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Lib. C. B,
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and be so much their own friends as to use all means in their
Power to avert the Calamities with which their Country is
threatened.
To the making an effectual Regulation to this purpose,
there is One great Obstacle of which Every Body is sensible,
and that is, the specifick Payments in Tobacco, which by the
present Laws the People are obliged to make, to the Clergy,
Officers and Lawyers (which it would be difficult, if not im-
practicable to alter for Want of money) which Obstacle if in
some measure removed, would go a great way towards recon-
ciling the People & their Representatives to the necessary
means of their own happiness, and such a legal Regulation of
Our Staple, as would put it upon an Equality with that of Our
Neighbours, would in all human Probability have the desired
Effect, and be equally advantageous to your Lordship and
your Tenants: The only Expedient We can think of, or believe
practicable is, the retrenching the Tobacco Payments, into
which We believe that even the Clergy themselves would volun-
tarily come, notwithstanding the Establishment in their favour ;
and should the Officers or Practitioners of the Law be less
forward to contribute to the publick Good, than Others, it
would render them odious to all Mankind, and occasion the
Calamities of the Country to be imputed to them, nor would
the Odium stop there: As to such of Our selves as are intitled
either by the Offices We hold, or Our Profession, to Tobacco
fees; We beg leave to assure your Lordship, that we would
most readily and chearfully, was it necessary, sacrifice Part of
Our Income to the Welfare of Our Country: but in the present
Case We believe that We should be Gainers if a proper
Regulation was to take Place, as the Value of what We should
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p. 211
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then receive would (in all Probability) exceed what we can
now hope for.
The Advantages, which We are firmly perswaded Your
Lordship would certainly derive from such a Regulation as
We have been mentioning (besides the Pleasure resulting from
a sense of the happiness of your people) are plain and mani-
fest, as it would invite new Comers into the Province in great
Numbers and increase the Demand for the back uncultivated
Lands, as well as enable the present Inhabitants to enlarge
their Possessions & pay their Rents.
We consider the Right your Lordship has in regulating and
ascertaining Officers fees, and the Offices themselves as part
of your Estate and Inheritance, and therefore would avoid
doing anything which might have the least Appearance of
incroaching on your Rights, in this or any other particular
It is therefore that We trouble your Lordship with this true
state of the Condition and Staple of Our Country, not in the
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