ward this &c And should the Sollicitor General, or M: Eden of Lincoln's Inn think my Attendance in England absolutely necessary and apply to your Lordship on this Account in my behalf, give me Leave to request your Lordship to consider that Application as coming from myself, and to hope for your Favor therein.

Your Dispatch to the Earl of Hillsborough of the 21st of August last has been received and laid before the King.

A regular transmission of the Acts and proceedings of the Legislature of Maryland is of great Advantage to the King's Service, as it would be difficult without the help of those documents to form any just Idea of the true state of the Colony.

At the same time that your conduct appears in a very favorable light to the King, it could not fail of giving His Majesty great concern to see that the Assembly had taken up the business of the Fees directed by Proclamation to be received in the Land Office, with so much warmth, and that they have by the manner in which they express themselves in their Message and Resolves, not contented themselves with denying the Right of the Proprietaries to establish Fees or in any way to tax the Inhabitants; but have also by introducing in their Resolution Page 20, of the printed Votes, the words "Or other Authority," and by the tenor of their Argument and reasoning in their Address to you, Page

63, evidently drawn into question the Authority of the Parliament of Great Britain in those Cases.

It is possible this may have been through Inadvertence, and not with any Design, and I am willing to hope that is the Case; but should it be otherways, this Matter may require further Consideration, and therefore it is my Duty to request that you would further explain to me those Proceedings: I am also in a particular manner called upon to desire you will inform me upon what Ground and with what View the Legislature passed the Act Cap. 1. for vesting in such foreign Protestants, as are now naturalized or shall be hereafter naturalized in that Province, all the Rights and Privileges of natural born Subjects, which act, upon the Genl Provisions of it, appears to extend the benefit of naturalization beyond what the British Parliament have allowed, and to set aside the limitation contained in the Statute of the 13th of Geo: the 2d

You may be assured, Sir, that I shall consider any application from your friends here, for leave for you to return to England, as coming from yourself; but I apprehend that whenever any such proposition is made it must necessarily induce a consideration of a very serious nature.

I am &ca

EDEN TO DARTMOUTH.

Dartmouth.

My Lord,

Annapolis 12th January 1773.

This will acknowledge the Receipt of your Lordships Circular Letter of the 14th August 1772. It has ever been my Endeavor to faithfully execute my Duty in the Government I have the Honor to hold, and your Lordship will at all Times find me ready in Obeying any Instructions from His Majesty which I may receive through your Hands, and in communicating such material Circumstances within the Compass of my Duty, as may fall under

my observation. I have the Honor of subscribing myself, My Lord,

With great Respect

Your Lordships most obedient

and very humble Servant

Robt Eden.

EDEN TO DARTMOUTH.

Annapolis 29 Jan 1773.

My Lord.

I am to acknowledge the Honor of your Lordships Letter of the 4th Nov 1772.

The Intimation, with which your Lordship has favored me, of His Majesty's most gracious Approbation of my Conduct gives me the utmost Satisfaction, And I sincerely wish the measures pursued by the Lower House of Assembly had been less intemperate and offensive. In popular Assemblies, particular men generally govern the Rest, and the proceedings take their Colour from the Temper and Views of a few Leaders. The moderate and diffident are carried with the Stream; and their Silence and Acquiescence, by swelling the apparent Majority, indicate an Approbation of Violences they really condemn. This was too much the Case in our October sessions, as well as in the Session next before it.

I shall, particularly as your Lordship has expressed your Opinion of the Utility of it, take the earlyest Opportunity to transmit from Time to Time, whilst I shall continue in my present Station, the Acts and Proceedings of the Legislature of Maryland. In the year 1733, as is observed in my Message to the Lower House, page 85, Lord Baltimore by Proclamation settled the Fees of Officers. On that Occasion the Lower House entered a Resolve in their Proceedings similar to that your Lordship has taken notice of, page 20. It seems probable that in the year 1733, the Lower House had no View beyond the Subject before them, viz. the Regulation of Officers' Fees by Proclamation, but whether the Lower House in their Repetition of this

Resolve in October 1771 had, or not, any farther Views, I cannot certainly inform your Lordship; But the Design of their Message was, I apprehend, to represent the Regulation of Fees, and the Restriction laid upon the Officers by my Proclamation as an effective Tax, and of the general Reasoning of it, to prove, not only that a Tax cannot be constitutionally raised without the Assent of the People's Representatives, but also, the peculiar privilege claimed by the Lower House in the Article of Taxation. This Claim of Privilege is further explained by the messages between the two Houses, p. 53, 56, and was one of the Reasons that induced me to recite in my Message, p. 86, the opinion of Lord Campden when he was the King's Attorney General. That both Houses of Assembly in Maryland would with their utmost Exertion endeavor to maintain their Position that the People of Maryland are not constitutionally liable to any Tax laid without their Assent, I have no Doubt; and believe the same principle and Idea to be generally prevalent in the other Colonies. The Resolves of the different American Assemblies on the Affair of the Stamp Act, and the proceedings of the Congress (as it was called) at New York, seem to be clear proofs of their Disposition and strong Attachment to this Principle; But yet, My Lord, the Notion that the Regulation of Fees and the laying of a Tax are the same thing has not been carried so far as to beget an Opinion that the Fees established for the support of the Officers of the Customs, appointed by the Crown, are not due: for these fees are paid in Maryland without Hesitation, and tho' the Regulation of Fees by my Proclamation has been violently exclaimed against, your Lordship perceives nothing has been said with Respect to the Fees claimed and received by His Majesty's Officers of the Customs.

I should be extremely sorry if the Explanation I am to give to your Lordship of the motive for passing the Acts, Cap. 1. should not prove satisfactory; for I can venture to assure your Lordship that this Act was not intended to contravene the Statute in any degree, and that the People, in whose Favor it was passed, have the Merit of being most useful subjects. In Consequence of the Encouragement given by Statute, a great Number of German

Emigrants have settled in North America, particularly in Pensylvania, and the frontier County of Maryland. They are generally an industrious, laborious People. Many of them have acquired a considerable share of Property. Their Improvement of a Wilderness into well stock'd Plantations, the Example, and beneficial Effects of their extraordinary Industry, have raised, in no small Degree, a Spirit of Emulation among the other Inhabitants. That they are a most useful People, and merit the public Regard is acknowledged by all who are acquainted with them.

It happened that one M: Hagar, a German who had been naturaliz'd according to the Statute was elected one of the Burgesses to serve in Assembly for the frontier County. When the Assembly met, it became a Question whether he was eligible or not, and it was determined in the Negative by a Majority of one only, as your Lordship will observe on having recourse to the transmitted Copy of the Votes and Proceedings.

It was understood that, if the Limitation or proviso in the 13th of Geo. 2nd Cap. 7. had been omitted, by the general purview of the Act M. Hagar would have been eligible, and that the Limitation or proviso "that no Person who should become a natural born Subject of this Kingdom by virtue of this Act shall be of the privy Council or a Member of either House of Parliament or capable of taking having or enjoying any Office or place of Trust within the Kingdoms of Great Britain or Ireland, civil or military, or of having accepting or taking any Grant from the Crown of any Lands Tenements, or Hereditaments within the Kingdoms of Great Britain or Ireland." I say, My Lord, that this Limitation or proviso alone did not extend to disqualify Mr. Hagar to be a Member of the Maryland Assembly, but an Act of Assembly having provided that no person, disabled by the Laws of England from sitting in Parliament, should be elected to serve in Assembly, the Question arose on the Proviso in the Statute, and the Reference of the Act of Assembly to the Laws of England, conjunctly; and though a Majority of the Lower House of Assembly thought M. Hagar on this Question to be ineligible, yet the Act Cap. 1, unanimously passed for the very purpose, that a Person