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But whatever my Sentiments may be of the other temporary Laws,
I must own I have often expressed my Surprize in Relation to the
Conduct of Your House about the Bill for the three Pence p hhd for
purchasing Arms and Ammunition for the Defence of the Province
and after all the Consideration that I am Capable of, I can very truly
and candidly declare, that I think in my Conscience your House
entirely in the wrong and that you have put the Country to thrice
the Charges they would have been at, if you had passed that Bill in
the usual manner.
Whatever I have done or said to Induce you to pass it, I can very
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U. H. J.
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truly assure you has proceeded wholly from the Sense I have of my
Duty to his Majesty the Lord Proprietary, and the Safety and
Security of the good People of this Province for whose Welfare this
Bill is at least as necessary, as any One Bill that can be thought on by
your House, and although I am Obliged by my Station more par-
ticularly than others, I have no more private Advantage by it than
any other man in the Province; of the Reasonableness of my Be-
haviour in this Respect I am so fully satisfied, that I shall very will-
ingly and cheerfully Submit it to the Consideration of his Majesty,
whenever I shall be called on so to do
And I am perswaded if you would but seriously Consider the indis-
pensible Duty that always must lie upon me and every Succeeding
Governor, to press by all the just and legal Ways that can be thought
of so very reasonable and necessary A Bill, you would forbear keep-
ing up a Dispute, that must be always unavoidable on the part of
the Government, whenever you think fit to Attack it on this Head
As to the Case you state to be left to your Constituents, and other
Impartial Judges to determine in the matter, if you will but recon-
sider it with any Sort of Candour and Attention, surely you your-
selves must acknowledge it to be so full of mistakes and Misappre-
hensions that all Reasonings from thence must entirely fall to the
Ground you begin it thus The Law " for raising three Pence per
" hogshead for purchasing Arms and Ammunition revived in the
" Year 1734 was then made to continue for three years and to the end
" of the next Session of Assembly after the three years, a Duration it
" never till then had from the time it was first made in the year 1717
" about the time those three years expired, the Renewment of that
" Law, with the unlimited Continuance was strongly insisted on, and
" for want of this House's Complyance in that Point, having found
" it inconvenient, the Province was kept out of A Session of Assembly
" for almost three years " &ca
Now I must own I cannot apprehend that a Continuance to the
End of the next Session of Assembly was ever before thought to be
an unlimited one, neither can I find that the Upper House ever in-
sisted on such a Continuance to be necessary before the last Session
in April 1740 when the then Situation of Affairs might induce every
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p. 96
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