So men were raised and equipped and sent out to the junction of the Allegheny and the Monongahela. Here, under the command of George Washington, they were fortifying themselves when they were attacked by the French and Indians and forced to retire. Again Dinwiddie pleaded for a grant large enough to meet the emergency. When the Assembly responded by voting L20,000, he was delighted until he discovered a rider to pay Peyton Randolph the L2,500 they had promised him for representing them in England in the pistole affair. This was too much for Dinwiddie to swallow, so he vetoed the bill.[20] In his perplexity the Governor now made a radical suggestion to the Board of Trade. "I think it impossible to conduct any expedition in these parts with a dependence on the Assemblies for supplies, without a British act of Parliament to lay a poll tax on the whole subjects of these provinces, to bring them to a sense of their duty to the King, to awaken them from their insolence, to take care of their lives and fortunes."[21] It is easy to imagine the storm of indignation this would have raised in Virginia had the people known of it. Why, no such thing had been done in the century and a half of the colony's existence. Charles I had not dared tax the colonists without their consent; Charles II, though he obtained a revenue in Virginia by threatening the Assembly, had not acted without their consent. Over and over the people had sought guarantees that they should enjoy the inherent right of all Englishmen of being taxed only by their own representatives. Dinwiddie's suggestion undoubtedly reflected the changed attitude of the British government. He would hardly have dared make it if he had thought it would shock the British Ministry. On the other hand, the violent reaction of the people of the colony to the pistole fee should have made it clear to him that they would resist taxation by Parliament fiercely. In other words, his action was revealing of how far apart Britain and her colonies had grown, and prophetic of the clash that was to come. But now Dinwiddie was cheered by word that the King had promised L20,000 and 2,000 stand of arms from the royal stores to aid in the war. With this evidence that Great Britain was willing to do her part, he again appealed to the Assembly. He was overjoyed when they granted L20,000. "I parted with the Assembly on good terms. I shall try to keep them in good humor," he wrote the Board. When he heard that two regiments of British regulars were on their way to Virginia, he confidently expected that the French would soon be driven from the Ohio region. All Virginia was elated when the troops arrived at Alexandria in their brilliant red coats. The Assembly voted an additional L22,000.