beyond his present situation, asked him if he could not handle a pen better than a shovel. Taylor agreed joyfully to the change, was installed as a clerk, and soon made himself in this situation, a most important member of the establishment. He retained it several years, and when at length Savage died, married his widow, and became the proprietor of the whole concern. Here, by prudent management and great industry he contrived to amass a very considerable fortune, but either allured by more promising prospects, or tired of his old abode, he afterwards purchased a considerable estate on the shores of the river Lehigh, in the county of Northampton, and built a large house upon it, where he fixed his residence.

Mr. Taylor had not been long an inhabitant of Northampton, before he was called into public life. In the provincial assembly which met at Philadelphia, on the fifteenth of October, 1764, we find him representing that county, and placed immediately on the committee of aggrievances, one of the most important and useful situations at that time, and still more so at a future period. He also took an active part in the discussion of the great question which then agitated the province, the alteration of the charter, and the reformation of the proprietary government, into which many serious abuses had crept.

In the month of June, 1765, the speaker of assembly had received the proposal of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts Bay, for a general congress of delegates at New York in the ensuing au

tumn. At the meeting of the assembly in September, he laid the communication before them, and on the same day the measure was agreed to without a dissenting voice. The speaker Mr. Fox, Mr. Dickinson, Mr. Bryan and Mr. Morton, were elected as delegates, and a committee was appointed to prepare a draught of instructions for their government. On this committee, Mr. Taylor was appointed; the instructions were drawn up, and on the following day, presented to and approved by the house. They afford one of the many instances of that caution, with which all the provincial legislatures engaged in the controversy with the mother country; they were resolved honest and firmly to assert and maintain their rights, but at the same time they were determined to commit no hasty act, which should throw back the censure on themselves, and involve them in the charge of disaffection and rebellion, while they were claiming nothing more than had been guaranteed by their charters and enjoyed by their ancestors. "You are to consult together," say the instructions, "on the present circumstances of the colonies, and the difficulties they are and must be reduced to by the late acts of parliament, and to join in loyal and dutiful addresses to the king and the two houses of parliament; humbly representing the condition of the colonies, and imploring relief; but you are to take care that such addresses, in which you join, are drawn up in the most decent and respectful terms, so as to avoid

every expression that can give the least offence to hist majesty, or to either house of parliament."

In the month of October, 1765, Mr. Taylor was again elected as the representative of Northampton county in the provincial assembly, and again became an active member in several useful committees, and a participator in all the leading measures which were introduced. In the month of June following, we find him one of the gentlemen appointed to draw up an address of thanks to the king, on the repeal of the stamp act; and it affords an instance of the satisfaction which was felt at that period by the colonies, in every indication of returning good feeling on the part of the mother country. "The paternal concern," say they, "for the welfare and prosperity of all your majesty's subjects, however remote, which majesty has demonstrated on this very important occasion, cannot fail of fixing, in the hearts of the good people of this province, the most inviolable affection and loyalty to your royal person and government, and exciting their sincerest prayers for the long continuance of your majesty on the throne of those extensive dominions, whose happiness and glory have been the invariable objects of your care and attention.

your

"The assurance which your majesty has been pleased to give us of "your approbation of the dutiful behaviour of the province of Pennsylvania, amidst the too prevailing distractions which have agitated the other colonies;" fills our breasts with sentiments of most respectful gratitude, and demands our warm

est thanks this instance of your majesty's condescension and goodness, must engage the people we represent to continue to recommend themselves still further, by their dutiful behaviour, to your royal favour and protection.

"We humbly entreat your majesty will further permit us to embrace this opportunity of expressing the high sense we entertain of the justice and tenderness of your parliament, who, ready to hear and consider the aggrievances of your majesty's subjects, have, upon a just representation of the unhappy circumstances of your colonies, manifested their good dispositions and lenity to us, in our late distressed situ

ation.

"Fully sensible how much the happiness of your people depends on a perfect harmony and connection between Great Britain and her colonies, we assure your majesty, that no care or endeavours shall be wanting, on our part, to promote and establish that union of affections and interests, so essential to the welfare of both, and to preserve that loyalty and affection to your majesty's person and government, which we esteem to be one of their first and most important duties."

To show still further their good will, and the joy which they experienced at this reconciliation, they added to the address a resolution, in which they expressed their readiness to meet in every constitutional way the wishes of the British government." Whenever his majesty's service," they resolve, "shall for

the future require the aids of the inhabitants of this province, and they shall be called upon for that purpose, in a constitutional way, this house, and we doubt not all future assemblies, will think it their indispensable duty to grant such aids to his majesty, as the safety of the colonies requires, and the circumstances and abilities of this province may permit, unless the proprietaries' instructions to their deputy governors, respecting proprietary private interest, shall continue to interfere.”

From this period until the year 1770, Mr. Taylor continued to take his seat in the assembly, and was always placed on the several standing committees of which he had been formerly a member, as well as named on many others of importance. We find him on those appointed to amend the judiciary establishment, regulate the assessment of taxes, investigate the rights of the house, to choose the printer of the public laws, raise loans on bills of credit, prepare a system for improving the navigation of the great rivers of the province, and several others.

In the early part of the year 1768, he exerted himself strenuously in bringing to justice the perpetrators of some horrid massacres of the savages on the frontier, which had nearly involved the province in an Indian war. Thinking that the governor had not acted with all the promptness which the matter demanded, he was appointed by the assembly, with several other members, to draw up an address urging his attention to it. In this manly address they call