The burgesses in their turn expressed the “highest and most becoming resentment,” and promptly voted twenty thousand pounds; but on the third reading of the bill they added to it a rider which touched the old question of the pistole fee, and which, in the view of the Governor, was both unconstitutional and offensive.  He remonstrated in vain; the stubborn republicans would not yield, nor would he; and again he prorogued them.  This unexpected defeat depressed him greatly.  “A governor,” he wrote, “is really to be pitied in the discharge of his duty to his king and country, in having to do with such obstinate, self-conceited people....  I cannot satisfy the burgesses unless I prostitute the rules of government.  I have gone through monstrous fatigues.  Such wrong-headed people, I thank God, I never had to do with before."[164] A few weeks later he was comforted; for, having again called the burgesses, they gave him the money, without trying this time to humiliate him.[165]

[Footnote 164:  Dinwiddie to Hamilton, 6 Sept., 1754.  Ibid. to J. Abercrombie, 1 Sept., 1754.]

[Footnote 165:  Hening, VI. 435.]

In straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel, aristocratic Virginia was far outdone by democratic Pennsylvania.  Hamilton, her governor, had laid before the Assembly a circular letter from the Earl of Holdernesse directing him, in common with other governors, to call on his province for means to repel any invasion which might be made “within the undoubted limits of His Majesty’s dominion."[166] The Assembly of Pennsylvania was curiously unlike that of Virginia, as half and often more than half of its members were Quaker tradesmen in sober raiment and broad-brimmed hats; while of the rest, the greater part were Germans who cared little whether they lived under English rule or French, provided that they were left in peace upon their farms.  The House replied to the Governor’s call:  “It would be highly presumptuous in us to pretend to judge of the undoubted limits of His Majesty’s dominions;” and they added:  “the Assemblies of this province are generally composed of a majority who are constitutionally principled against war, and represent a well-meaning, peaceable people."[167] They then adjourned, telling the Governor that, “As those our limits have not been clearly ascertained to our satisfaction, we fear the precipitate call upon us as the province invaded cannot answer any good purpose at this time.”

[Footnote 166:  The Earl of Holdernesse to the Governors in America, 28 Aug. 1753.]

[Footnote 167:  Colonial Records of Pa., V. 748.]