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L. H. J
Liber No. 46
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End to such Dispute, and would fully obviate every Supposition of
the Act of 1715 being expired
As to the second Point, whether I and the Council have acted
agreeably to the Letter, Meaning or Intention of the Act, will best
appear by considering the following Paragraphs of it (which are in
Fol. 105 and 106, in the Book of Laws: " And every Person slain
in the Service of this Province, leaving behind him a wife or Chil-
dren, there shall also be allowed a competent Pension to the wife
during her widowhood, and the Children 'til they be of Years to get
their Living, or be put out Apprentices; and that this pension be
yearly paid and allowed out of the Fifty Thousand Pounds of To-
bacco per Annum, to be raised by the Governor of this Province for
the Time being, or the Council, as in this Act is hereafter provided
in the Intervals of Assemblies.
And for the preventing of the great Charges of Annual Assem-
blies, who may meet for no other Occasion but to lay the Publick
Levy in Time of Peace; Be it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid,
that the Governor and Council, during the Interval of Assemblies,
for the Defraying and Payment of the small Charges of this Prov-
ince, be and are hereby impowered to assess the same, equally to be
levied upon all the Inhabitants of this Province, for the Defraying
the said small Charges in Time of Peace as aforesaid; any Thing in
this Act to the contrary notwithstanding.
Provided always, and it is the true Intent and Meaning of this Act,
the said Sums for the small Charges of this Province, so to be as-
sessed by the Governor and Council upon the Inhabitants of this
Province as aforesaid, exceed not in any one year the Sum of fifty
Thousand Pounds of Tobacco; and the Disbursements of the same
Tobacco to be accounted for at the next General Assembly, after the
raising and disbursing the said Tobacco as aforesaid.
And a Paragraph in Page 104, which describes the Times of War,
shews what Times of Peace are intended by that Law; and is in
these Words: " And to the Intent that whensoever it shall appear
to the Governor or Commander in Chief of this Province for the
Time being, and his Council, to be necessary to raise Forces for the
suppressing of any foreign Invasion, or domestick Insurrection or
Rebellion, or any War with any Indians, that the aforesaid Officers
and Soldiers may be duly paid according to the Proportions aforesaid
and all other Charges and Expences for the Charge and Manage-
ment of such War, may be duly paid and discharged; without which
this Province cannot be defended and secured."
These Paragraphs plainly prove, that the Governor and Council
are impowered to raise this Tax, not only once in many Years, but
even every Year in the Interval of Assemblies; and that its not being
raised has not been for want of a legal Authority to raise it, but
from a Resolution in the Governor and Council not to exercise the
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