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of fourteen Rence p Ton for Port Duties or anchorage for his own
use of Right belonging to him by law as Lord Proprietor of the said
province and as well Colo Copley their Majestys present Governor
as the Lord Baltimore and all others whom it may concern are to take
notice of his Majestys pleasure hereby signified and to comply with
the several particulars of the said Report.
John Nicholas
After this Solemn confirmation of his Lordships Right it would
be wonderfully strange to find it taken away by an Act in 1704 and
that quite unknown to the makers of the said Act to those who paid
the said Tonnage or to the Proprietor himself who not only received
it that very year but every year since to this present time to set this
affair in a Proper Light to all Impartial men I apprehend I need
only Transcribe the excepting Clause in the said Act of 1704 viz.
saving always to every Person or Persons whatsoever was and is his
or their Rights & Benefits which he or they had by the former Acts
of Assembly any thing in this present Act contained to the contrary
notwithstanding
The Sence of the Legislature was again declared in the year 1733
when his Lordships Tonnage was Excepted out of the Paper Money
Act and left to be paid in Sterling as formerly
As to what you say upon this Article and have said upon so many
other occasions of this Government having no right to levy any
money without law it seems to me to be quite out of the Question as
this Government pretends to no such thing but the Right the People
of this province have of not being Subject to any Payments whether
they be Taxes Duties Imposts Fees or under any other denomination
whatsoever but what shall be raised setled and appointed by laws to
which by themselves or their Substitutes they give their Assent is a
matter not so far beyond all Contradiction as you conceive which
you must allow when you Consider that at this present time we pay
a duty of one Penny p Pound upon all Tobacco exported out of this
province to any of his Majestys Plantations in America towards the
maintainance of the Colledge in Virginia a duty upon Foreign Rum
Sugar and Molasses imported into this province six pence p month
out of Sailors Wages for Greenwich Hospital & Postage for Letters
carried by the Publick Post all which Duties and Imposts are laid on
by the parliament of Great Britain without having or requiring the
assent of the People of this province to the same besides the many
fees levied & paid in the several colonies of America and the West
Indies by the sole Prerogatives of the Crown and Authority derived
from thence without Acts of Assembly passed for that purpose.
The next thing you mention is the method made use of by some
Officers to get in their fees whatever is done illegally in this Respect
is certainly A Real Grievance which ought to be redressed and I am
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