e land of
the proprietaries should not be taxed higher than that of any of the
inhabitants, _of the same quality_. Whereas the governor insisted that the
meaning must be that none of the proprietaries' land should be taxed any
higher than the lowest and poorest belonging to any of the inhabitants.
The language of the enactment is, perhaps, susceptible of either
construction. It will certainly bear the one which the governor put upon
it, and as he insisted, in the most absolute and determined manner, upon
his view of the question, the Assembly were at length compelled to yield;
for the terrible danger which impended over the colony from the Indians on
the frontier would not admit of delay.

The people of the colony, though thus beaten in the contest and forced to
submit, were by no means disposed to submit peaceably. On the contrary a
very general feeling of indignation and resentment took possession of the
community, and at length it was determined to send a petition to the King
of Great Britain, praying him to dispossess the proprietaries of the power
which they were so obstinately determined on abusing, and to assume the
government of the colonies himself, as a prerogative of the crown. The
coming to this determination on the part of the colony was not effected
without a great deal of debate, and political animosity and contention,
for the governor of course had a party on his side, and they exerted
themselves to the utmost to prevent the adoption of the petition. It was,
however, carried against all opposition. The Speaker of the Assembly
however, refused to sign the bill when it was passed, and he resigned his
office to avoid the performance of this duty, an act which would of course
greatly please the proprietary party. The majority of the Assembly then
elected Franklin Speaker, and he at once signed the bill. This proceeding
made Franklin specially obnoxious to the proprietary party, and at the
next election of members of the Assembly they made every possible effort
in Franklin's district to prevent his being chosen. They succeeded.
Franklin lost his election by about twenty-five votes out of four
thousand. But though the proprietary interest was thus the strongest in
Franklin's district, it was found when the new Assembly came together that
the party that was opposed to them was in a majority of two-thirds; and in
order to rebuke their opponents for the efforts which they had made to
defeat Franklin in his distric