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Had a Conference been the Consequence of this Proposal the Bill
in all its Parts would have been the Subject, but you declined to
engage in a Conference on these general Terms, or on Amendments
you might Propose, before you had them in one View: On Your
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U. H. J.
Liber No. 36
Nov. 16
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Intimation of this Circumstance, we informed you in our last Message
what our Conferrees would have received in Charge as Instructions
to regulate their Conduct, had a Conference ensued on the Proposal
we first made for the purpose.
If a Conference had been Proposed by your House, we would at
once have joined you therein, and instructed our Conferrees in the
manner above mentioned; On this Consideration, There has been
long experience of the Regulation of Fees contained in the Inspection
Act, it was established on much Deliberation, it has been continued
by many different Assemblies; on These Circumstances a Presump-
tion arises, that the old Regulation was in the Main, well adapted
to the Subject; but you having observed in your Message of the
Twelfth Instant, that many Abuses in the Charges under the old
Regulation had fallen within your Notice, and that you had en-
deavoured to obviate the Pretences you esteem to be Abuses, we
therefore have informed you, that we should be willing to concur
with you in any Proper Method to prevent all real Abuses for the
future, upon the whole, we meant that the old Regulation, so far as
no Abuses were imputable to its defects, should stand, and so far
as Abuses had really happened in Practice under it, that it should
be corrected in the Instances wherein a Correction should appear to
be expedient, by this Mode of Procedure we Apprehend a better
Regulation may be established than by a new List.
If however you incline to Confer as Proposed in your last Message,
on these Points Viz.t The Fees of Officers and the Provisions thereon
dependant, the Mode of recovering Penalties and the time of Closing
the Inspection, as well as on the last Proposition contained in our
Message of the Tenth Instant, we shall be ready to join you, and
consider the Conference as Proceeding from your Proposal, but
we hold Ourselves Obliged to inform you, to prevent disappoint-
ment, that we shall think ourselves to be at full Liberty to instruct
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p. 503
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our Conferrees, and that we shall explicitly instruct them, not to
agree to any Departure from the old Regulation, except for the
Purpose of preventing Abuses in Charges under it, if on this Ac-
count a Correction or Alteration shall appear to be expedient, and
also not to agree to any further Reduction of Fees, than that which
must necessarily follow from the Election given to all persons to
discharge the Fees in Tobacco or Money as may best Suit them.
On our being informed that you will engage in a Conference on
these Terms, we shall proceed to the Appointment of Conferrees or
that you will not your Bill shall be returned —
Signed by Order— U Scott Cl. Up. Ho.
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p. 504
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