The Lower House. 679

was under the Crown, Your Comittee thought Sufficient to
Shew that the usage hath been as already mentioned, in Re-
gard that the practice for that Whole time is soe well known to
every one that has been a Juditiall or Ministerial Officer Or
hath had any thing to doe in the Courts of Law and we are
of Opinion that the Addition of any thing more in a Case soe
very Clear Would Rather be troublesome then Necessary.
Your Comittee beg leave to Observe that Severall Records
and other Writings were lost in the Time of the Revolution
in removeing the records from S^t Maries hither, and When
the State house was burnt, Which we beleive to have Con-
tained Severall things, to the Present Purpose, and even in
the Books we have inspected, We make no question but there
are Severall things Very materiall which we have Over
looked Yet we hope that what we have Collected, Will be
Sufficient to evince, that as well the Governours as the people
Governed Within this Province since it's first Settlement, or

L. H. J.

at least ever since we Can find any foot Steps of Assemblys
or Judicial Proceedings, deemed the General Statutes of
England to have the force of Laws in Maryland, and your
Comittee Conceive it Plain and evident from the reason and
nature of the things that it Could not be otherwise, ffor as the
first Inhabitants of the Country were Brittains, and maney
of them transplanted themselves at a great expence, and
run the Greatest hazards to become more Usefull to their
Mother Country and were Encouraged thereto as well by the
Royal Charter Which fully declares (if such a Declaration
were necessary) that they and their Posterity Should retain
all the Rights and Liberties of English men as the Publick
Declarations made by the Lord Prop^ry to induce people to come
into the Province, and all these things frequently Recognized
by the Lords Proprietors themselves by assenting to several
Declaratory Acts of Assembly of those rights and liberties
it would (we Conceive) be very Strange and unreasonable,
and most Miserable Would our Case be, if freemen by Runing
such Risques and becomeing beneficiall to their Mother
Country, Should be in Worse Circumstances than their fellow
Subjects and denyed to participate with them in those things
that are equally their birth Rights and be in a State of Slavery
(as the Case must undoubtedly be of any People that have not
the means of Preserving their Liberties) and it would be a
great Absurdity to advance that we are intituled to all the
Rights and Liberties of British Subjects and that we Can't
have the Benefite of the Laws by which those Rights and
Liberties are Reserved.

A Bill for the relief of Sundry poor prisoners was read

p. 109