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U. H. J.
Liber No. 36
Nov. 20
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By the Upper House of Assembly 20:th November 1770.
Gentlemen
We have declared in the most explicit Terms that we were willing
to concur with you in explaining, correcting, altering or inforcing
the Provisions of the old Regulation of Fees, in every Instance
wherein real Defects have been discovered.
This we thought was a sufficient Answer to your general Com-
plaint of Abuses, or Pretences you esteemed to be Abuses, what you
esteemed to be Abuses, we were of Course to be informed of by your-
selves; if a Conference had taken place, it would have been our Part
to have received your Information, considered Your Evidence,
examined the old Regulation, weighed your Reasons and formed,
and communicated to you Our Opinion on the Subject, but instead
of pursuing the Matter in this regular Train, you are Pleased to
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p. 515
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Say, that you do not clearly comprehend what we call Abuses, and
are of Opinion we are unacquainted with what you deem such, When
we merely repeated, in your own Language, that we should be ready
to join you in Correcting the Practices you esteemed to be Abuses,
if they should appear to us in the same Light;
What you might think to be Abuses we could not divine, and
apprehended it would be our proper time to judge thereof after we
had been fully apprised of, and examined your Proofs, considered
accurately the alledged Defective Parts of the old Regulation, and
deliberated the Matter on all Information you could give us, we have
referred to no Abuses but in the Recital of your own Expressions,
and presuming you understood your own meaning, we did not
apprehend you could be at a Loss in ascertaining what Charges of
Abuses were to be produced, and become the Subject of a Conference.
As to the matters contained in your Questions, they would have
been Properly under Consideration if a Conference had been agreed
upon, in Order to Effectuate the Passage of the Law, but permit us
to Observe that the Questions, as you have Proposed them, are of a
very extraordinary nature and of a Tendency inconsistent with the
Spirit of our Constitution. The Resolves or Declarations of one,
or both Houses of Assembly, however assertive in Opinion, and
Vehement in Expression, are not Laws, nor ought they to be Pro-
mulgated, to direct or influence the Determination of the appointed
legal Courts, Juries and Judges ought there [then ?] to give their Deci-
sions without Prejudice or Bias, Whether any Officer has been Guilty
of Extortion is a Question, which neither your nor our Declaration
ought to Prejudicate, but that our Declarations held out to the Pub-
lick would have in no small Degree this Effect can hardly be doubted,
and on our Part, Particularly, such a Declaration would be the more
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