Sir,

I have received your Dispatch No 9, and have laid it before the King.

Your refusal to concur with the House of Assembly in the Proposition they made to you to discontinue the Duties and Taxes which are the Fund for redeeming the outstanding Paper Bills of Credit and the Measures you pursued to prevent the Operation of their unwarrantable and unconstitutional Proceedings in consequence of that refusal are approved by the King. It certainly was become highly necessary to lose no time in putting an end to the Existence of an Assembly that appears to have so little regard to the true Interest of their Constituents, and to have acted upon principles so inconsistent with the public faith and justice.

It is to be hoped that the conduct of the Speaker in delivering the Order for omitting the Poll Tax of one shilling in the Sheriffs Lists and the Compliance of the Treasurers with that Order were more the Effect of their Fears of the Resentment of the Assembly than of any Disposition on their part to concur in such unwarrantable proceedings; but if they were willing Participants in the guilt of these Transactions it shall seem to me that both Policy and Justice require that their conduct should not be passed over. I am therefore to signify to you His Majesty's Pleasure that if the Speaker who delivered the Order you mention to the Sheriffs should appear to you to have been an active Promoter of those unconstitutional proceedings and shall upon the meeting of the new Assembly be again elected for that Office you do refuse your assent to such Election unless you shall be of opinion that such a step for Reasons that cannot be foreseen here may be of prejudice to His Majesty's service.

As to the Public Treasurers as I am not sufficiently acquainted with the nature and constitution of their offices or whether they are or not removable by His Majesty's Governor I am not able to form a Judgment what steps it may be advisable to pursue with regard to them.

Inclosed I send you by the King's command two additional Instructions from His Majesty to you for your guidance in passing Acts of Assembly for the purposes to which they refer also an order of His Majesty in Council of the 6th of May last disallowing an Act passed in No Carolina in Janry 1771, and I am to signify to you His Majesty's pleasure that you do cause this order to be made public in the manner usual upon such occasions.

By the next Packet I shall transmit to you for your private Information a Copy of the Report of the Lords of Trade which induced this Disallowance.