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serve, and consequently would only be liable to the Duty of 5 s. it
therefore cannot be imagined the other Branches of the Legislature,
whatever might have been done by the Lower House, could possibly
have overlooked or fallen into so absurd and ridiculous a Scheme;
nor can we believe your Excellency ever could have seen these Words
in any other Light than what we contend for, or could ever have
put a different Construction on them, had it not been suggested to
you by a Person whose Interest it was to have them misconstrued
and misunderstood; and what still makes this Matter more plain, if
it is possible to make it plainer, is a Clause in the said Act of 1754,
by which it is provided, " That in Case any Duty shall be paid for
any Negroes or Servants, in Virtue of this Act, and that such Negroes
and Servants cannot be sold by the Importers, and that such Im-
porter shall desire to export such Slaves or Servants, and shall give
Bond, with sufficient Sureties, to the Naval-Officer, to whom such
Duties hath been paid, that he or they shall and will export such
Slaves or Servants to any other his Majesty's Plantations, it shall
and may be lawful for such Naval-Officer to repay the same Duty
for such Slaves or Servants, so as aforesaid by him received, in Pro-
portion to the Number of Slaves or Servants so bonded to be ex-
ported; " which evidently shews that it was the Meaning of the
Legislature, that the Duty should be paid at the Time of Entry,
otherwise the Act would not have made a Provision of a Repayment
of the Duty in Case of Exportation. But your Excellency has very
unfortunately entertained an Opinion, that the Act in this Sense of
it would operate to the Destruction of Two old Acts of Assembly,
and a long uninterrupted Course of Trade, and would introduce
Inconveniencies to the Trader; however, when you have considered
that tho' our Construction of this Act should take place, yet those old
Laws not being repealed by it, would still exist, and that the Attorney-
General would still lay under the Restrictions of the first, and the
Naval-Officers under the Limitation (as to the Fee on Impost-Bonds)
of the last, and that the long uninterrupted Course of Trade (if by
that you mean the Practice of taking Impost-Bonds) could be affected,
or the Naval-Officers restrained, only in a single Instance, you will
perhaps think there was little Occasion to take up a forced Con-
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L. H. J.
Liber No. 50
April 19
p. 81
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struction of those Words, in order to obviate Inconveniencies and
Difficulties which could not possibly flow from the true one; we are
persuaded what we have already said on this Head is sufficient to
convince every Man (if it was not abundantly plain by the Act
itself) that the Construction which the late Lower House, as well
as ourselves, have given that Act of Assembly, is clearly right, and
we hope by this Time, it sufficiently appears that the late Lower
House were right in their Opinion,
That the Naval-Officers ought not to have taken Impost-Bonds
for the Duty on Convicts, because it was an Indulgence unknown
to the Law :
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p. 82
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