Appendix. 445

Ldsp's gracious assurances of your protection, & that you wou'd
Suffer no Innovation on their Rights; for w^ch the Clergy in Mary-
land will be always bound to return the utmost Duty & gratitude to
your Lordship.
Notwithstanding all which as soon as the Repeal & Directions
arrived at Maryland, & directly contrary thereto, the Assembly there
thought proper, in May 1730 immediately to reenact, in Substance,
the before mention'd to have been repeal'd Act for Improving the
Staple of Tobaco, & the said Act (as your Petitioner apprehends)
has been lately transmitted to y^r Lordship & intituled an Act for
improving the Staple of Tobaco &c^a
That had this last mentioned Act confin'd itself to its Title, your
Petitioners shou'd not have given your Lordship this trouble thereon,
as conceiving that the Amendm^t of their Staple is what may be very
proper for the consideratⁿ of the Assembly there, & with which the
Clergy have no business to intermeddle.

Calvert
Paper
No. 295 1/2

But what aggrieves y^r pet^er & the rest of the Clergy is, that as the
former repealed Act took away in all events, a 1/4 of the Clergy's
revenue, This, in effect, do's little less. For it provides, that the
Clergy shall have but 2/4 of their Allowance paid them in Tobaco,
and as to the other 1/4, the Clergy are to take an Allowance for it at
the several stated prices therein mention'd, either in wheat, or in
Barley, or in Indian Corn or in Oates, at the Option of the persons
paying the same.
That in order to Obtain & Enforce this Clause upon the Clergy,
& as conscious that the same is not warrantable, & cou'd not be sup-
ported of it self, the Assembly have crowded it into this Act, w^ch
contains gen^l and perhaps necessary Regulations for the Improvem^t
of their Staple of Tobaco, & w^ch contains moreover other gen^l
matters of a Public Nature not at all relating to the Clergy, & w^ch y^r
Pet^er conceives was calculated for no other End, but that the supposed
weight & consequence of the other matters contain'd in the Act, might
out weigh your pet^ers reasonable complaints, & procure a confirmatⁿ
in gen^l of the whole Act.
Upon this occasion therefore the Clergy of Maryland are put under
the necessity of once more applying to y^r Ldsp's Justice, & most
humbly crave leave to Represent the following matters for y^r Ldsp's
consideration.
I^st That the Crown was a party, in a very great degree, to the
Act w^ch Establish'd the Religious worship of the Church of England,
& the maintenance for its ministers in Maryland, not only as his late
Maj^ty prepared & Transmitted the Draught of the Act thither, but
also as it was finally & Solemnly confirm'd, enacted & Ratifyed by
Order in Council after it had been past there; after w^ch it cannot
be in the power of the Assembly of Maryland to alter or Repeal a

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