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On June 3d a joint committee from the House of Representatives and the Council was chosen to provide "a sufficient quantity of Provisions, a suitable number of vessels for transports, as also a proper number of Chaplains, Physicians and Surgeons, and a full supply of medicines with all other conveniences for such as may be sick." It was also urged that in procuring the provisions and other necessities, the preference should be given to the produce of the Bay government. The House selected the Speaker and Messrs. Welles, Hubbard, Skinner, Hall, Russell, Thomas Foster, James Otis, Col. Heath, and Captains Pickman and Partridge, to whom the Council added John Osborne, Jacob Wendell, Thomas Berry, Samuel Watts, Ezekiel Chever, James Bowdoin, John Wheelwright and Andrew Oliver. Acts for supplying the treasury with large sums of money were enacted in June. But at first the House hesitated in this policy, until urged by Shirley in vigorous language. In his message of June 10th, referring to their vote "for staying any further proceedings in relation to the providing Transports and other necessaries for the troops," he said, "Gentlemen, this last Vote seems to me to confound and frustrate all your former proceedings, unless you have some other practicable methods. in view than I am at present apprized of. You are sensible, Gentlemen, the Transports and Provisions must be had some way or other; and if there be any other way in which you expect they will be provided, I think it is fit I should know it. We have already lost much time by this interruption, and I desire we may now retrieve it, by the most vigorous proceedings; or else the most proper season for action will be irreparably lost." The objectionable "Order to the Committee of War above refer'd to, was withdrawn by the Direction of both Houses,

1 Mass. Court Records, Series 17, Vol. V., pp. 430, 431.

2 Idem, pp. 433, 435, 436, 442, 444, 456, 463.

3 Mass. Court Records, idem, pp. 445, 448.

and the Committee left to proceed according to their first Instructions."

On June 14th, the following message from the House was sent to Shirley by the hand of Samuel Adams and others, viz.:

"May it please your Excellency.

"It being represented that divers Children under sixteen years of age have been received and allowed to enlist in the Expedition against Canada, by the Officers who have Beating Orders, this House have thought it their duty to lay this grievance before your Excellency. They look upon this practice with greater concern, because it not only brings great distress and difficulty on Parents and Masters, but it is apprehended to be likely to be very pernicious, and should it become general, must be fatal to the important enterprize they are designed to serve. We are persuaded these things are done without your Excellencys leave and knowledge; but as these complaints are become numerous and still increasing; We humbly request Your Excellencys interposition herein, that the Families to which such Children belong may live in quiet at home, & the Forces raising may go with strength and courage abroad.”1

To this complaint Shirley replied in a message, on June 21st, in which he recommended the appointment of a Muster Master for reviewing the troops, to prevent misapplication of the bounty and "ineffectiveness of those that are really enlisted."

2

The wages of the officers of the transports were according to the following rates: for masters of double decked vessels, five pounds per month; for masters of single decked vessels four pounds, twelve shillings and sixpence; for mates, four pounds; and for boatswains and carpenters of double decked transports, three pounds, ten shillings per month.3

Each soldier was provided with a tin flask in which to carry water during marches, and was allowed for his billeting five shillings per week from the time of his enlistment

1 Mass. Court Records, idem, pp. 464, 465. 2 Ibid., pp. 479, 480.

3 Ibid., p. 524; cf. also with earlier vote, p. 490.

until August 6th, except for such time as he should be on the march, when he would be allowed eighteen pence per day, "accounting twenty miles for one days travel."

1

The provisions for transports and soldiers were ordered. to be kept apart and to be distributed equally under particular supervision; but the House unanimously nonconcurred with the desire of the Council that "both Soldiers and Seamen be allowed Beer, Rum or Molasses, as will be most suitable to the season of the Year; and that the Committee of War provide accordingly." It is not clear whether ideas of economy or temperance were responsible for this ruffle of opposition.

On June 28th, 1746, Shirley delivered to both Houses his most important speech in connection with this affair, and after its conclusion the "Great and General Court or Assembly" was adjourned until July 15th. Although quotations from it have already been given, it is reproduced here in all of its original quaintness, and worthily exhibits the spirit of the times.

"Gentlemen of the Council & House of Representatives. "The present necessary business of the Court being so far dispatched as to admit of a short Recess, I have thought proper to adjourn you for some time, that so the Committee of War may have more leisure to make needful preparations for the Expedition, and the rest of the Members an opportunity to encourage and promote the Levies for the same in their respective Counties; which I accordingly now recommend to you as a matter of the greatest importance to His Majestys service and the general advantage of His Colonies in North America, & to the future prosperity of this Province in particular.

"The near situation of the French to our borders, and their influence over the Indians have always been thought most pernicious to the interests of these Colonies and threaten their final Destruction unless some method should be found to remove so bad a neighbour from us. And therefore in every war with that Nation some design has been laid and attempts made for compassing this end.

1 Mass. Court Records, idem, p. 514. 2 Ibid., p. 491.

"To demonstrate this to you I need only transcribe the following extract from the late Mr. Agent Dummers letter upon that subject in 1712, in which he says, 'I am sure it has been the cry of the whole country ever since Canada was delivered up to the French, Canada est delenda; they always looked upon it as a Carthage to the Northern Colonies, which if they did not destroy it would in time destroy them. Of this they were so apprehensive in the year 1690, that they came unanimously into a great and expensive undertaking against it, under the command of Sir William Phips, but meeting with an unaccountable train of disappointments, returned without doing any thing. This enterprize cost the single Province of the Massachusetts Bay above fifty thousand pounds, which together with the loss of abundance of their chosen young men, by a malignant fever that raged in the Camp; and several disasters that happened in the way home, gave that Province so deep a wound that it did not recover itself in many years after. However about five years agoe observing their French neighbours to increase and grow more and more formidable every day, they resolved to make them an other visit; but not thinking themselves strong enough to deal with Canada, they were content only to make an attempt on Port Royal, which was accordingly done, but most unhappily miscarried. Yet, far from disheartened by these misfortunes when Her Majesty about three years after signified her gracious intentions to reduce Canada and desired them to get ready their Quota, it cann't be expressed with what chearfulness they came into it. They raised their men immediately, cloathed them handsomly and disciplined them for the service, and had laid up Magazines of provisions both for their own and the Queens Troops then shortly expected. And, althô the Court altered their measures, did not proceed on that design, yet the Colonies and particularly New England were at near the same charge as if they had. The next year they raised a body of Troops again, which commanded by Coll. Nicholson and joined by five hundred Auxiliaries from hence, made an other attack on Port Royal, and carried it, as every body knows. Thus that poor country, exhausted by so many (and all but one fruitless) enterprizes, besides the oppressions of a twenty years French and Indian War, that has lain heavy upon them, yet did this summer past furnish more than the Quota assigned them for this late fatal expedition. I shall add one thing more, that over and above these extraordinary articles, the standing yearly charge of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay to maintain their Barrier against the enemy, is Thirty Thousand Pounds com

munibus annis, which they would be eased if Canada were taken.'

"Such, Gentlemen, have ever been the general sentiments and apprehensions of the People of New England concerning Canadas remaining in the hands of the French; and I may add to Mr. Dummers remarks, that we ought never to think His Majesty's possession of Nova Scotia in security, whilst the enemy is suffered to continue Masters of Canada; and should it ever be our misfortune to see that Province reduced by them and added to Canada, it requires no extraordinary share of penetration to discern what must be, in a short time, the fatal consequences to this and all His Majestys Colonies on the Northern Continent of America.

"Through the signal favour of Divine Providence to us, Annapolis Royal was indeed in the year immediately preceeding the last, saved from falling into the enemys hands, and the last year the Fortress of Louisbourgh with the Island of Cape Breton and its Dependencies reduced to the obedience of His Majesty: an atchievement worthy of the English name, and which must always be remembered to the lasting honour of the Province that undertook it, and of their troops which so bravely executed it; yet these are but single steps towards procuring the lasting Welfare & Tranquility of these Colonies. For since the reduction of Cape Breton, I suppose we have had greater numbers of Indians continually harrassing us in all parts of our Frontiers, and have been obliged to keep more men in pay for our defence, than at any other time in former wars; and the ravages and cruelties of the enemy in murthering & captivating our People, driving them from their Settlements, killing their Cattle, destroying some thousands of acres of Grain upon the ground, depopulating almost a whole Country in one of the neighbouring Colonies, and putting us to an immense charge, with so little success on our side, as not in the least to dispirit the enemy; I say these things considered, if no other measures be taken but the carrying on such a defensive War, a few years continuance of that alone, must work the inevitable destruction of this Province.

"And now Gentlemen, affairs being brought to this Crisis with us, and His Majesty having, in compassion to the distress'd circumstances of his good subjects of these Provinces, ordered so strong an Armament for the Reduction of Canada, at a time when he has so much occasion to employ both his land and sea Forces in Europe, justly expecting that we, who will reap so large a part of the happy fruits of its success, should join to the utmost of our power in promoting this great design, especially as His Majesty has been graciously

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