His Majesty having been graciously pleas’d to honour & intrust me with the Government of this Province, I have taken the earlyest Opportunity of meeting with you in full Assembly, to consult you upon what may lend to the Peace, Happyness, Increase & Improvements of this Province, and to consider of proper Laws to secure the Rights & Properties, & improve the Trade of this Colony, and to unite the Affections of all the Members of the Society, that all may concur in promoting your general Health and Happyness.

As the first & greatest principle & foundation of all social Happyness is the knowledge of true Religion, and the Practice of Morality & Virtue; to know love & adore the Divine Being as we ought, and to obey the Precepts he has reveal’d to us—so I think it my Duty in the first place to recommend to you the providing a proper fund to support a sufficient Number of learned pious Clergymen to reside in the Province, and to accommodate them with Houses, Glebes, & Parish Clerks, to enable them to instruct the Inhabitants, and the rising Generation in the Principles of true Religion & Virtue, in such a prudent Manner without Tythes, as to prevent Contests and to preserve a Harmony betwixt the Clergy and Laity that their Interest may be the same, and they may have Leisure as well as Inclination to instruct their flock in Christian Principles.

Next to this in Duty to his Majesty, who like a beneficent Father has given to this Colony a permanent Property in their Lands, reserving to himself a very small Acknowledgment of Quit Rent, who has protected it in its infant State from all foreign Insults, and has maintaind & supported it in all its Civil & Religious Rights & Privileges by a true Christian Liberty of Conscience, and in the happyest Constitution on the Globe; I must earnestly recommend it to you, that in Return for his Majesty's paternal Care, you make an effectual Law for the speedy & easy Collection of the Quit Rents, which his Majesty has been graciously pleas’d to apply for the Ease of this Colony, towards the Discharge of a great Arrear due to the Officers of this Establishment, and towards their annuall Support, who are necessary to preserve your Peace, & to have Justice impartially distributed in the Province. This in Justice to yourselves, as well as in gratitude to the best of Princes, who is not only the Father of his People; but the Benefactor of Mankind, I am convinced you will readily agree to.

After these I must recommend to your Consideration the making effectual Laws to secure your Peace & Properties, and to obtain your Rights, and to have Justice distributed in the speedyest & easyest Manner without dilatory Law Proceedings, and also Laws to promote Trade & Industry in order to support your Credit at home & abroad, by making effectual Laws to recover Just Debts without Chicanery or tedious Delays, and all small Debts in a summary way, which will promote Oeconomy & Industry, & prevent Indolence & Sloth.

Since a paper Currency has been found beneficial hitherto, from the want of Bullion or Coin I must recommend to you the keeping up your Paper Credit, by making your Paper Bills a permanent fund of Credit upon Land Security by a Loan Office, and to provide a sufficient fund to pay off & cancel the Bills of Credit already issued in a short time, a plan of which shall be communicated to you. This with a general Inspection Law, and employing Inspectors in all your Sea Ports to view & support the Credit of your Exports, & a proper Oeconomy with Industry must necessarily occasion a Ballance in your favour, and consequently a Return in Gold or Silver, and will demonstrate that Honesty in Trade as well as in all other Dealings is the best Policy.

The extending our Trade into the Continent, and our Colonies into the fine Countrys beyond the Mountains, being of the utmost Consequense to this & all our Colonies, I most earnestly recommend it to you to make a Law to lay our Indian Traders under proper Regulations, and to promote an Intimacy & Friendship & living in Harmony with our Indian Neighbours & Allies, that we may be enabled to civilize & make them industrious, & to incorporate with them, by carrying on an equitable Trade with them, and treating them with Christian Benevolence. This at least we owe to them upon Account of our possessing their happy Climate & Country, and we shall not only profit by their Trade, but make them our steady friends, and by extending our Allyance to distant Nations we may enlarge our Trade over the whole Northern Continent, and form an impregnable Barrier against our ever active Enemies the French, who in time of profound Peace have not only headed their Indian Allies, & have prevail’d with them to make Depredations, massacre in cold Blood and scalp several of the Inhabitants of this & our other Colonies, but have enter’d with an arm’d force, and erected forts in the Countrys belonging to his Majesty, as well as of our Indian Allies, and therefore I am commanded by his Majesty to recommend it to you in the strongest Manner to provide a Supply to assist the Colony of Virginia, whose Country is invaded, & his Majesty's Troops slaughter’d for endeavouring to repel those Invaders. The Fire which has caught your Neighbour's House has lately spread into your own, your Religion Liberty & Property are all at Stake, if they Can’t repell’d and drove back to their inhospitable Colonies. But as this Subject is of the utmost Importance, and it will be tedious to explain the French plan calculated for the Ruin of Britain & these Colonies at this time, as soon as you fall upon Busyness, I shall lay it before you in a more ample Manner, that you may see the Necessity of a speedy & effectual Supply.

Mr. Speaker & Gentn of the Assembly

I am instructed & have it in Command from his Majesty to look out & fix upon a convenient & healthy Situation for the Seat of Government and Courts of Justice, which may best answer the whole Province, and to lay it before his Majesty for his Approbation. When that is fix'd, your own Prudence and Wisdom will suggest to you, whether you shou'd not have a fund provided to erect public Buildings for the Residence of the Governor, and for the public Offices & Courts of Justice, since the Credit & Increase of the Trade of the Province depends in great Measure upon the Healthyness & Increase of the Capital, & having all the public Officers together.

I am also commanded by his Majesty earnestly to recommend to you the raising a suitable fund without Limitation of time to support the Dignity of the present & all future Governors and to answer the Contingencies and Emergencies of Government, the Payment of the Officers & Clerks of the Council & Assembly for the repairing of Fortifications, Storehouses & Magazines, when erected, which Establishment will be always necessary for your Security and Defense. His Majesty having been graciously pleasd to give you 1000 Firelocks and Accoutrements for the use of this Province, and I have a well grounded Expectation that proper Artillery with Military Stores will be granted to the several forts when erected, & an independent Company; provided that a powder Duty be again granted to supply the Magazines in the Province.

It is with great Concern that I observe that from the late Divisions in the Provinces the proper Duties laid on for the Support of the Establishment, and for sinking the paper Currency have not been properly levyed, from the disputing the Legality of the Assembly in passing & continuing those Duties, by which Means the Charges of Government have not been paid, & the public Debt increas'd; as this Bone of Contention is happily laid aside by his Majesty's having minutely enter'd into an Examination of the Constitution & Laws of the province by repealing several Laws, it will be necessary for you to have all the present Laws revised, and where Laws have been repeal'd upon Account of some improper Clauses, to reenact them with unexceptionable Clauses, and to have the whole Laws ascertain'd, which may be best done by appointing Committees to sit upon them during the Recess betwixt this & the next Session, to have them ready to be offer'd at next Assembly.

Gentn. of his Majesty's Council, Mr. Speaker, and Gentn. of the Assembly

Since his Majesty has been graciously pleas’d to intrust me with the Care & Improvement of this Province, as it is my Duty, so it ^shall^ be my constant Care to promote true Religion & Virtue, and the Wealth peace & Happyness of the Colony, and to increase & improve it's Trade. As a Union of Affections & acting together for the general Good of the Province is not only a prudent & right Measure, but absolutely necessary to be pursued to improve the Colony in Wealth & Trade, it is my determin'd Resolution to encourage and countenance only those who shall heartily concur in so good a purpose, which must improve the Markets, support the Credit, establish Justice, and give Strength and Weight to the Colony, and induce Merchants, Artizans, & other Gentlemen of Learning, Merit, & Probity, to purchase & reside in the Province.