192 Journal and Correspondence

November

22

Red Book

No. 32
Letter
No. 20

As the measures we have recommended to the State by whose
Appointment we met will depend for their Efficacy upon the Con-
currence of the other States we conceive it our Duty to Communi-
cate them Immediately in order that if they should be deemed
Eligible they might with the greater dispatch be carried into Effect
I remain with the most Sincere Wishes for the Success of our
Common Cause and the Peace & Prosperity of our Sister States

November
25

[Jere. Banning, Na. Officer 7 Dist, Talbot County, to Gov. Lee.]

May it please y^r Excellency When the Naval officers were com-
missioned it was said that M^r Adam Muir as well as myself were
appointed to the 7^th district of this I acquainted the late Governor,
who was pleased to honor me with the following answer

" Inclosed you have the resolution of the Assembly which erected
& describes the districts your commission is right & we returned it ;
the minutes we have of M^r Muirs is of the 6^th and 8^th also but as
it may have been filled up wrong we shall send him another."
My reason for troubling your Excellency on this subject is to
inquire if another commission hath been sent to M^r Muir, for he
still continues so to do the Naval office business for vessels lying
in Choptank. I do suppose from the Gentlemans living at Cambridge
on Choptank, thinks that he is the proper officer of the Port, the
reason for my supposition is, that the word Port (instead of Dis-
trict) in the 16 chap. June Session 1780 section 5^th lead to the error,
but the latter part of the same section in respect to permits, sets the
matter I think in as clear a light as possible, you'll also please to
observe what the Law says in the same chap. Section 6 & 12 as also
in chap. 8 Sec. 1 1 of the same Session in respect to duties on exports
& imports to be received by the several Na. officers in the respective
districts & in the last mentioned chapter Sec. 12 the Law seems to
be plain & pointed.
I apprehend unless M^r Muir hath still the commission for the
7^th District that their entry with him are illegal and that the vessels
are now subject to seizure.
I wish Sir, for y^r opinion in this affair, if I am wrong in my con-
jectures should be glad of your advice to set me right. If it appears
that the mistake hath been rectified in M^r Muirs commission, a little
of your advice to him might probably prevent disagreeable conse-
quences to vessels

November

25

[H. Hollingsworth, Head of Elk, to His Excellency the
Governor in Council]
Gentlemen Your favours of the 14^th & 18^th I am Honour'd with;
had that of the 14^th came in time, should not have wrote you regard-
ing the Horses as I looked on it the only possible way of mak-
ing any thing of them to sell them and for that purpose took the