The Lower House. 297

Gentlemen of the Lower House
That the people of Maryland are his Majesty's Subjects,
I never yet heard any one so wild to deny, and cannot find
out from any thing in my Instruction Set forth in your
Address, which could induce you to take so much pains to
prove it, any more than I can see a foundation for your Reso-
lutions concerning his Ma^tys Title to this province, under
whom by virtue of my Charter I hold within the bounds
whereof I shall always Rule.
No Doubt Gentlemen as you observe, We of Maryland
are in the Circumstances of Conquerors, rather than the
Conquered [which] has put [it] in our power to Treat the
native Indians with that tenderness and humanity, they have
so often met with; Actions worthy Englishmen and Reall
Conquerors.

Many Debates if I am rightly informed, have been in
former Assemblys, whether the Statutes of England did Ex-
tend to you, or no, without either Houses coming to Reso-
lution thereon, and the most comon received opinions of the
best Lawyers of England have been against it and severall
adjudged Cases Support those opinions, as in particular the
Habeas Corpus Act has been often adjudged by all the
Judges not to Extend either to Ireland or the plantations;
which is as strong a Case as can be mentioned, as it is in
favour of Liberty and the Terms of the Act as Generall as
can be. If the Statute of the 5^th Elizabeth about Servants
were to Extend to the plantations it would be destructive to
the very being and Constitution of them. The same may be
observed of the Statutes of Usury, and that to prevent fraud
and perjury and many others which have been Expressly and
often held not to Extend to the plantations, when doubted
either in the Courts of Law or before the King in Council,
and yet these are Generall Laws of Equall obligation with any
other Law or Statute whatever.
I think it needless to mention any other Cases; Unless it be
that of .Blankard and Galdy, and Little thought to find a
position introduced with that Solemnity to be only the Saying
of a single Counsell on one Side the Question, in opposition to

L. H. J.

the Averment of the Counsell on the other Side, and Contrary
to the Resolution of the Judges in that very Case Viz. That
Jamaica was not bound by our Laws unless particularly men-
tioned therein, but by their own particular Laws and Customs.
The full power I have with the advice assent & approbation
of the freemen of the province, or their Delegates to Enact
any Laws whatever, appertaining either to the publick state

p. 195