certificate from two surgeons), Indians and negroes. It also provided that where any person could not provide his own arms, corn or other merchantable provision or vendable goods, to the extent of one-fifth part more than the value of the arms and ammunition, might be proffered to the clerk of the company, who was authorized to sell it and thus provide the person with the necessary arms. In case any were too poor to even supply merchandise, the arms were to be provided from the town stock. It also provided that a stock of powder and ammunition should be held in every town, and from time to time be renewed by the Selectmen. The necessary stock of powder, arms, and ammunition, was to be secured by a rate equally and justly laid upon the inhabitants and estates in such towns; and the rate for this purpose was collected by the constables, who were authorized, in case of non-payment, to distrain as for other rates. Under this act the militia of the Province were governed, and from the militia so authorized were raised the troops who formed the contingent of Provincials in the various expeditions against Canada, and proved their natural military capacity and their inherent quality as good soldiers at the siege of Louisburg, the expedition against Crown Point, and upon other occasions, as well as in various minor engagements with the Indian enemy upon the eastern and western frontiers of the Province. After the events of the Stamp Act and when it became a certainty that the colonists could hope for nothing from the tyrannical ministry of Great Britain, and all thinking men faced the possibility of armed resistance to the mother country, it became necessary for those foreseeing the event and in the forefront of the Revolutionary party to provide a more elastic instrument and one more responsive to their urgent needs than could be looked for under the old militia act. Accordingly, in the first Provincial Congress, on the 26th of October, 1774, a committee appointed to consider what was necessary to be done for the defence and safety of the Province made a report upon which a resolve was immediately passed, making provision for the appointment of a Committee of Safety, who were empowered and directed to alarm, muster, and cause to be assembled, with the utmost expedition, such and so many of the militia of the Province, completely armed and equipped, as they might judge necessary for any contingency they might be called upon to confront. Provision was made for the pay and subsistence of any force that might be so assembled, and for the appointment of general officers, inasmuch as some of the officers holding commissions under crown appointments might have, and no doubt did hold, what were at the time conservative opinions concerning the causes that had led to the bitter feeling between the people of the Colonies and the ministers of Great Britain. It was resolved that such companies as had not already chosen