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The Power of late Assumed by his Lordship of setling and ascer-
taining the fees of the officers in the Courts of Justice by way of
Proclamation, is what we cannot submit to, without prostituting the
rights of his Majestys Subjects within this Province.
We do not know that ever the Kings of Great Britain exercised
their prerogative in such Case, especially since the happy Revo-
lution and on this Occasion we entreat your Excellency to consider
that part of the Royal Charter which directs that no Ordinances
made by the Proprietary or his Heirs their Magistrates or officers
without consent of the Freemen or their Delegates shall affect the
right or Interest of any Person or Persons of or in their Life
Member Freehold Goods or Chattels which Clause is consonant to
the great Charter to the Benefit whereof we hope we shall not be
denied a right, however to avoid all Disputes on this Head we had
with great pains and application prepared A Bill for setling those fees
and made them considerably Higher than those of our neighbouring
colonies yet we cannot obtain the Assent of his Lordships Council to
the same without such conditions as would in our Apprehension
prove destructive, to the People, for Reasons your Excellency cannot
be a Stranger to viz: that of making it a perpetual law: and how
Reasonable it is that the Gentlemen of that Board, who without any
Warrant from the Royal Charter assume a Negative on the proceed-
ings of the Delegates of this Province, and whose Seats at that
Board are only at the Will of the Right Honourable the Lord Pro-
prietary and who (with a single Exception only) are composed of
such as hold the chief Offices and Posts of Profit in the Government
during pleasure, the Exorbitancy of whose fees, illegally charged
and the oppressive manner of extorting them from the People, was
what was endeavoured by that Bill to be remedied, how far we say
they ought to be Judges and have a negative in an affair wherein
they are so deeply interested we leave to our Superiors and the world
to judge, whilst we are upon this Article of fees we cannot omit
mentioning to your Excellency another practice lately crept in
amongst us, that of Buying and selling the Offices of the County
Clerks and the very persons who receive the Profits of the Offices of
Clerks & Registers Practising as Attorneys in the Courts to which
these Offices belong that such Sales are unlawful is too obvious to
be denied, and whether the same Person Acting in the different
Capacities of Clerk and Attorney having the Custody of the Papers
and Evidences of the Person against whom he is concerned and the
entring up of the Judgment in the cause may not be Introductive
of Corruption Injustice and Oppression we submit to your Excel-
lency or any other Unprejudiced Person. The Exacting Alienation
fines on Devises is we conceive a thing contrary to the Tenor and
Conditions of our Grants, a Project Introduced to drain Money from
the People within these three or four years last past from a forced
construction of the Words of our pattents.
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L. H. J.
Lib. No. 45
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