Page:The Life of George Washington, Volume 1.djvu/333

 INTRODUCTION. 303 Then this question was put ; can the house chap.vhi. with safety to the people, come into any other 1728. method for supporting the governor, or com- mander in chief for the time being, than has been heretofore practised? This also passed in the negative, and was the first manifesta- tion, on the part of the representatives, of a determination to make no advance towards a compromise. These votes induced the governor to remind the court of a letter received from their agent in 1722, wherein he mentions a conversation with lord Carteret, in which his lordship desired him to write to the assembly advising them not to provoke the government of England to bring their charter before the parliament, for if they did, it would, in his opinion, be dissolved without opposition; and he advised them to take care, that their present proceedings did not bring their charter into danger. This caution did not deter the house from preparing a state- ment of the controversy, and transmitting it to their several towns ; in the conclusion of which they said, " we dare neither come into a fixed salary on the governor forever, nor for a li- mited time, for the following reasons : First, because it is an untrodden path which neither we nor our predecessors have gone in, and we cannot certainly foresee the many dan- gers that may be in it, nor can we depart from that way which has been found safe and com- fortable.