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That an Officer may at present be punished by Law for an Illegal
Exaction we are not Ignorant, but from a Love of quiet and Ease
in some, tenderness in others, and Ignorance and Inability in many
more to remedy themselves, the Cause of Complaint Still Subsists.
We Cannot See how it can be inferred from anything we have
proposed or said, that we think the Officers deserve generally to be
branded, and we must express our Surprise that your Honours
Should insinuate, that an Inquiry by the Country into the Conduct
of an Officer, whose probity & humanity is equal to that of any
Other Gentleman in this Province, would be harrasing him to humour
Ignorance & Credulity, gratify Envy, or appease the Malevolence of
Enmity, such Sentiments and Expressions we do not think Applicable
to the Conduct of the People of this Province, and we wish were
Omitted in the Political Discussions between the branches of the
Legislature the Characters of Probity and humanity would Shine
the Brighter after every Inquiry, & if there should be any Contrary
Characters, they would only be exhibited in the light they ought to be
View'd in.
However, as you disagree to the first of these two last propositions,
and reject the Other, we shall Contend no more about them at present
but leave it to time to evince the Expediency of adopting them
hereafter, 'to the total Change of the Species, in which the expences
of executing the Law, and the Money payments under it, are ascer-
tained, which is now the only matter of difference between the two
houses, We cannot Consent. Dollars notoriously pass in New York
and Pensylvania, with which we have Considerable Commercial Con-
nections at Seven Shillings and Sixpence and upwards, and foreign
Gold at or above the Rates mentioned in our Inspection Law; & in
Virginia Dollars pass higher than the Statute regulation Contracting
Parties here for Several years past have mutually understood, that
Gold & Silver at those rates Should be paid in discharge of their
Contracts, unless a different Species or rate hath been Stipulated: on
this Bottom Subsisting debts generally now Stand, occasioned prin-
cipally by the Inspection Law Regulation of Coin, and whilst we see
the extensive Influence of that Regulation, we are apprehensive that a
different Regulation will have the like effect, by drawing after it
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L. H. J.
Liber No. 52
Nov. 8
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General Contracts, and a disadvantageous Change of those already
made into the Inspection Law Species; a ruinous Consequence should
it be into Sterling besides, the Spirit and design of the Statute, we are
apprehensive will be frustrated by the Effects of your proposition for
the above mentioned Colonies will draw the Specie from hence by its
higher Denomination there for these reasons, and as the Statute
makes no mention of Gold, we propose, in the framing a New In-
spection Law, to regulate foreign Gold as it now Stands in the Old,
Ascertaining the Charges of executing the Law in Currency and
Sterling, and giving the payer of any of the Inspection Expences,
Publick and County levies, Clergys Allowance, Lawyers & Officers
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p. 165
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