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which is not true in Fact/ to permit them to name Commissioners it
would be to the Proprietary whose Estate you would tax in the
same Manner with any other Subjects? or can it be imagined that
the Peers of England would consent that Commissioners should be
appointed to rate their Estates to the utmost Penny by a House of
Commons who had before doubted at least their Existence as a
Branch of the Legislature?
We don't know how far we may be contemned by the Commis-
sioners named in your Bill for our Observation " that those who
derive a Power from the Act of another will naturally think them-
selves peculiarly accountable for their Conduct to their Constituent "
nor were we induced to make it from any personal Dislike to the
Gentlemen named, many of whom are Strangers to us, but if these
Gentlemen are really as much inclined to express their Contempt as
you are for them we should afford them a better Pretext for it by
suffering you to usurp an Authority over our Properties. If the
Land tax Acts were to be admitted in the Extent you have asserted
yet we think that the Right in the Proprietary to nominate all Officers
whatsoever civil or military, and the respectable Opinion of Lord
Chief Justice Willes would not be invalidated by your Reasoning
You ask, what Argument can be drawn from his Lordship's
Charter? will it be contended that the King has granted by that
Charter a Power which the Crown does not exercise, or even attempt
to exercise ? and then you conclude " that surely it will not be con-
tended; for his Lordship's Power by the Charter to appoint Officers
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U. H. J.
Liber No. 35
May 4
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can't be greater than from whence it is derived, and never could be
intended to extend to Officers of the Kind nominated in your Bill "
Now this Matter which appears to be so indubitable to you, appears
in a very different Light to us, and permit us in our Turn to ask
you a few Questions.
Whence do you derive the Power of making Laws but from the
Charter ? will you not contend that the King granted a Power by the
Charter which the Crown does not exercise or even attempt to
exercise ? whence would you derive the Power you now assume to
appoint Commissioners? Do you claim it from Usage? you can't
cite one Instance. Do you claim it under any and what Act of As-
sembly ? you can't produce one. Do you derive it from the Charter
with the Power of Legislation? By your own Argument you can't.
The Perplexity you must be involved in by not attending to the true
Origin of our Constitution ought to recommend that as much to
your Consideration as the Learning of Land Tax Acts
All the Power as we apprehend that we have or can exercise
flows from the Charter, and Power when granted should be exercised
according to the Restrictions and Limitations imposed by the Grantor.
If the Crown could by the Charter confer a Power of making
Laws, the Crown it should seem could restrain or modify it, and
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p. 309
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