64 Assembly Proceedings, March 17-April 21, 1762.

U. H. J.
Liber No. 36
April 24

pleased to raise in hopes of our Joining you in the endless pursuit, and
observe that after having in appearance persuaded yourselves, you
seem Endeavouring to persuade your Constituents to believe, that
you are the only Branch of this Legislature either by Constitution
or Inclination Concerned for the preservation of the Peoples and that
you Consequently have an Exclusive right of determining in a Legis-
lative way Concerning their Rights and Benefits; But herein you
happen to be no less, unfortunately Mistaken, than in those points,
relative to your Zeal for his Majesty's Service and to your Claims
of the Rights and Priviledges of the British House of Commons,
We Claim to be and are in Equal Degree with yourselves the Con-
stitutional Guardians and protectors of the Peoples Liberties for as
we have already Intimated this House was by your Ancestors Erected

p. 98

with a view to Check and Restrain the Boundless Powers their Repre-
sentatives might otherwise be disposed to Exercise over them and
Consequently to judge and persuant thereto, to Exert our powers
when ever we see Occasion, to prevent their Ruin or Oppression
and give us leave Gentleman, to acquaint you, that we are by no
means Inferior even to your pretensions in point of Inclination to
promote their true Interest and happiness; that as we have frequently
heretofore, so have we now upon the Occasion of this your favourite
Assessment Bill saved them the Ruin Resulting from the Plan and
manner of penning of that your favourite new System; had it been
Enacted into a law so totally new, that tho you are pleased to assert
that plans of this sort have not only been thought practicable but
found by long Experience Eligible in our Mother Country and most
of the Neighbouring Colonies, We must take the liberty to deny that
there is to our knowledge or belief any such law Subsisting in either
One or the other unless where the Constitution of Government may
happen to be such as you would willingly reduce this to, and even in
such a Constitution if such can be found no such Bill as yours has
Existed and been found by long Experience to be Eligible, the
Invention is Entirely your Own, and however desirous you may
pretend to be that we would only give the people of this Province
an Opportunity of making an Experiment of it we must begg to
be Excused because, besides that there are many who perhaps upon
any other Occasion you would Avoid Counting amongst the Number
of the People and whose Liberties & Properties are unjustly to be
affected by this Bill, as well as the Danger that a Single Precedent
may be appealed to as the foundation of a future Claim to the

p. 99

Continuance of this new and Intricate System with all its train of
Mischiefs attending it We cannot for one Hour trust you with the
powers you would by this Bill acquire over the People
Signed p Order Jn^o Ross Clk. Up. Ho.

Samuel Chamberlaine, and Edward Lloyd Esquires, are sent to
the Lower House to acquaint the Speaker that his Excellency re-