The Upper House. 109

cision, an Act which had been passed in this Province to affect his
Lordships Right was dissented to by the Crown, and the Royal
Order given that his Lordship or his Agents should receive it, without
Disturbance. What you have said or can say on this Head surely
can have very little Effect towards invalidating his Lordships Right
to the 14^d p Ton, but it may not be amiss to inform you that your
Argument, from the Circumstance of the Payment of the Tonnage
being made in Powder & Shot to prove it to be a Fort Duty would
have very little Weight if the Matter were not absolutely settled
by the Determination we have referr'd to, because an Alternative is
given by the Act to make the Payment in Powder and Shot or in
Money, and that when the Tonange Act passed Powder and Shot
were made use of as a Kind of Money in this Province as appears
by the Assembly Proceedings in the Year 1666 & because too, the
original fair Record Book now in the Council Office expressly
mentions it to be Port Duty, whatever Opinion may have been
taken up to the Contrary, which it would be unnecessary as well as

disagreeable to account for.
What you have said concerning the Amerciaments we shall answer
by citing the Act of Assembly "All Persons whatsoever except
Executors and Administrators that are cast in any Cause, be they
Plantiff or Defendant shall be amerced in the Provincial Court 50^lb
of Tobacco to be employed as the Governor & Council shall think fit."

Now we do presume to say, that we in Conjunction with his Ex-
cellency, can apply the Amerciaments in what Manner we please, and
that no One has any Right to call for or examine into Our Appli-
cation of them, and if the Words of the Act do not prove it, then
Nothing can be proved, for a clearer Medium of Proof can't be
imagined. The Fines & Forfeitures belong, as we apprehend, to
Lord Baltimore for the Reasons above applied in Respect of the 12^d p
Hogshead, and now Gentlemen to put an End to this tedious
Message, we must repeat it to you that the Clerk of the Council
being a necessary Constitutional Officer ought to be paid by the
Public, for his Services to the Public, that it is an incontrovertible
Fact he hath always been paid a salary by the Public, in all the

U. H. J.
Liber No. 36
Dec. 19

Journals that have passed since the Revolution, and more liberally
before that Paid, that M^r Ross Claims no more than He and his
Predecessors in Office have always received, that the services done
by him are of a Public Nature, and not merely relative to the
private Concerns of Lord Baltimore, that you have received what
ought to be, satisfactory Proof that he merits his whole Claim,
and that as he ought to be paid by the Public, so he ought to be
paid in the Journal, because that has been the usual Method of
Payment, and you can't point out any other Means of his Satis-
faction, and that we think Ourselves bound by all the Tyes of Honor,

p. 289