We entirely agree in opinion with you that in the present Situation of things and vexed and harassed as the Province is by the Hostilities of the French and Indians it will be in vain to attempt to induce hardy and industrious people to leave Possessions, which perhaps they may enjoy in peace in other Colonies, to come and settle in a Country where they must be exposed to every distress and Calamity which the most inveterate Enemy living in the Country and knowing every Pass and Corner of it can subject them to, and therefore we do not desire, nor mean to press this measure upon you further than the Circumstances of the Province & of the times will admit of.
It does not however appear to us that the same reasons do altogether, tho’ they may in part, operate against the calling an Assembly, concerning which We have given our Opinion so fully and We hope so explicitly in a former Letter, that no other difficulties can remain than those which arise from the obstruction and Embarrassment which such a measure may give to His Majesty’s Service in time of War and which is a consideration that will however more or less weigh according to the manner in which the measure is carried into Execution, for which reason We thought it proper after pointing out to you as clearly as We were able, the general light in which this matter appeared to Us, to leave it to your Discretion to do it in such manner as you should think most proper, lest by prescribing any peculiar method We should lay you under Difficulties which our Ignorance of particular facts would not permit us to foresee, and in this as well as in every other Direction contained in our Letter upon this subject the principal Point we had in view was to avoid every thing that might give you unnecessary Trouble or Embarrassment in the Execution of a measure which our unprejudiced judgment suggested to us as absolutely necessary for the Peace, Welfare and Credit of the Colony, being one of the fundamental Principles upon which it was first established.
Kennedy, William P. Statutes, Treaties and Documents of the Canadian Constitution: 1713-1929. Oxford Univ. Pr., 1930. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_03428