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U. H. J.
Liber No. 36
Dec. 13
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Our Amendment proposes a Satisfaction to Mr Ross in the usual
Manner, your Message imports that he ought to be paid out of the
Monies hitherto appropriated to other Purposes. In support of our
Opinion we shall proceed to apply, as succinctly as we can, some of
the Facts that have been stated, and the Reasoning we have founded
thereon, and then answer your Proposition respecting the Manner,
in which the Clerk of the Council now, and in future, ought to be
paid for his Services to the Public. We take it to be agreed, that
the Clerk ought to be satisfied one way or other out of the Public
Money, that a Salary is the most convenient Satisfaction, and that
the Salary of Nine Thound Six hundred Pounds of Tobacco or
Sixty Pounds Currency p Annum is a moderate Allowance: so far
our Sentiments coincide with the Sense of all former Assemblys,
deducible from the incontestible Fact that, the Clerk of the Council,
hath always received a Salary in every Journal of Accounts that hath
passed, from the Revolution to this Time, not to mention the more
liberal Income he received before that Era, from Fees and Per-
quisites, when the Council exercised, under a different Idea of Polity,
a more extensive Jurisdiction than we Claim or wish to have:
Entertaining the same Principles, and influenced by the same Motives
of Justice and Equity, with our respective Predecessors, who have
composed the Legislature of this Province from the happy AEra of
the Restoration of English Liberties, we conceive, that no Variation
from the numerous Precedents, continued without Interuption for
so many Years, and established in so many successive Instances of
Confirmation, by their most deliberate Acts, ought to take Place,
unless the Precedents have been experienced to be inconvenient, or
can be clearly proved to be Oppressive. The Use of Precedents
must be perceived, when the Inconveniencies of Contention, which
flow from a Disregard of Them, are considered, and especially when
they are severely felt. When we reflect, that the Intercourse and
Privileges of the Members of Political Bodies, the Measures of
Justice in Contests of private Property, the Prerogatives of Govern-
ment, and the Rights of the People are regulated by them.
There is moreover a Reverence due to antient Establishments,
adopted & confirmed by subsequent uniform Usage, and a Modesty
to be observed in opposing the Sentiments of Those, who have occu-
pied the stations we are now placed in, with at least an equal Repu-
tation of Ability, Integrity, and Vigilance for the Public Good.
Considering the state of the incontrovertible Facts, and the Sanc-
tion arising from them, we must be acquitted of all sinister Designs
to extort, in the present Conjecture, any Concessions from the
Representatives of the People Derogatory from the Rights of their
Constituents, there not being the least Colour of a Pretence for any
Suggestions, that, availing our selves of the Distresses of the Public
Creditors, and the Difficulties the People in general will be involved
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