House.” Here was a new grievance whereof to complain to the Governor, and in order to give him time to think it over the House adjourned for a week, and then sent a committee to ask him to appoint another clerk, who should be “a Residenter of this Province.” It may be readily imagined that the Governor was loth to lose the services of so faithful a henchman, but he was anxious for another appropriation and was obliged to give way, and named a new clerk. How impatient he must have been to get that Assembly “off his hands!” Have there not been Governors, yea, even Presidents, similarly embarrassed within our own recollection? Now the Assembly had another rod in pickle for the Governor. It was whispered about that a fund had been raised to bribe him to favor certain measures in the interest of the Proprietors, and that many citizens had been virtually compelled to contribute toward this fund, under threats of serious inconvenience in various ways. The House determined to investigate these rumors, and sent out subpœnas for a large number of witnesses. One of the parties implicated was Capt. John Bowne, a member from Monmouth County. He was a man of resources, and when a certain witness came to town to testify against him he had the man arrested on a capias in a civil suit and sent to jail, where he was detained, all bail being refused. Whereupon the House (April 30, 1707) promptly expelled Bowne for “a Contempt and a breach of the privileges of this House,” _nem. con._ They moved more quickly in those days than even in this modern era of hustle. The Governor’s exclusion of three members-elect from their seats was still a sore grievance to the House, and finally that body expressed itself in language the good sense and dignity of which excuse its eccentric orthography: