88 Assembly Proceedings, July 7-29, 1740.

U.H.J.

impartial Person to judge such a Continuance expedient, and even
then the Upper House was prevail'd on by your Offer of 6^d p hogs-
head instead of 3^d to wave that Continuance, and concur with your
House in a Bill for Six Pence p hhd for three years, and supposing
for Arguments sake that a Continuance to the End of the next Session

p. 97

was really improper, will it from thence follow that you have a Right
to insist on having this very Continuance which you object to in a
Bill for the defence of the Province put to every other Law you think
fit on the Contrary, has not the Upper House an indisputable Right
to leave it out, or put it into every Bill they pass, as they think proper.
But to Obviate this glaring Truth, you very roundly assert " that it is
" well known that that Country Laws before mentioned never yet had
" any other kind of Duration than for a certain Time, and to the End
" of the next Session of Assembly " pray Gentlemen are you really so
Ignorant of this Affair yourselves as to think this, or do you think
you may say any thing to me upon this Argument, pray look in the
printed Body of Laws Folio 220 and you will find the Act for reliev-
ing the Inhabitants of this Province, from some Aggrievances in the
Prosecutions of Suits at Law, only revived and continued from the
then Session to the 29 of September 1723
Having now shewn clearly your Mistake in advancing that the
Province was kept out of an Assembly for almost three years, for
want of Your Houses Complyance with the unlimited Continuance
(as you call it) of the Bill for 3^d p hhd, to the end of the next Session
of Assembly, which Dispute did not arise till this present year 1740.
I shall further shew that your Endeavours to drop that Bill did not
at all Arise from the Upper House insisting on the Continuance
you mention but that on the Contrary, the Upper House insisting on
that Continuance, did in Reality proceed from the Resolution you
declared of dropping that Bill for very different Reasons from what
you now give, and that I may not do you any [Injury] I shall shew
your said Resolution and the Reasons of it in your own Message of
the 9^th of June 1739 previous to any dispute about the Continuance of
the Bill for Arms &c^a you say " The uncertainty whether Peace or
War in Europe having subsisted for some time, and there now being
the Sums of £2250.. 11.. 2 Sterling and £34.. 13...7 3/4 Current Gold in
Bank arising from that Duty besides upwards of £2500 Sterling unac-
counted for in any manner, We have as We think justly concluded
that his Excellency and Your Honours have been of opinion that
either Arms and Ammunition were useless to the Province, or that
there is a sufficient Stock already Provided, otherwise you would
never have neglected so essential a part of Your Duty, as is the Care
and laying out that Duty had you thought it necessary for the Safety
of the People Wherefore, until that money is accounted for and that
in Bank laid out &c^a We do not think the Revival of that Bill
necessary "