money, had not the
inhabitants of Boston raised the sum required, by subscription.

{1729}

Letters were soon received from these agents, inclosing a report from
the board of trade, before whom they had been heard by council,
entirely disapproving the conduct of the house. The letters also
indicated that, should the house persist in its refusal to comply with
the King's instructions, the affair might be carried before
parliament. But, should even this happen, the agents thought it more
advisable that the salary should be fixed by the supreme legislature,
than by that of the province. "It was better," they said, "that the
liberties of the people should be taken from them, than given up by
themselves."

The governor, at length, refused to sign a warrant on the treasury for
the wages of the members. "One branch of the legislature," he said,
"might as well go without their pay as the other." The act, and the
reason for it, were alike unsatisfactory to the house.

[Sidenote: Death of Governor Burnet.]

After a recess from the 20th of December to the 2d of April, the
general court met again at Salem. Repeated meetings at that place
having produced no accommodation, the governor adjourned the
legislature to Cambridge. A few days after the commencement of the
session, he was seized with a fever, of which he died.

Mr. Burnet is said to have possessed many valuable qualities; and, had
he not been engaged, by a sense of duty, in this long contest, he
would, in all probability, have been a favourite of the province.[129]

[Footnote 129: Hutchison.]

{1730}

[Sidenote: Arrival of Governor Belcher.]

Mr. Belcher, who succeeded Burnet, arrived at Boston early in August
where he was cordially received. At the first meeting of the general
court, he pressed the establishment of a permanent salary, and laid
before them his instructions, in which it was declared that, in the
event of the continued refusal of the assembly, "his majesty will find
himself under the necessity of laying the undutiful behaviour of the
province before the legislature of Great Britain, not only in this
single instance, but in many others of the same nature and tendency,
whereby it manifestly appears that this assembly, for some years last
past, have attempted, by unwarrantable practices, to weaken, if not
cast off, the obedience they owe to the crown, and the dependence
which all colonies ought to have on the mother country."

At the close of