The New Hampshire Gazette

BOSTON, March 24.

Wednesday last the Great and General Court or Assembly met at the Court House in this Town; and on Friday his Excellency the Governor was pleased to make the following SPEECH to both Houses, viz.

Gentlemen of the Council, and House of Representatives,

SINCE I met you last I have received the King's Commands, signified by his Secretary of State the Right Honourable Mr. PITT, to acquaint you "That his Majesty, having nothing so much at Heart as to improve the great and important Advantages gain'd the last Campaign in North America; and not doubting but that, in this promising and decisive Crisis, all his faithful and brave Subjects here will continue most chearfully to co-operate with and second to the utmost, the large Expence and extraordinary Succours, supplied by Great Britain for their Preservation, and future Security, by compleating the Reduction of Canada, expects that you will make Provision for the Levy, Pay, and Cloathing of at least as large a Body of Men as you did for the last Campaign, and even as many more as the Number of its Inhabitants may allow, and that no Encouragement may be wanting to this great and salutary Attempt."

His Majesty is further most graciously pleased to permit his Secretary of State to acquaint me that strong Recommendations will be made to Parliament in their Sessions of next Year, to grant a proper Compensation for such Expences, according as the active Vigour and strenuous Efforts of the respective Provinces shall justly appear to merit."

Nothing can give a higher Satisfaction to a faithful and spirited People upon knowing this his Majesty's Pleasure, than to reflect that, from an invariable Sense of the public Interest, from an unremitted Zeal for his Majesty's Service, you have, even previous to his Majesty's Commands, already done these Things, by the ample Provision which you have made for the same in your last Session: Nor do I know any Thing that has given me so much real Satisfaction, since I have had the Honor to command in this Province, as to have been able to lay before his Majesty's Ministers the great Merit of this your active Vigour in the strenuous Efforts you have made.

You will not therefore let this happy Conjunction of Circumstances suffer by the want of any Thing which may be requisite to give a full Operation to the Provision you have made, so that the whole may be compleat for Service by the Time they shall be called upon. I hear from many Parts of the Province that the Levies go on with Dispatch and Success, and I have the same promising Accounts from our Troops in Garrison at Cape Breton and Nova Scotia: The Spirit of enlisting is in some Parts somewhat suspended from some undue Expectations of the People who have usually been ready to enlist. -- I shall order the Adjutant General to lay before you the State of the Levies as soon as it can be compleated, and you will then judge what further Provision may be necessary.

I have received an Account from Brigadier Prebble that the Penobscot Indians have again desired Peace, and that they have given him all the Assurance that could be expected from Indians; that they are in good Earnest, --and do now intend to bring in their Families. I do still remain of Opinion, that unless these Indians do, as a previous Measure, fix their Residence some-where near the Fort, and become Domesticated with us, as most of the Indian Tribes have long been with the French in Canada, so as to be responsible in their Tribe for the faithful Execution of their Treaties- There can be no Treaty nor Peace held with them, nor can I answer it to the Eastern Settlers, to put their Lives and Safety in a Situation that must be subject to the Faith of Indians--While I think our Frontiers are much safer under those Precautions which we have taken in a State of War. But -if the Indians will do this, which I have required, I am ready to make Peace with them, and have ordered Brigadier Prebble to send to me here such Deputation of their People as they shall appoint, to ratify and confirm the same.

From Accounts I have received of the Number of Indians which the French have posted on the upper Parts of the River Chaudiere, I must recommend to you the making Provision for such Scouts and Garrisons as may be sufficient to put us out of Danger of a Surprize from that Quarter.

His Majesty having been pleased as a Mark of his Royal Favor, to appoint me to the Government of this Province of South Carolina, and having favoured me with Leave to go to England to receive his further Commands, the Right Honourable Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations think it expedient for his Majesty's Service, that I should return thither as soon as conveniently may be: I am therefore this Session to take my Leave of you, and of the Province, which I do under the most grateful Sense of the Honor and Happiness I have enjoyed therein. And tho' this Parting with Friends be an unpleasant Task-yet I cannot, upon this Occasion, but congratulate you on the Appointment his Majesty has been pleased to make of Governor Bernard, to the Command of this Province, a Gentleman whose Abilities and good Inclinations to the Public Weal, must render any Province happy that he governs- You will therefore consider of such Provision for his Reception as may be not only suitable to the Honor and Dignity of the Commission which he bears; but also to the good Hopes which the Province may assure itself of in his Administration.

I had nothing further to recommend to you; but the Calamity which has fallen upon this Town by Fire, gives melancholy Occasion for me to call upon you, that while, Eye Witness of the dreadful Devastation, you view the ruinous Condition of a Town that has long bore so large a Share in the public Burden, you may consider in what Manner the Country can most effectually relieve it.

March 21, 1760.

T. Pownall.

The following is a Copy of a Vote passed the Great and General Court on the 22d Instant.

Attest. A. OLIVER, Sec.

THE House taking into Consideration that part of his Excellency's speech respecting the calamity bro't on the town of Boston in the late fire, and it appearing on the best information that could in so short a time be obtained, that there was consumed 174 dwelling houses and tenements, and 175 warehouses, shops and other buildings, with a great part of the furniture, besides large quantities of merchandize, and the stock and tools of many tradesmen; that the loss upon a moderate computation, cannot be less than £.100,000 sterling: And it further appearing that the number of families inhabiting the aforementioned houses were at least 220; three quarters of whom are by this misfortune rendered incapable of subsisting themselves, and a great number of them are reduced to extream poverty, and require immediate relief

VOTED: That his Excellency the Governor be desired to send briefs throughout the province, strongly recommending the unhappy case of the sufferers to the inhabitants, and calling upon them for a general contribution, to be paid into the hands of the Select Men and Overseers of the poor of the town of Boston, to be by them distributed as they in their discretion shall judge proper.

And inasmuch as the necessities of many demand a more speedy succour, it's further voted, That there be advanced and paid out of the public treasury, into the hands of the Select Men and overseers aforesaid, the Sum of Three Thousand Pounds out of the Money raised by Excise the year past. The said Select Men and Overseers to lay an account of the money raised by the public contribution before this court, and of their distribution thereof, and of the sum received out of the public Treasury.