196 Assembly Proceedings, May 3-23, 1738.

L, H. J.
Lib. No. 45

money in his hands than such as arose on the Duty of 3^d p hh^d for
arms and Ammunition. Ordered that an Order be drawn on M^r
William Hunt Merchant in London payable to the said Samuel Hyde
for the said Sume of £5O.15..10 Sterl. out of the money in said
Hunts hands due from him to the Publick.
M^r Matthews delivers following Report

By the Committee of Aggreivances and Courts of Justice
May 16^th 1738.

Your Committee observing that the Fees of several Officers and
Ministers of this Province their deputed Ministers Servants and
Officers are in Themselves as now paid excessive great and Oppres-
sive to the Subject, that the said Fees are under no regulation of
any Law of this Province that appear to your Committee.
That the said Officers and Ministers their deputed Ministers Ser-
vants and Officers by a power of a proclamation of the Right Hon-
ourable the Lord Propry dated the 14^th day of April 1733 and one
order of Council dated 15^th of July 1735, hereunto annexed, charge,
levy, raise and Receive from his Majestys Subjects of this Province
such Fees so as afs^d burthensome, great and oppressive to the dis-
couragement ruin and undoing many of his Majestys Liege Sub-
jects, and even the said Colour of power is exceeded by the unlimitted
will of many of the said Officers Ministers and their Deputys, Your
Committee most humbly conceive that by the Common and Statute
Laws of our Mother Country Great Britain (which of undoubted
right and by the resolves of your Honourable House the Subjects
here have and are declared to have a right to enjoy) such like Fees
have been Settled and regulated by Courts of Justice or by Acts of
Parliament. Your Committee further most humbly observe that
from the earliest time of the settlement of this Province by British
Subjects such fees have been adjusted and regulated by Acts of
the General Assembly and not by any other Power or Authority
untill of late.
Your Committee most humbly conceive that such Proclamations
or orders of Council binding or determining the right or Property
of the Subject are invasions on the Fundamental Constitution of this
Province under the Royal Charter and against the. lawful rights and
Liberties of his Majestys Leige Subjects.
Your Committee humbly observe that in one of the first Acts made,
Fees were rated in Money and Tobacco, which rate in money being
(no doubt) adequate to the Service, such Officers Ministers and their
Deputies were thereby restrained not to exceed it.
Your Committee likewise most humbly observe that many poor
Tradesmen, Artificers Labourers and others throughout this Prov-
ince making no Tobacco, execute their Trade Artifice Labour or