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U. H. J.
Liber No. 36
Nov. 26
p. 619
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It has been found in England that Fees settled by a Stat: of Henry
the Eighth in some Testamentary Cases, notwithstanding the Subse-
quent increase of Business, have become so inadequate, from the
Depreciation of Money and the Augmentation of every Expense, that
practice and Allowance have established an Addition to them.
Th'o we have been at the trouble of shewing you at large that
your Construction of our Proposition is repugnant to our Meaning
yet to prevent any possible Impression being taken that the Passage
of the Bill failed because our Proposition extended to "all" Officers,
we think it necessary most explicitly to declare that we desire the
Proposition may be understood to relate to the Commissary Gen-
eral only.
You say that the Governors Message in respect of the Clergy
had determined our Action, th'o it does not seem to have convinced
our Understanding. The little smartness of this remark does not
atone for the Injustice and Rudeness of it, as every one must Per-
ceive, who may happen to peruse our propositions, to which we take
the Liberty to add that, however offensive his Excellency the present
Governors Tenderness on the Affair of the Clergys Freeholds may
be to you, in the Year 1739, when Governor Ogle proposed the Forty
Per poll should be discharged in Paper Money at Ten Shillings Per
Hundred Pounds of Tobacco, the Lower House Expressed them-
selves on the Subject in the following Terms, "This House is not
acquainted with the Disposition of the Clergy in Point of their
Forty Per Poll, and shall always have a just Regard to that Rever-
end Body, nor attempt to intrude any Terms on them which may
not Suit their Inclinations to accept of; but shall always be ready
and willing to receive such proposals as they may judge suitable to
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p. 620
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make." Nor was this Sentiment of the Lower House in 1739 pecu-
liar, for in all Bills for the Division of Parishes care has been
taken not to affect the Incumbent in his Rights of Freehold without
his Consent.
You hoped as we could get nothing by acting "contrarily," for
our united Efforts to obtain the Relief of the People by a new Regu-
lation of the Clergys dues. Whatever general Relief might arise
from a new Establishment, we, and our Connexions would equally
partake of with others, but Relief is not to be gained by intemperate
Exertions, and imprudent perseverance. Every practicable Method
of Relief we could think of we have proposed and you have rejected.
Had your Invention struck out any other than has occurred to us
we should have Examined it with Candour and adopted it if worthy
of Adoption with Alacrity. Your Bill indeed has proposed a Method,
but you have found it to be unattainable, and is it the part of Dis-
cretion to lose what you may get when you can have no Prospect of
obtaining what you wished to accomplish? We should have no Ob-
jection to the Continuance of a new Regulation of the Clergy accord-
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