them with the English inhabitants of the place. To this
circumstance it is owing, that they have continued to correspond and
converse only with one another; so that very few of them, even of those
who have been born there, have yet learned to speak or understand the
English tongue. However, as they were all zealous protestants, and in
general strong hardy men, and accustomed to the climate, it was judged
that a regiment of good and faithful soldiers might be raised out of
them, particularly proper to oppose the French; but to this end it
was necessary to appoint some officers, especially subalterns, who
understood military discipline, and could speak the German language;
and as a sufficient number of such could not be found among the English
officers, it was necessary to bring over and grant commissions to
several German and Swiss officers and engineers; but this step, by
the act of settlement, could not be taken without the authority of
parliament; an act was now passed for enabling his majesty to grant
commissions to a certain number of foreign protestants, who had
served abroad as officers or engineers, to act and rank as officers or
engineers in America only. An act was likewise passed in this session,
strictly forbidding, under pain of death, any of his majesty's subjects
to serve as officers under the French king, or to enlist as soldiers
in his service, without his majesty's previous license; and also for
obliging such of his majesty's subjects as should, in time to come,
accept of commissions in the Scotch brigade in the Dutch service, to
take the oaths of allegiance and abjuration, on pain of forfeiting five
hundred pounds.

MARITIME LAWS OF ENGLAND EXTENDED TO AMERICA.

As it had been resolved, in the beginning of the preceding summer, to
build vessels of force upon the lake Ontario, an act was now passed for
extending the maritime laws of England, relating to the government of
his majesty's ships and forces by sea, to such officers, seamen, and
others, as should serve on board his majesty's ships or vessels employed
upon the lakes, great waters, or rivers in North America; and also, but
not without opposition to this last, for the better recruiting of his
majesty's forces upon the continent of America; to which end, by a new
clause now added to a former act, a recruiting officer was empowered
to enlist and detain an indented servant, even though his master should
reclaim him, upon paying to the master