ic revenue for and towards defraying the necessary
charges of government, by an emission of sixty thousand pounds in
bills of credit." This bill providing for the payment of the salaries
to which several members of the council were entitled, passed that
house also; and the lieutenant governor gave a reluctant assent to it.
Its passage into a law furnishes strong evidence of the influence
which the control over salaries gave to the house of representatives.

{1728}

[Sidenote: Contest respecting salary.]

Mr. Burnet, who had been appointed governor of Massachusetts and New
Hampshire, was received with great pomp in Boston. At the first
meeting of the assembly, he stated the King's instructions to insist
on an established salary, and his intention firmly to adhere to them.
The assembly was not less firm in its determination to resist this
demand; and, that no additional and unnecessary obloquy might be
encountered, resolved, not to mingle any difference concerning the
amount of the salary, with the great question of its depending on the
will of the legislature. As soon therefore as the compliments usual on
the arrival of a governor had passed, the house voted one thousand
seven hundred pounds towards his support, and to defray the charges of
his journey. This vote was understood to give him, as a present
salary, a sum equal to one thousand pounds sterling per annum. The
governor declared his inability to assent to this bill, it being
inconsistent with his instructions. After a week's deliberation, the
assembly granted three hundred pounds for the expenses of his journey,
which he accepted; and, in a distinct vote, the farther sum of one
thousand four hundred pounds was granted toward his support. The
latter vote was accompanied with a joint message from both houses,
wherein they asserted their undoubted right as Englishmen, and their
privilege by the charter, to raise and apply money for the support of
government; and their willingness to give the governor an ample and
honourable support; but they apprehended it would be most for his
majesty's service to do so without establishing a fixed salary. The
governor returned an answer on the same day, in which he said, that,
if they really intended to give him an ample and honourable support,
they could have no just objection to making their purpose effectual by
fixing his salary; for he would never accept a grant of the kind then
offered.

The council was disposed to avoid