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Head of a Paper Bill to Emit a Paper Currency" In Consequence of
this Message, a Conferrence took place, and after the Conferrees
had reported their Proceedings to their respective Houses, there was
an Intercourse between them on the subject, by Messages and
Amendments.
In March 1733 when the Bill, for Emitting and making Current
£90,000 Current Money of Maryland in Bills of Credit, was Read
in the Upper House, the following Message was sent to the Lower
"There are so many Amendments which occur to this House, neces-
sary to be made to the Bills for Emitting Bills of Credit, and the
Bill being of great Consequence to the Province We think the
Amendments may be soonest and best made at a Conferrence between
the two Houses
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U. H. J.
Liber No. 36
Dec. 5
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The Conference proposed by the Upper House was immediately
agreed to by the Lower, and the Bill was amended not only in making
the amount of the Bills of Credit £90,000 instead of £72,000 the
sum inserted in the Bill, but in various other matters
By this Bill so framed, the Surplus Money was directed to be
applied and disposed of in such manner and form as the Assembly
of this Province shou'd direct and appoint; The Legislators who
passed this Act, we presume, were Authorized to direct by whom
the Application of the surplus should be made, and that their Inten-
tion or will in this Respect ought to Govern, now, the Concurrence
of both Houses, in framing the Law, and the indisputable Import
of the Expression "Assembly" plainly evince, that they did not
intend to Lodge in the Lower House, only, an exclusive Right to
apply the Surplus, and we presume to think, that a Power can't, with
Propriety, be solely Claimed by those in whom the Power was not
intended to be exclusively Conferred.
If the meaning of the Act of 1733 was less Clear than it is, your
Claim, now, of the Right of Application, considering the State of the
Subject, is an effectual Resumption of what hath been already
settled between us, when the Bill ought to have been framed in order
to execute our Prior Agreement, in Consequence of the Conferrence
which took place, upon your Proposition, in which Agreement a
determined Application of the surplus was an essential Ingredient.
All the Creditors in the Journal of Accounts and in the List of
Debts, as well as the Claims of the late and present Clerk of the
Council provisionally both Houses have agreed shall be paid out
of the surplus Money, the Application therefore has been settled
Upon the foundation of the Surplus Money it was agreed, too, upon
the Conferrence, that Bills of Credit should be Emitted upon such
Terms as might secure their Credit, and be clear of all Repugnance
to any Statute This Design of an Emission was generally Communi-
cated and mutually agreed upon, and the future frame of the Bill
was to Correspond with the Application of the Surplus settled
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p. 361
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