26,200 were to be distributed to the benefit tickets, one year after the drawing, and interest at 3% was to be allowed on the prize money. A tax for £8010 was ordered to be levied in February, 1751-52, thus furnishing a guarantee that the government would have the money to meet the prizes and pay the expenses of the lottery, while the treasurer, if the tickets were promptly sold, would in the meantime have had the use of the money for current expenses.

This lottery shared the fate of many others. In the original act, the drawing was ordered to take place April 18th, 1751, if five thousand tickets were then sold. This condition not having been complied with, the drawing was postponed to June 5th. The stipulation as to the three milled dollars for each ticket was then altered and province bills and treasurer's warrants were made receivable. The interest on the prizes was raised to 6%. When the day for drawing in June came round, matters had not progressed much and again there was a postponement, this time to August 6th, at which time the commissioners were ordered to close up the affair no matter how many tickets had been sold. What the actual condition was

It will be understood, of course, that I deal in this paper only with lotteries which were created for the benefit of the Treasury of the Province. There were several lotteries during this period whose purpose it was to raise money for some local object. These do not concern us.

2 Acts and Resolves Prov. Mass. Bay, Vol. III., p. 539. Ibid., p. 548. Ibid., p. 575.

at that time is shown by authority to borrow £4545 or $15,150 conferred upon the treasurer in October.1 Apparently, even with these two postponements, they were only able to sell tickets amounting to $11,550.

In April, 1758, managers were appointed who were to devise and carry out a scheme for a lottery for raising and borrowing thirty thousand pounds. The prizes were to be treasurer's receipts having about three years to run and bearing interest at 6%. This attempt was a complete failure, and in October, 1759, it was ordered that the money raised by the managers should be returned to "the possessors.

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The proceeds of the reimbursement for the Louisburg expedition were shipped to the province in 1749 by Bollan, the province agent, exclusively in Spanish silver coins, with the exception of a proportionate amount of copper for small change. The form of the obligations, then emitted by the treasurer, was governed by the situation in 1750, and they were made payable in silver. This practice was adhered to until 1762. The Resumption Act specifically provided that all debts, contracts and bargains were thereafter to be considered to be in silver at 6s. 8d. an ounce and that full weight Spanish milled dollars were to pass for 6s. It was soon discovered that there was some English silver in circulation and further that there was more or less Portuguese gold. Consequently, there was an act passed in 1750, fixing the rates at which such coins should be received in trade, the assertion being made in the preamble that they were being passed at a disproportionately high rate. Of this attempt to make these coins current at a lower rate than they naturally assumed in the market, Professor Sumner says:

"When the law . . . tried to keep them down by a

1 Acts and Resolves Prov. Mass. Bay, Vol. III., p. 595.

2 Ibid., Vol. IV., p. 88. 1 Ibid., p. 142. Ibid., Vol. III., pp. 433-434. Ibid., p. 494.

penalty for passing them at a higher rate, it only drove them out."

Not long after the passage of this law the London market effected what the act of 1750 was impotent to accomplish.

"Silver bullion," says Hutchinson," "for a year or two past had advanced in price, in England, from 5s. 3d. to 5s. 7d. an ounce. A greater proportion of silver than of gold had been exported, and people, who observed the scarcity of silver, were alarmed. A bill was brought into the house of representatives and passed, making gold a lawful tender at the rates at which the several coins had been current for many years past."

This was in 1762, and simultaneously with the passage of this act a new form of note was adopted payable in silver or gold. Bernard bears testimony to the cause for this legislation, saying that dollars were "transmitted to England, being the best specie for that purpose," and, again, that "the Province would have suffered very much if it had been obliged to make its payments in the tenor of its bills."4

In addition to the fact that there was a movement at this time of Spanish dollars towards the London market, there was simultaneously an unusual amount of Portuguese gold in circulation in the province; 10,424 johannes and 1414 moidores remitted by Bollan, on the Mercury, arrived December 3, 1759; 28,528 johannes and 3000 moidores arrived on the Fowey, March 14, 1760. These shipments had been made pursuant to specific instructions, but, in April, 1761, Governor Bernard called the attention of the assembly to the fact that the various expenses attendant upon the transportation of the specie amounted

1 Coin Shilling of Mass. Bay, Yale Rev., Nov. '98, p. 274.

2 Hutchinson's History of Mass., Vol. III., p. 99.

3 Acts and Resolves Prov. Mass. Bay, Vol. IV.,

p. 516.

Letters quoted in Acts and Resolves Prov. Mass. Bay, Vol. IV., p. 559.

5 Acts and Resolves Prov. Mass. Bay, Vol. IV., p. 347.

Ibid., p. 438.

to upwards of ten per cent. of its value, while at the same time Boston merchants were shipping coin to London at a similar expense. He proposed, therefore, that the province thereafter, instead of causing these reimbursements to be remitted, should draw bills on the province. agent and sell them to Boston merchants. Bollan estimated that this plan would save the province about seven per cent. The obvious advantages to be derived from such a course led to its adoption. The bills were sold in 1761 for 136, in 1762 for 138, in 1763 for 136, in 1764 for 135 and in 1765 for 135 New England shillings for 100 sterling, thus confirming the judgment of Bernard.3

During the remainder of the days of the province, there was nothing worthy of mention in connection with supplies for the treasury. The peace of 1763 had permitted affairs to assume their normal condition, during which the outstanding treasury receipts were redeemed and no new cause arose for the application of stringent methods in the way of raising money, so long as the chair of state was filled by a royal governor. The next occasion for an emergent supply arose under the second Provincial Congress, an elective body, which came into existence under the following circumstances.

PROVINCIAL CONGRESS.

On the first of September, 1774, General Gage sent out his precepts for the election of representatives who were to be convened at Salem, October fifth. Notwithstanding the fact that by a proclamation issued September twentyeighth, the General sought to prevent the very session for which he had issued this summons, the representatives elected in pursuance of these precepts, assuming that his

1 Acts and Resolves Prov. Mass. Bay, Vol. IV., p. 541.

2 Letter quoted in Acts and Resolves Prov. Mass. Bay, Vol. IV., p. 440.

3 Acts and Resolves Prov. Mass. Bay, Vol. IV., p. 458, p. 581, p. 662, p. 720, p. 805.

power of prorogation did not exist in anticipation of actual session, met at the appointed time, and the governor not being present, organized themselves into what they termed a provincial congress, for the purpose of considering the condition of public affairs and of determining measures to promote the prosperity of the province. On the tenth of December this body, being then in session at Concord, provided for its own dissolution and for the election of members to represent the towns and districts of the province in a second congress to assemble at Cambridge February first, next ensuing. The delegates elected in pursuance to this call were to remain in session until May twenty-ninth and no longer. They met at the appointed time and held meetings first at Cambridge, then at Concord, then at Watertown. A third congress was convened at Watertown May thirty-first. The second congress had voted, April 1, that if writs were regularly issued for a general assembly, the towns ought to obey the precepts, but that the representatives then elected ought not to transact business with the mandamus councillors. The battle of Lexington rendered this session of the court impossible, and May 4th congress reconsidered this vote. May 5th,

3

it was resolved to call upon the towns to forthwith elect delegates to a third congress," the one that convened as above, May 31st. It will be seen from the foregoing that

'The attention of the student ought, at this point, to be called to the function of the County Convention in preparing the people for a Provincial Congress and in determining them to make use of the Assembly already elected for that purpose. The proceedings of the various County Conventions, in the fall of 1774, are collated in Lincoln's Journals of the Provincial Congress, but apparently they are not given in full there. For a discussion of this question, the reader is referred to Vol. I., Transactions Colonial Society of Mass., pp. 163 et seq. By meeting at Salem and adjourning to Concord as they did, the Assembly complied with the recommendations of the different conventions, and thus had an expression of popular approval behind them. This was not, however, the full equivalent of a specific election to a provincial congress.

2 Journals of the Provincial Congress of Mass. Bay, p. 73.

The charter provided that the Governor should convene the General Court on the last Wednesday of May each year.

Journals of the Provincial Congress of Mass. Bay, p. 116.

Ibid., p. 190, p. 192. • Ibid., p. 196.

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