Introduction. xli

was an income tax of five percent upon the quit-rents. All the Proprietary's
vacant or ungranted lands were to be taxed annually at one quarter of one
percent of their assessed value (pp. 548-550). Why the Proprietary objected
to this very heavy taxation of what he considered his absolute own under his
prerogative, is obvious.

A message, dated April 9, to the Upper House to accompany the bill was
then read. The bill, it declared, had been framed "to answer the Royal
Expectations", and "upon such a Plan, as to us seemed most suitable to the
Circumstances of our Constituents", but as the new system was of such length
and so intricate, the Lower House was willing to depart from the strict parlia-
mentary course to be followed in the case of money bills, so that, if there were
any parts open to objections which had escaped them, they would give due
consideration to any objections which were pointed out in order to terminate
the unhappy differences between the two houses in the matter of raising sup-
plies for His Majesty's Service (p. 114). By a vote of twenty-seven to
twenty-five the Lower House approved the message and ordered it sent to the
upper chamber; Gantt in this case voting with the Proprietary group against
it and Sullivan for its adoption (pp. 114, 115). On April 12, the bill was read
in the Upper House, rejected, and returned to the lower chamber with a
message (pp. 25-26).

The message from the Upper House, dated April 13, returning the rejected
bill to the lower chamber, opened with the statement that the latter body knew
when it passed the bill that it would not be acceptable, as it contained the
many objectionable features found in the similar bill first passed by that house
in April, 1758, and at subsequent sessions. As the bill was thoroughly objec-
tionable the Upper House would pay no attention to the claims that the lower
chamber alone had the right to change money bills by amendment, as the
Assembly journals show that in the past the Upper House had, when it thought
it expedient, not only amended Supply bills originating in the Lower House,
but had often proposed such bills and sent them to the Lower House for con-
currence, although bills of this kind were in the past also often prepared by a
joint committee of both houses. It was also pointed out that the Lower House
had in the bill made provisions for four hundred provincials, and eighty-
four recruits for the regular regiments, and that the house knew that it would
be impossfble to supply a greater number than this. Yet as a matter of fact
the £45,000 provided under the bill would, according to the Lower House's
own calculations, take care of a force of men three times as large in numbers
as that provided for in the bill, and furthermore, if the plan were carried into
execution, and all real and personal estates were taxed agreeable to its terms,
it would raise in one year twice the total sum mentioned as needed, yet the bill
provided that it be in effect for a period of three years. The message closed
with the hope that as the comparatively small amount of money required could
be readily raised by some simple form of taxation hitherto employed in the
Province, the Lower House would cease to insist upon a new and intricate
system which the upper chamber could not approve (pp. 25, 26).