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mentioned in the Case) then there was no foundation for the An-
swer you gave, and you in your last Message say that because you
cannot be likened to the present House of Peers, therefore your
Answer is just from our own Conclusion: It had been well for the
sake of your Honours this Paragraph had been omitted, least the
Publick should say that this Indirect Answer proceeded from an
Impossibility of giving a better
Altho the Council in some other Plantations may be appointed by
the King and Removeable by the Governors yet we have been In-
formed that, unless in some especial Cases, they are Incapable of
holding Offices while they have a Share in the Legislature, and with
good Reason we may be allowed to say, that there is a wide difference
between the Appointment of the King, who can have no view but
what concerns the General Welfare of his People, and that of a Pro-
prietary or a Governor, whose private Interests frequently Clash
with that of the Community, nor was it the dependancy of this and
all the other Plantation Governments, on that of Our Mother
Country which We hinted at, but the Subserviency of any one part
of our Legislature to another
It is needless to dwell upon the offer we made of the Bill for
Arms &c to determine at a certain day it is Clear from our words
that we proposed the time of duration should be proportioned to the
necessity upon which your Honours immediately took upon you
the sole Right of Judging of that necessity and so set down nine
years; It might be presumed Reasonable that we should have some
share in that Consideration, and the nature of Our proposal was such,
that by Conference and mature deliberation of both Houses, the time
of Continuance might have been agreed upon, otherwise you might
have made it ninety nine or any greater number of years.
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U. H. J.
Calvert
Paper
No. 735
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We deny the Intention of totally dropping the Law for Arms so
long as there shall appear any necessity for keeping it on foot, and
Assent it to be Our Undoubted Right, as the legal representatives
of the People, to Judge of that necessity, the sums requisite to be
raised, and the time of Continuance
As to your great Care of not burthening the Trade or putting the
Merchants to procure a dissent to the Law if it was for more than
three pence, we can only say, that Duties amounting to Six Pence
have not long since been on our Tobaccoes with the present Imposts
and yet We never then heard any Complaint from your Honours or
the Merchants about it
We have no great Reason to believe your Honours will take Our
Words concerning the Extension of the Laws against Papists to this
Place however we refer you to an Act of Assembly of Our own
Whereby another made to prevent the Growth of Popery is repealed,
and in which you will find that the Principal reason for that repealing
Act, is said to be " for that by One Act of Parliament made in the
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p. 57
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