576 Assembly Proceedings, April 23-June 5, 1740.

L. H. J.
Lib. No. 46

Law proposed to that purpose unless the Delegates would Agree to
such Exorbitant Rates as they are pleased to exact and to make such
a Law perpetual which as those Fees are rated in Tobacco which
being a Commodity of a fluctuating and uncertain Value would in
time prove an Intolerable Burthen to the People, which evil We
conceive to be principally owing to the Advice and Influence of his
Lordships Council who at the same time they exercise a part in the
Legislature without any Authority as We humbly conceive from
the Royal Charter are possest of the Offices wherein the most Con-
siderable part of those Fees arise
That Our Courts of Justice are in a great Measure shut up against
the People by a late Practice of taking Judgment Bonds for Fees
before they become due and by the cruel and oppressive means used
by Sheriffs and other Officers in the prosecution of those Bonds
That the Courts of Judicature are absolutely under his Lordships
Power and Influence inasmuch as the Judges not only hold their
Places by Commission during his Pleasure but also many of them
Enjoy the principal Offices of Profit and Trust in the Province by
which means your Petitioners and their Constituents cannot reason-
ably expect an equal and impartial Administration of Justice when
their Properties come in Competition in any of those Courts with
that of their Proprietary or when they shall be so unhappy as to have
a Proprietary capable of being so much Biassed by self Interest as
to appoint Judges to Suit his own particular Purposes and your
Majestys Petitioners beg leave in the most humble manner to repre-
sent that they conceive it to be altogether upon the Foot and in
Confidence of this manner of appointing Judges that his Lordship
takes upon him in his Court of Chancery held in his own name by
Decree of his Governor under the Character of Chancellor to Vacate
the Patents or Grants of Land made by himself or his Ancestors to
the Inhabitants here under Pretence that the Tracts granted contain
Greater Quantities of Land than were Originally intended to have
been sold altho those Lands have always been at first Surveyed and
laid out by their own Officers and Granted under certain Specifick
Lines and Boundaries and expressed in such Grants to contain a

p. 133

certain number of Acres more or less and it is by the same means as
we apprehend that his Lordship has of late exacted from his Tenants
Alienation Fines on Devises of Land Altho there is neither any
Condition in the Grants or Laws of the Province to Warrant the
same by means whereof the Estates of your Petitioners are rendered
altogether Precarious and Subject in a great Measure to the Arbi-
trary Will of the Lord Proprietary Many are the Aggrievances We
suffer besides those here mentioned too Tedious to lay before Your
Majesty at present and wherein We hope his Lordship will consent
to relieve Us if We shall be so happy as to Obtain Your Majestys
Royal Order for Redress in the Premises