90 Assembly Proceedings, July 7-29, 1740.

U. H. J.

the Bill for Arms and Ammunition than any others but can any one
think you are in Earnest, when you must be Convinced from the
Assurances we have given, that upon the return of the other neces-
sary Laws with their usual Duration you may immediately have that
for 6^d per Hogshead, and if that be so essentially necessary as you are
pleased to alledge why must it be lost for none other Reason than
denying us those Laws no less necessary for the Welfare of the People
and Administration of Justice
The great Misapprehensions in our last Address come out it seems
to no more than a small mistake in Point of time, and the Omission
of a Single Exception that happened 17 years ago in the duration
of some of the Laws, as to the first Granting it to be really so (for
we shall enter into no dispute about it) does it alter the nature of the
thing or is it a fact more or less true because said to happen at a
different time from what it really did
And as to the Second Altho at that distance of time the Exception
you mention might have escaped the notice of Persons more accurate
than we pretend to be, yet we were not Ignorant of it, but casually
Omitted Incerting it in Our Address; But how that can affect the
matter so as to make it better or worse, we must acknowledge to be
beyond Our Apprehension for we can never presume that Your
Excellency will say, that this Single Exception constitutes the usual
duration as the Upper House did once of the 3^d p hh^d Act.
Upon the whole Sir we think that it cannot be presumed that We

who have raised above £7500 to dictreco the Catholick King, wouild

not when We judge it necessary raise five or Six hundred Pounds a
year for our own defence; that we should be so Stupid as not to
provide at all times for our own preservation or that the care of that
Preservation should be wholly centered in your Excellency and Your
Council
We are well Satisfied that Supplys to a Government are only to be
raised on casual incidents, and so Ought to have a fixt duration
Altho Laws made for the Administration of Justice ought to have no
such Determination, because it would necessarily occasion a failure of
Justice, that a free People have the Sole Right of Judging as well
of the necessity and quantity of such Supplys as of the manner of
raising them And therefore we again tell your Excellency that we
will not become purchasers by selling those Supplys to the Govern-
ment for those other Laws, which it is Our Absolute Right to have
even if there was no design of altering their Duration neither will we
if we cannot secure to the People the Enjoyment of their useful and

p. 100

necessary Laws, and preserve the regular and Usual Method of pro-
ceedings in Assembly Load them with an Additional Tax or Burthen,
as we have before plainly Intimated especially at a time when they are
obliged by private Contribution to raise money for Carrying on