The Lower House. 367

By your next Amendment, you propose that the Names of the
several Commissioners mentioned in the Bill, who were originally
appointed by yourselves, should be struck out, and a Blank left to be
filled up by your House. We could not have imagined that this Part
of the Bill, naming the same Gentlemen of your House, who were
appointed by yourselves at the Time of making the original Act, of
which the present Bill is to be a Continuance, and to whom, we
presume, no just Objection can be made, could have been exception-
able; nor can we conceive what could induce your Honours to pro-
pose such an Amendment. Could your Honours imagine we should
agree to leave a Blank, which would put it in your Power to insert
any Number you please ? We can scarcely believe you could suppose
it, or indeed that you could desire so unreasonable a Thing. How-
ever, that every Obstruction to the Passage of this Bill, may be
removed, we propose that your Honurs by Message, Name Five
Persons of your House, to be inserted in the Bill: This was the
Method taken at the Framing the original Bill, and what we are
willing to agree to upon this present Occasion, altho' we should, in
some Degree, depart from our Rights, which we must insist shall
not, in this Instance, be drawn into Presecedent.

L. H. J.
Liber No. 51
Oct. 4

The other Amendments, except the last, relate to the Continuance
of the Bill, and here we must beg your Honours to consider, that if
this Bill was to pass for One Year only, agreeable to your Amend-
ments, the Sum of Money that would still remain, after the Col-
lection of the Sixth Year, would be very large, so large as would
make it necessary to lay a very heavy Tax on Lands to discharge it :
This is the great Evil intended by the Bill to be Remedied; and as
you have consented to a Continuance of the Bill for One Year, we
presume from the Motive of Easing the People, the very same
Motive, we hope, will induce your Honours to give it a longer Con-
tinuance: Be pleased to consider the Time of Sinking our Paper
Currency is now approaching; this of Course increases it's Value,
and induces those who have Opportunity, to lay it up, by which
Means it s already in a few Hands; how difficult then must it be
even at this Time for the People in general to get this Money, and
how much more so must it be Two Years hence? 'Tis true an
Advantage might arise to a few individuals by an extraordinary
Demand for Paper Money; but this surely ought rather to be a
Reason for a longer Continuance; for, however the Avarice of a few
might prompt them to desire such an Advantage, it can't be imagined
that the Legislature would prefer the private Interest of those few,
to the Ease and Benefit of the Community in general.

From these Reasons we cannot but hope, your Honours will agree
to a longer Duration of this Bill than One Year; But if you should
still be of Opinion it is unnecessary to continue it for Three Years,
and should think Two will be sufficient, we shall agree to it, rather

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