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our or their approbation, or disallowance. And that in Case all or any of them shall at any time within the Space of three Years, next after the same shall have been presented to us, our heirs and Successors, in our, or their Privy Council, be disallowed and rejected, and so signified by us, our heirs and Successors, under our or their Sign Manual, and Signet; or by order in our or their Privy Council, unto the Governour for the time being, then such and so many of them as shall be so disallowed and rejected, shall thenceforth cease and determine and become utterly Void, and of none Effect. Provided always, That in Case, We, our heirs, or Successors, shall not, within the Term of three Years after the presenting of such orders, laws, Statutes or ordinances, as aforesaid, signify our, or their disallowance, of the same, then the said orders, Laws Statutes or Ordinances, shall be and Continue in full Force and Effect, according to the true Intent and Meaning of the same, until the Expiration thereof, or that the same shall be repealed, by the General Assembly of our said Province for the time being. Provided also, That it shall and May be lawful, for the said Governour, and General Assembly, to make or pass any grant of Lands, lying within the Bounds of the Colonies, formerly called the Colonies of the Massachusetts Bay, and New Plymouth, and Province of Main, in such manner, as heretofore they might have done, by virtue of any former Charter, or letters Patent; which grants of Lands, within the Bounds aforesaid, We do hereby Will and ordain to be and continue forever in full force and Effect, without our further approbation or Consent. And so as Nevertheless, and it is our Royal Will and pleasure, that no grant, or Grants of any Lands, lying or extending from the River of Sagadahock, to the Gulph of St. Lawrence, and Cannada Rivers, and to the Main Sea North

ward, and Eastward, to be made or past by the Governour and General Assembly of our said Province be of any Force, Validity or Effect, untill we our heirs and Successors shall have signified our or their approbation of the same.

The Reasons against a suspending Clause, in these laws, until the King's approbation, or disapprobation may be known, are briefly these: 1. There is no such thing required by the Words of the Charter, except in a particular Case, to wit of grants of Land, in Sagadahock. 2. The Cotemporary, as well as constant usage to the country, ever since the Charter, and which has never before been called in question, is, as we think, an unanswerable argument in Law, and in reason, that no such thing was ever intended. 3. The Laws for Assessments, Rates and Taxes mentioned in the Charter, and many others are in their nature annual. Now if these are not to take Effect, until they have received the Royal Sanction, they would often not take Effect at all, for the time of their Continuance, or the greatest part of it would be ordinarily elapsed before such Sanction could possibly be obtained. This Consideration is enough to evince, what confusion would happen in the domestick concerns of the province, even in the time of Peace. But in a time of War, as this is, his Majesty's Service would be extremely endangered hereby, for if all Acts and orders for levying our provincial Troops (which are commonly raised in the Spring, and dismissed in the Fall) were to be sent home, as by this principle they must, the Campaign would be over before such Acts and orders could be returned from England. A Multiplicity of such instances might be mentioned, and numberless others that can't be foreseen, may possibly happen, by the Establishment of such a principle. All the officers of the Government, who depend upon annual grants, for their services,

must be by this means, kept out of their pay and Subsistance, untill the Royal approbation be known, so that the Treasury instead of yielding ready and prompt payment, will ever be a year behind hand, and the King's officers in the meantime, starving, and his service Suffering. The Charter provides, that without the Governor's Consent or approbation, signified and declared in writing, no such orders, Laws, Statutes, Ordinances, Elections, or other Acts of Government whatsoever to be made, passed or done by the said General Assembly, or in Council, shall be of any force Effect or Validity. This at least very strongly implies, that immediately upon such consent or approbation, they become Laws, and want nothing but publication, especially as in the Clause preceeding, upon such Consent of the Governor, and publication under the Seal of the Province, the Subject is required to yield carefull and due Obedience.

5. If it had been intended that the Royal approbation should also have been obtained, previous to our Laws having any Force, a Word or two would have put the matter beyond all doubt, as in the subsequent Clauses relating to the grants of Lands. Those in Massachusetts, Plymouth and Province of Main, are expressly grantable by the Province, without having further royal approbation than the Charter. Those in Sagadahock are expressly grantable, by the General Court, but the grant is as expressly suspended until the Royal approbation be signified. 6: This Clause then, “such and so many of them, as shall be disallowed and rejected, shall thenceforth cease and determine, and become utterly void and of none Effect," shews the intent was, to make the King's disallowance in the nature of a repeal, and the act voidable, not void. this light all mean Acts are good.

If it is considered in This Construction is

abundantly confirmed by the constant usage hitherto, and by the next Clause "Provided always, that in Case we, our heirs or Successors, shall not within the Term of Three years after the presenting of such orders, Laws, Statutes and ordinances as aforesaid, signify, our or their disallowance of the same, then the said orders, Laws, etc. shall be and continue in full force and Effect, according to the true intent, and meaning of the same" until the Expiration thereof, or that the same shall be repealed by the General Assembly. If this doctrine of Suspension takes place, every Act must lie three years, unless his Majesty's pleasure be sooner signified, which is not probable, for there is no Instance, of any allowance being signified, nor is it requisite by Charter, and there have been but few disallowances. If all our Acts are to be three Years, in order for a disapprobation, the most important affairs, as raising Taxes, laying Excise, Imposts, Grants of Money, to his Excellency the Governor, and others for their Salaries, levying Troops, paying and subsisting for the King's service, would be always three years behind hand. Such a form of Legislation, would be a burthen rather than a benefit to the Subject. Omnis Innovatio plus novitate perturbat, quam utilitate prodest. We have proved that be an act, ever so necessary to be carried into immediate Execution, yet by this new system, it may lay and be suspended three years. Let us suppose that the next day after the three years of suspension are expired, the Continuance of the Act, any longer becomes dangerous, or detrimental to the Province, from some one of a Thousand Changes in Circumstances, which are daily turning up, in the ordinary Course of human affairs.

What is to be done: Why the Assembly, as by Charter they have right, repeal this Act, but this Act of repeal can

have no immediate Effect, any more than any other law, but must be suspended it is said for the Royal approbation or disallowance, and may lie three years more without any allowance or disallowance, so here's six years gone, three of which the poor Colony is without a law, perhaps absolutely needful for its being, and three Years after the Occasion of the law ceases, and becomes absolutely bad, it must remain in force. A little Change in Circumstances would cause another similar rotation, and so on Ad infinitum, both in Number and Continuance, Uno absurdo dato Mille Sequuntur.1

Further, the Governor, and the Assembly, by the Charter, and in the nature and Reason of things, are deemed in general the most Adequate Judges, of all local Laws, and most of our Laws are such. Some few there may be indeed, of which the boards in England, are infinitely better Judges than we are, but if they all had the Wisdom of angels they must often be in the dark in relation to such as in their nature are local, and have the particular state and Circumstances of this People for their object. If these suspensions are Established, it will be in the power of the Crown, in Effect, to take away our Charter without act of Parliament, or the Ordinary process at Common law, and surely, the laws of England, will never make such Construction of the King's Charter, as to put it in the power of the donor or his Successors to take it away when he pleases. We have nothing of this kind to fear from his present Majesty, or his Ministry, on the contrary, we flatter our selves that when the services and sufferings of the American Colonies in general, and of this in particular, are fully considered, they will afford very strong inducements, to enlarge rather than Curtail our Priviledges. We would recommend to

1 From this point the draft is in the writing of James Bowdoin.

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