506 Assembly Proceedings, Mar. 28-May 13, 1758.

U.H.J.
Liber No. 35

May 4

We are good Deal surprized at the Answer you have given to
our Objection to that Part of your Bill relating to the Application
of the Sum of f 2500 :

By the plain and express Words of the Bill you are appointed
the sole Judges of the Allowances to be made to such Persons as
have been put to an Expence in providing Necessaries for his
Majesty's Troops in their Winter Quarters

You are pleased to assert that you have made the constant and
uninterrupted Usage of this Province the sole Rule of your Conduct.

We presume you dont mean that you are by any Law of this
Province the sole Judges of all public Allowances, a Clause of the
same Nature with this was inserted by the Lower House in a Mony
Bill upon a former Occasion, but it was objected to here and
amended by substituting the Words General Assembly in the Place
of the Words Lower House before it passed into a Law.

That Claims of every Denomination against the Public have been
laid before considered and adjusted by the Lower House only, we
deny and are at a Loss to conceive upon what Foundation you have

p. 315

made this Assertion, many Petitions of Claimants upon the Public
have been preferred to the upper House in the first Instance, and
many Allowances have been made and insisted upon by the Upper
House which the Lower House had not considered, or had rejected
& very few Journals of Accounts have passed for many Years back
without the Insertion of some Claim which the Lower House had
not considered or disallowed before we proposed it.

Tis very true that we have seldom disallowed any Claims you had
before admitted your extreme Caution and Frugality in these Matters
having generally made it unnecessary, but that we have always had a
Power to consider and examine all public Claims when we thought
proper can't be disputed and we presume that because your extreme
Frugality has made a nice Examination of all the public Accounts
unnecessary we ought not therefore in Prudence to put it in your
Power to allow or disallow what you please without Controul :
You observe further that the Sanction and Aid of the Legislature
must be had in this Instance before the Claimants can be paid their
respective Allowances and you intended to send us a Bill for that

Purpose as Soon as this should pass What you intended to do we

did not know but had you executed that Intention where would have
been the Difference? could we have dissented to the additional Bill
for any thing you might have done in Pursuance of an Authority
we had before by the original Bill consented to vest in your House?
Could we have said that we would not pass the additional Bill
because the Allowance to one was too little or to another too much,
when you had been appointed sole Judges of the Quantum? what
more then did you intend we should do by your plan than necessarily