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that when you shall have considered them again, the Transaction
will appear to you in a very different Light from what it has hitherto
done.
It is true the first Act was a temporary one, and that when it was
near expiring, it was continued by another temporary Act for three
Years, and to the End of the next Session of Assembly which should
happen after the End of the said three years; then comes the last Act
mentioned by you, which revives and continues the first Act in full
Force, without mentioning any Time for its Duration, and conse-
quently make it perpetual. I believe the Difference between a per-
petual and a temporary Law is, that there is no Time limited for
the Duration, Operation, or Continuance of the former, and that
therefore it must continue in force 'til it is repealed; that the latter
having a fixed or limited Time for its Duration or Operation, it must
certainly expire, when the Time so fixed and limited expires, or the
End for which the Act was made is fully answered, unless it is con-
tinued by another Law. The Case then here is, that the third and
last Act revived and continued the first in full Force, without fixing
or limiting any Time for its Duration: This is plain and evident
from the Words of it, which Enact, that it shall be revived and con-
tinued in full Force, without limiting any Time for its Continuance
or Duration; and therefore I think that the Addition of any more
or other Words would have been superfluous. I can't imagine that
any Legislature can be supposed to be unacquainted with the Differ-
ence between a perpetual and a temporary Law; nor can it be doubted,
if those, who made the Law under Consideration, had intended it
should have been only temporary, but that they would have expressed
such their Intention, when they might have very easily done it, and
in few Words: And it is a dangerous Doctrine to set up Conjec-
tures, or even the strongest Parol Proof of any Kind, that a Law was
intended to be different from what it reallv appears to be by the
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L. H. J.
Liber No. 46
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Terms of it; as such Doctrine would introduce the greatest Confu-
sion and Uncertainty in Laws, which ought to be expressed in the
clearest manner as they are intended to be Rules for the Conduct of
those for whom they are made.
Besides this, if you consider an Act of Assembly that was made
in the Year 1732 entituled, A supplementary Act to the Act for the
ordering and regulating the Militia of this Province, for the better
Defence and Security thereof, which is a perpetual Law, and I pre-
sume has escaped the Notice of your House, or at least of those who
penned your Address, you will find that the Legislative Power then
did not think the Act of 1715 was expired, but on the contrary looked
upon it to be, as it really is, a perpetual Law, referred to it in several
Places, and aided some Defects in it. This last Act, if there was any
Room to dispute (as I think there is not) whether the first Act was
made perpetual by the Act of 1722, or was expired, would put an
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3.498
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