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Whether, where the Authority to afford Relief is placed, there the
Application for it is regular, where this is cognizable, there the
Propriety of it is determinable? The Right of Petition is established
for Purposes so important and secured and enforced by Sanctions
so interesting, that the Representatives of a free people can never,
on any Occasion, dispassionately wish to impair or discountenance
it. They would rather be inclined to connive at Improprieties in
the Manner of exercising the Right, than scan it with a View to
Censure.
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L. H. J.
Liber No. 54
Nov. 30
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M.r William Steuart having been committed by Order of your
House to the Common Public Jail, made his Application to me for
Relief against the Oppression of an arbitrary Procedure claiming
that Benefit of Protection, to which he, in common with his Fellow
Subjects is entitled. A Copy of his Commitment was laid before
me, by which it appeared, that, on the accumulative Charge "of hav-
ing 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
dose in the Publick Jail, until he should be thence discharged 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 proroguing the General
Assembly from the ffriday till the Monday next following, after
having passed all the Bills ready for my Assent, and flattered myself
that a short Recess, as it had been on other Occasions, 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 Exag-
geration, occasioned a considerable Expence to the Province, and a
total Stagnation of important Business for several Days. In Vindi-
cation as well of the Gentlemen of the Council as of myself, I shall
succinctly rehearse the Reasons they advanced in Support of their
Advice. They observed, That where the legislative and executive
Authorities, the Will to ordain and the Power to enforce it, are
lodged in the same Person or Persons, there a Tyranny is estab-
lished; that under this free Constitution, these Authorities are there-
fore distributed into different Departments; That the executive being
in the supreme Magistrate, neither House of Assembly can under-
take the Administration of existing Laws, without a dangerous
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p. 202
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