I am just returned from Wilmington after holding a very disagreable Session of 5 Weeks Continuance to no purpose, where great Attempts have been made against His Majesty's just prerogatives and the Rights of the Council, and have been obliged to prorogue and afterwards dissolve them without passing a crude indigested Aid Bill tacked again with an Agent, which they insisted as their right to force upon the Crown—As I find a Ship just ready to sail for London I have only Time to send you the Journals unattested and the two rejected Bills for your Information, until I can get the Bills and Journals of the two houses and Minutes of the Council properly attested under the great Seal which I shall send by the next Opportunity, and shall beg leave to make some Observations on the Transactions of the Sessions to shew how necessary it is for his Majesty's Service to support me and give me further Instructions where your Lordships shall find them necessary to support the Dignity of his Majesty's Government, and quell the Spirit of the Assembly, who think to obtrude themselves into the Governmt. and daily claim new privileges and refuse to obey his Majesty's Instructions. The Northern Junto of Child Barker and Jones being broke to pieces, and none of them attending. Sam: Swann the Speaker, his Brother John in the Council, and Jno. Starkey the Southern Republican Treasurer formed a Junto upon the Speaker's being disappointed of being Assistant Judge, and lead the house this Session.

The House was prorogued to the 30th. of October, but no quorum appearing in either house, I was obliged to prorogue them to the first of November, when a Quorum being come to Town I sent to them to attend me, but the lower House refused to assemble, so to avoid a Dissolution was obliged to prorogue them de die in diem until the 7th. of November, and though above 25 Members were in Town they still refused to meet denying His Majesty's Right of constituting 15 to be a Quorum, upon which I told them if they did not meet and adjourn themselves, I wou'd no longer prorogue them but let them dissolve themselves—Upon which they thought proper to meet and altho' there were 31 Members present besides the Speaker in express Contradiction to his Majesty's Instructions that 15 shou'd be a quorum; and upon their meeting though they refused attending me to make my Speech, they came to a Resolution that they wod. stand by their Interpretation of their Charter, and not enter upon Business without a Majority of the whole House, and ordered Warrants to be issued to take the absent Members into Custody, and that their Serjeants fees shod. be paid by the Defaulters, and then adjourned de die in diem until the 11th. at night, and then sent to let me know they wou'd attend and receive my Speech, in Answer to which after some Days they attended me with their Address; but entered not in their Journal that they had delivered their Address and consequently did not enter my Answer to their Address, and therefore have sent your Lordships my Answer.

I must also observe that in the Manner of passing the Treasurer's Accounts, which they have taken out of the Governors and Council's Inspection, & will not allow the Auditor or Lords of the Treasury to interfere in their Accounts, but pass them as they please with or without Vouchers, and keep all their Accounts in the Clerks hands which ought to be kept in the Auditor's Office—so that in forming their Committees of Accounts and Claims they have made the Committee of the Councils Attendance nugatory for the Committee of Accounts & Claims consist of from 7 to 9 of the Members of the lower house in each; and but 2 in each from the Council, and as all Things are carried by a Majority the Council must submit to their Majority, and always sign the Report whether partial or not, and this Report they think ought to bind the Governor and that he ought to approve of it and issue out his Warrants accordingly, this I have refused sometimes to ratify or grant Warrants upon their Report, and now the Northern Treasurer has made Payments to his favourites without my Warrants, and the Assembly this Session have ordered their Southern Treasurer to pay publick Money without any order from me to pay their Serjeants fees for Members in Custody, to secure the Members in the Junto's Interest.

I must further observe to your Lordships the Arts they made use of to carry a Majority in the Council to pass the tacked Aid Bill, which had been twice before rejected by the Council—By the Journals they voted that no Bills shod. be recd. after the 25 of November; yet delayd bringing in the Treasurers Bill until the 29. to explain this Artifice to your Lordships, I must inform you that Mr. Barker the Northern Treasurer and John Starkey had been appointed Treasurers in the Aid Bill granted in 1754 for a Time unlimited, I being then not 6 weeks in the Government, and no Person informed me of it until the Bill was passed, this Bill is temporary and the Aid expires in 1763. Mr. Barker having found out Mr. Child's artful Designs, and the false Measures he led him into, and having kept very irregular Accounts, if they can be called Accounts, intends to quit the province and therefore sent his Resignation under his hand to the Speaker by Mr. Rieusset one of the Council and Collector of Roanoak with a Recommendation to make him Treasurer in his place; this the Speaker secreted from the House 'til near the End of the Session, and according as Mr. Rieusset was to vote in passing their Agent Bill tacked to the Aid Bill they were to make him Treasurer or not. Therefore the Treasurer's Bill was to be kept back until the 3d. reading of the Aid Bill, and then was brough in & allowed to be filled up by the Name of a Member of the Assembly, but if Rieusset gave up his Majesty's right by having a foreign Clause tacked to the Aid Bill, then it was to be altered at the 3d. reading, and Rieusset's name was to be inserted, the Bait took, and by his vote the aid Bill tacked with their Agent passed the Council—I therefore whenever I heard the Treasurer's Bill was read in the House sent a Message to the Speaker that as he was Treasurer by an Act, I cou'd pass no Treasurers Bill without seeing his Resignation, or having it entered on the Journals—upon this Message they altered the preamble of the Bill that Mr. Barker inclined to resign but came into the following Resolution—"Resolved that his Excellency's taking Notice of any Matter or Thing transacting in this house before being made acquainted with it by this house, and directing Entries in the Journals thereof is inconsistent with the antient Liberties & privileges of this house"—so that the Govr. was to be the last Man in the province to know the Transactions there, as their Journals were all kept back from him for 6 or 8 days before they wod. give time to the Clerk to copy them, and refused him an assistant Clerk—and every person in the province has a right to know when a Bill is read in the House that they may have Time to petition against it if they think it affects them or the publick. They afterwards upon the Councils altering the Name of the Treasurer resolved—"That it is the inherent right of this house to nominate persons to be appointed publick Treasurers of this province, and that the Council's nomination shod. not be admitted as a precedent hereafter.

I shall not mention the purport of my Message to them, and their Address upon offering the Bills, as they are entered in their Journals, a Copy of which is inclosed but must observe that upon ending the Session and proroguing them for a day to reconsider the indigested Aid Bills, and to know whether they wod. expunge the tacked Clause, upon which I had rejected the Bill, they again directly brought in the Bill in the same words, only making the Agents Clause the main Title of the Bill and first Clause, and then adding the Aid Bill to the other, and though they were before so exact that upon wanting one Member to make up 35 the Majority of the House, the Speaker went twice with the house and the Mace to a sick Member in order to make a quorum, yet this new Agent & Aid Bill was read 3 times and passed without having a Majority present, so inconsistent were their Actions. Upon this I summoned the Council to meet me and laid before them the following reasons for dissolving the Assembly, and that each Member shod. sign his name, who were for or against the Dissolution; this they refused to do, and though some of them wou'd willingly continue the Assembly, they declared that I had a right to dissolve them, and I might act as I thought proper.

As I have sent your Lordships the Original Bill offered to me which I rejected, I think it my Duty to point out the Insufficiency and crude nature of the Bill, which I was kept a stranger to until sent to me to peruse before I shod. pass or reject the Bill—As Sam: Swann, John Swann, & John Starkey were 3 of the Issuers of the Bills, the Sum granted was to be made as large as possible that they might have the more to limit the Bills, and so were to amount to £16494 Currency, they therefore instead of giving one field Officer to the 5 Companies formed a Regiment and appointed 3 field Officers at £15:12:10 ⅌. diem, and wod. not allow them to be Captains of 3 of the Companies, but were to pay 3 Captains besides to add to the Expence; though the Assembly of So. Carolina gave 22 Dollars Bounty Money, yet to prevent raising Men speedily they only gave 40 Shillings Currency, a Guinea in value, Bounty Money, which would have delayed the Service until it wod. have been too late to cooperate with the others, they had 100 Men in each Company, and raised independent of them 40 Men more to guard Fort Dobbs and Johnston witht. allowing Commission or Non Commission Officer to command them, in order to depreciate the Currency by too great an Emission; when directed to employ above £6000 lying the Agents hands in England, which wou'd amount by remitting here to near £12000 Currency, they never took that Money into Consideration for reasons I shall mention below when I treat of the Agent they wanted to impose on the Governor and Council, but wod. issue more paper Money to be made a legal Tender, and would provide no law to take place before January 1763, tho' next Years poll Tax does not exceed 4/11 ⅌. Taxable, a very moderate Tax—And in Case the Cherokees shod. make peace & submit in 2 Months, and the Troops disbanded, perhaps £10000 might remain locked up in the Treasurers hands for his Emolument, and was not to be burnt or to issue to take up the torn or dissused paper Bills which generally fall upon the poor, but by the Bill were to be applied towards future Contingencies, which were not to be applyed by the Govr. and Council; but were to be disposed of by the General Assembly, who thus usurped a Share in the Government, and wod. take upon them to apply it when they met to pay their Stipends, or continue it in the Treasurers hands, so that the Aid wod. have been in itself nugatory. However as the next best thing I cou'd do for his Majesty's Service, as the Province of So. Carolina can't near compleat their Regiment for want of white Men, I gave Govr. Bull early Notice to send up his Officers with Levy Money, and have directed our disbanded Officers to endeavour to keep the Men together to enlist in their Troops by getting so great a Bounty, and hope by these Means they will near compleat their Regimt. with disciplined Troops—I have herewith also sent you my Speech after the short prorogation and the Assembly's last Address to me; and you will find by the Clause for appointing Bacon Agent, that they had fixed him at a Salary of £200 a Year for 2 years from the 1st of October last, which Sum was to be paid to him out of the publick Treasury, and of the Money recd. from the Treasury in England, which was to be paid to him by the following Committee of Correspondence by Bills to be purchased by said Committee, which makes it evident their new Agent was to take it out of the Agents hands in which it is lodged in England, and was intended to be sent over to them in Specie, and then they were to remit him back his Salary upon what terms they liked to make a profit out of it to the Committee and their friends. The Committee was to consist of 3 of the Council and 5 of the Assembly or the Majority of them, four of which were the Speaker, his Brother, his Nephew, and Treasurer Starkey his Dependant, and 2 others his friends, only L. DeRosset and Harnet being independant, and none of the governing Junto, who would not be called upon to make a Majority