The Lower House. 423

would rather be inclined to connive at Improprieties in the Manner
of exercising the Right, than scan it with a View to censure.
M.^r William Steuart having been committed, by Order of your
House, to the common publick Goal, made his Application to me,
for Relief against the Oppression of an arbitrary Procedure claim-
ing that Benefit of Protection, to which He, in common with his
ffellow Subjects, is entitled. A Copy of his Commitment was laid
before me, by which it appeared that, on the accumulative Charge
"of having taken Notes of Hand, as the Clerk of the Land Office
for the Payment of ffees contrary to Law, for imposing an Oath as
a Justice of the Peace, not appointed, and required by Law, and for
an high Contempt of your House" he was committed "to be kept
safe and close in the publick Goal, until he should be thence dis-
charged by Order" of your House. I required the Consideration,
and Advice of the Council upon all the Circumstances of the Case,
and their Opinion was, that you had assumed an unwarrantable
Jurisdiction, which, if admitted, would cancel all the Guards, and
Securities, provided by a wise, and free Polity for the Protection of
the Subject, and that, having been illegally deprived of his Personal
Liberty, M.^r Steuart was entitled to the Relief, which an Exertion of
the Prerogative might afford him. In Consequence of this Opinion,
and the Reasons by which it was supported, I interposed by pro-
roguing the General Assembly from ffriday, till the Monday next
following; after having passed all the Bills ready for my Assent, and

L. H. J.
Liber No. 54
Nov. 20

nattered myself, that a short Recess (as it had been on other Occa-
sions) would rather be productive of sedate Reflection, than of the
heavy Charge that I had effectually dismissed a publick Offender
from Confinement, obstructed publick Justice, and in Terms of very
indefensible Exaggeration, occasioned a considerable Expence to the
Province, and a total Stagnation of important Business for several
Days. In Vindication, as well of the Gentlemen of the Council,
as of myself, I shall succinctly rehearse the Reasons they ad-
vanced in Support of their Advice. They observed that, where
the Legislature and executive Authorities, the Will to ordain, and
the power to enforce it, are lodged in the same Person, or per-
sons, there a Tyranny is established; That under this free Con-
stitution, these Authorities are therefore, distributed into differ-
ent Apartments [sic]; That the Executive being in the supreme
Magistrate; neither House of Assembly can undertake the Ad-
ministration of existing Laws without a dangerous Infringement
of the Constitution: That, of the Legislative, you are but one of
the component Parts; That a Right to determine the ffees charged
were excessive, implies the Right to settle the exact Compensation
due for the Services performed, because without the Standard what
ffees are adequate, what are more, or less than the just Proportion
can't be ascertained; That your rigorous Commitment was bottomed

p. 186