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We object to that Part of the Bill which constitutes the Members
of the Lower House the sole Judges of the Allowances to be made
to such Persons as have been put to an Expence in providing Neces-
saries for his Majesty's Troops in their Winter Quarters, because
the Power you would assume on this Occasion is unprecedented, and
we think ourselves to be as much concerned as you are in the just and
equitable Distribution of public Money, as competent Judges of the
Compensation which may be claimed and have an equal Right with
yourselves to determine upon the Subject.
The Persons exempted by this Bill from serving in the Office of
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U. H. J.
Liber No. 35
April 18
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Assessors are the Members of both Houses of Assembly, Persons
practising Law and Physic and Inspectors only, to this Exemption
we object because others ought to be included /viz.t Clergymen,
Magistrates, Sheriffs, Coroners, Officers of the Militia Merchants
Factors Clerks Ordinary Keepers, Overseers, Millers Ferrymen,
Mariners, and other Persons under like Circumstances.
The double Tax imposed by the Bill upon the real and personal
Estates of Nonjurors we can't agree to in Conscience, Justice or
good Policy as we think such a Measure must effectually banish them,
the first Settlement of this Province was made by the Roman
Catholicks who had been driven from their native Country by the
Severity of it's Laws and an Act for an unlimited Toleration of all
Christians passed in the Year 1640. had a Spirit of Intolerance pre-
vailed among the first Colonists the Progress in settling this Part of
his Majestys Dominions had probably been retarded. After the
Services those People have done in extending the Dominions of the
Crown and settling this Country, after they have been promised
and allowed an Asylum here, and upon the faith and Encouragement
of an express Law by the Means of an honest and laudable Industry
acquired a Competency for their Posterity to subsist upon an Act
of the Legislature which must have the Effect of banishing them,
when it can't be proved that the Safety or Welfare of the Com-
munity requires that such an extreme Measure should take Place
could not we think be defended upon any principle of Justice or
Policy
We object to the Generality of the Tax upon Debts, and think
that should it take Place in any Respect it ought to be confined to
Debts due to the Inhabitants of this Province, such Creditors as are
non Residents bear their Proportions of the Taxes laid in the
Mother Country or the other Colonies and we share an ultimate
Benefit from the Application thereof to the Defence of his Majesty's
Dominions, and the Annoyance of the Enemy, the common Cause
of all British Subjects; and those who have no peculiar Connections
with the particular Interest of this Province but in Respect of the
Debts due to them here, have a Concern or Property of too transitory
a Nature to be put upon a Footing with that of the Inhabitants
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p. 275
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