192 Assembly Proceedings, October 3-November 2, 1728.

L. H. J.

trusted by the Charter to his Lordship: for we beg leave to Observe,
that the words which we suppose gave Occasion to that Charge Viz.
And not delay any Person of Common Right for the Letters of the
King the Lord Proprietary or of any other whatsoever, in our hum-
ble Opinion contain no more in Substance than these words, And
that they deny to no man Common Right by the Kings Letters nor

p. 27

none other mans; which are Part of a Judges Oath prescribed by
the Statute of the Eighteenth of Edward the third and have con-
tinued without Alteration three hundred and Eighty four Years, and
which we Conceive would hardly have continued unaltered so long
had they contained anything Prejudiciall to the Royall Preroga-
tive.
We Cannot in Justice to the People we represent, and our selves,
but observe that severall Attempts have been made by the Artifices
of designing men under a Pretence of serving his Lordship (altho
they were secret Enemies to his true Interest, and openly and
avowedly such to the Prosperity of the Province) to violate the
Rights granted to the People of Maryland, in and by the Royall
Charter; which however have not so far succeeded as was intended,
and we hope and Trust never will have better Success whenever
they shall be Attempted for the future.
We have taken the form of the Oath mentioned in Your Honours
Speech into our most Serious Consideration, and we beg leave to
acquaint your Honour that we Conceive it to be so far from secur-
ing to us and our Posterity the same Measure of Law and Right
which our Ancestors and our selves have ever Enjoyed, that it is
Calculated (we hope contrary to his Lordships Intentions) to un-
dermine all or the greatest Part of our most valuable Priviledges
and to deprive us of the means of Securing them; which means we
Conceive to be the Benefit of all the English Laws, securitative and
Confirmatory of the Rights and Liberties of the subject; some of
which Laws have not yet been put in Execution amongst us not
because they ought not but because there has yet been no Occasion ;
and many of those that have actually been put in Execution espe-
cially Generall Statutes do not appear by Pleadings on Record to
have been so.

p. 28

And we have no Reporters of Cases determined in our Courts of
Justice nor any other means that we know of to transmit to Pos-
terity what Statutes or reasons the Judges grounded their Judg-
ments upon; and yet by the Oath proposed instead of enquiring
whether a Statute really affects the Case in Controversy ? the Ques-
tion will be whether such Statute hath been heretofore used and
Practised? which Question may be made in Every case; and in
Process of Time a Pretence to deprive us of the benefit of all the
Laws of our Mother Country heretofore made and hereafter to be
made.