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Sioussat's The English Statutes in Maryland, 1903
Volume 195, Page 49   View pdf image (33K)
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513] The English Statutes in Maryland. 49
comers; Maryland, therefore, lies within the scope of the res-
olution of the Chief Justice.
The Proprietor reminded them that they had a legislature
of their own. This, Dulany replied, was for convenience, and
did not remove their right to English laws, which they consid-
ered " a happiness." He proceeds :
" And we beg your Lordship to consider that your putting us in
mind of the happy condition the Crown, by your charier, hath
thought fit to place us under, which we ought quietly to submit to,
is not an agreeable way of treating those you are obliged to for
the success of your Province. It was no bounty in the Crown
to place us here, unless we had not deserved longer to live in
England, and that English Liberties were given us here, when we
had forfeited our Right to them there. This would indeed have
been a Bounty and very well have admitted a Propriety in the Ex-
pression you use, ' That the Crown thought fit to place us under.'
But we take leave to observe, That the Crown had no Right to
give us other Conditions than in common with our Fellow-Subjects,
nor to place us here or elsewhere, but by our own Consents. And
we hope that you will not take it ill. that we again remind your
Lordship, we are His Majesty's Subjects, and have equal Right
with others to breathe British Air, and that your Lordship's Pre-
rogatives, and your Tenants' Priviledges are both dependant on the
same Royal Grant, and that your Lordship and we are both sub-
jects to One Just and Gracious Prince, who will not countenance
the abuse of his People in the remotest corner of his Dominions.
And therefore we beg your Lordship will give your Secretary
better Impressions of us than to treat us so much like men that
owe their Lives and Liberties only to your Charter." .....
Thirdly, considerable space is then taken up in emphasizing
the differences between the recent Jamaica case and the situa-
tion in Maryland. The former was introducing statutes she
had not had before; must Maryland re-enact de novo statutes
that she had used ? 11;
Having thus answered Baltimore's letter point by point,
Dulany adds further arguments from precedent, gleaned
from the early records of the Province, some of which show
the difficulties through which the early colonists had passed.
When an English Act was doubtful, they had passed Acts to
make it applicable to their needs, and the very modification
was an argument that without such modification the English
law was in effect. The change of this nature in the Act of
11 Compare the facts as given in ch. ii.

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Sioussat's The English Statutes in Maryland, 1903
Volume 195, Page 49   View pdf image (33K)
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