174 Assembly Proceedings, April — May 1669.

U. H.
Journal
1659-98

Laws other than such as he is Authorized by his Pattent to do
he would forfeit his Pattent and therefore it is not a power fit
to be trusted with any person but ought to be reserved to him-
self alone and that even for the good of the people of this
Province who otherwise by the Subtilty malice & Villainy of a
treacherous and self Ended Governour may be undone as well
as the Lord Proprietary, were He trusted with such a power &
therefore We cannot join with the Committee of the Lower
House in drawing a Petition to be presented to the Lord Pro-
prietary to send such a power into the province much less in
styling any of his Lordships royal Jurisdictions granted him by
his Pattent a Grievance

The Second Grievance is

That it appears &c^a that the Lord Proprietor did assent &^c.
and therefore the same ought not to be disassented to without
the Consent of this House
To this We answer that these Words alledged &c^a His
Lordship willeth that these be Laws signifyeth no more than
Enacted by the Governour in the other Assemblys, that is the
Governour in the name of the Lord Proprietor consents to
these Laws so far as he is impowered to Consent and no
further. But no Governour ever was to this day impowered
in General to consent to any Laws that should bind longer
than till his Lordship should declare his Disassent to them
(though by some special Commissions they have been im-
powered to confirm some particular Acts as appears upon
Record, & therefore the Lord Proprietary was still at Liberty
to dissassent & had good reason so to do for the manifest
oppression & Injustice of the Law for quietting possessions
and the faults of the others Contained in the paper of Obser-

p. 145

vations upon those Laws sent into the Lower House 16^th April
to which We refer You. If the Lower House thinks fit to join
with the Upper House We will promise for them that they
shall join in making a better & more reasonable Law for
quietting possessions (to which they need not doubt his Lord-
ships Assent and Confirmation when he sees it) and also in
amendment of the rest of the Laws viz. that for preservation of
Orphan's Estates and of the Temporal Laws if Convenient to
be revived.

The third is the raising the last Years Levy &c.

To which We answer directly that in raising it his Lordship
by his Officers did what he was bound to do by his Charter
viz. defend the people of the Province from the Indian Enemy
according to the Law of the Province Entituled an Act con-