The History of the Five Indian Nations of Canada Part 23

T H A T the Governor and provincial Council shall at all Times settle and order the Situation of all Cities, Ports, and Market-Towns in every County, modelling therein all publick Buildings, Streets, and Market-Places, and shall appoint all necessary Roads and Highways in the Province.

XI.

T H A T the Governor and provincial Council shall at all Times have Power to inspect the Management of the publick Treasury, and punish those who shall convert any Part thereof to any other Use, than what hath been agreed upon by the Governor, provincial Council, and general a.s.sembly.

XII.

T H A T the Governor and provincial Council shall erect and order all publick Schools, and encourage and reward the Authors of useful Sciences and laudable Inventions in the said Province.

XIII.

T H A T for the better Management of the Powers and Trust aforesaid, the provincial Council shall from time to time divide itself into four distinct and proper Committees, for the more easy Administration of the Affairs of the Province, which divides the Seventy-two into four Eighteens, every one of which Eighteens shall consist of six out of each of the three Orders or yearly Elections, each of which shall have a distinct Portion of Business, as followeth: _First_, a Committee of Plantations, to situate and settle Cities, Ports, and Market-Towns, and Highways, and to hear and decide all Suits and Controversies relating to Plantations. _Secondly_, a Committee of Justice and Safety, to secure the Peace of the Province, and punish the Male-Administration of those who subvert Justice to the Prejudice of the publick or private Interest.

_Thirdly_, a Committee of Trade and Treasury, who shall regulate all Trade and Commerce according to Law, encourage Manufacture and Country-Growth, and defray the publick Charge of the Province. And _Fourthly_, a Committee of Manners, Education, and Arts, that all wicked and scandalous Living may be prevented, and that Youth may be successively trained up in Virtue and useful Knowledge and Arts: The _Quorum_ of each of which Committees being six, _that is_, two out of each of the three Orders or yearly Elections, as aforesaid, make a constant and standing Council of Twenty-four, which will have the Power of the provincial Council, being the _Quorum_ of it, in all Cases not excepted in the fifth Article; and in the said Committees and standing Council of the Province, the Governor or his Deputy shall or may preside, as aforesaid; and in the Absence of the Governor or his Deputy, if no one is by either of them appointed, the said Committees or Council shall appoint a President for that Time, and not otherwise; and what shall be resolved at such Committees, shall be reported to the said Council of the Province, and shall be by them resolved and confirmed before the same shall be put in Execution; and that these respective Committees shall not sit at one and the same Time, except in Cases of Necessity.

XIV.

A N D, to the End that all Laws prepared by the Governor and provincial Council aforesaid, may yet have the more full Concurrence of the Freemen of the Province, it is declared, granted, and confirmed, That at the Time and Place or Places for the Choice of a provincial Council as aforesaid, the said Freemen shall yearly chuse Members to serve in a general a.s.sembly as their Representatives, not exceeding two hundred Persons, who shall yearly meet from the twentieth Day of the second Month, which shall be in the Year _One Thousand Six Hundred Eighty and Three_ following, in the capital Town or City of the said Province, where during eight Days the several Members may freely confer with one another; and, if any of them see meet, with a Committee of the provincial Council (consisting of three out of each of the four Committees aforesaid, being twelve in all) which shall be at that Time, purposely appointed to receive from any of them Proposals for the Alterations or Amendment of any of the said proposed and promulgated Bills: And on the ninth Day from their so meeting, the said general a.s.sembly, after Reading over the proposed Bills by the Clerk of the provincial Council, and the Occasions and Motives for them being opened by the Governor or his Deputy, shall give their Affirmative or Negative, which to them seemeth best, in such Manner as herein after is express'd.

But not less than two-thirds shall make a _Quorum_ in the Pa.s.sing of Laws, and Choice of such Officers as are by them to be chosen.

XV.

T H A T the Laws so prepared and proposed as aforesaid, that are a.s.sented to by the general a.s.sembly, shall be enrolled as Laws of the Province, with this Stile: _By the Governor, with the a.s.sent and Approbation of the Freemen in provincial Council and general a.s.sembly._

XVI.

T H A T, for the better Establishment of the Government and Laws of this Province, and to the End there may be an universal Satisfaction in the Laying of the Fundamentals thereof; the general a.s.sembly shall, or may for the first Year, consist of all the Freemen of and in the said Province, and ever after it shall be yearly chosen as aforesaid; which Number of two hundred shall be enlarged as the Country shall encrease in People, so as it do not exceed five hundred at any Time: The Appointment and Proportioning or which, as also the Laying and Methodizing of the Choice of the provincial Council and general a.s.sembly in future Times, most equally to the Divisions of the Hundreds and Counties, which the Country shall hereafter be divided into, shall be in the Power of the provincial Council to propose, and the general a.s.sembly to resolve.

XVII.

T H A T the Governor and the provincial Council shall erect from time to time standing Courts of Justice, in such Places and Number as they shall judge convenient for the good Government of the said Province. And that the provincial Council shall on the thirteenth Day of the first Month yearly, elect and present to the Governor or his Deputy, a double Number of Persons, to serve for Judges, Treasurers, Masters of Rolls, within the said Province for the Year next ensuing; and the Freemen of the said Province in the County-Courts, when they shall be erected, and till then in the general a.s.sembly, shall on the three and twentieth Day of the second Month yearly, elect and present to the Governor or his Deputy, a double Number of Persons to serve for Sheriffs, Justices of the Peace, and Coroners, for the Year next ensuing; out of which respective Elections and Presentments, the Governor or his Deputy shall nominate and commissionate the proper Number for each Office the third Day after the said Presentments; or else the first named in such Presentment for each Office, shall stand and serve for that Office the Year ensuing.

XVIII.

B U T forasmuch as the present Condition of the Province requires some immediate Settlement, and admits not of so quick a Revolution of Officers; and to the End the said Province may, with all convenient Speed, be well ordered and settled, I _William Penn_ do therefore think fit to nominate and appoint such Persons for Judges, Treasurers, Masters of the Rolls, Sheriffs, Justices of the Peace, and Coroners, as are most fitly qualified for those Employments; to whom I shall make and grant Commissions for the said Officers, respectively, to hold to them to whom the same shall be granted, for so long Time as every such Person shall well behave himself in the Office or Place to him respectively granted, and no longer. And upon the Decease or Displacing of any of the said Officers, the succeeding Officer or Officers shall be chosen as aforesaid.

XIX.

T H A T the general a.s.sembly shall continue so long as may be needful to impeach Criminals fit to be there impeached, to pa.s.s Bills into Laws that they shall think fit to pa.s.s into Laws, and till such Time as the Governor and provincial Council shall declare that they have nothing further to propose unto them for their a.s.sent and Approbation: And that Declaration shall be a Dismiss to the general a.s.sembly for that time; which general a.s.sembly shall be notwithstanding capable of a.s.sembling together upon the Summons of the provincial Council, at any Time during that Year, if the said provincial Council shall see Occasion for their so a.s.sembling.

XX.

T H A T all the Elections of Members or Representatives of the People to serve in provincial Council and general a.s.sembly, and all Questions to be determined by both or either of them, that relate to pa.s.sing of Bills into Laws, to the Choice of Officers, to Impeachments made by the general a.s.sembly, and Judgment of Criminals upon such Impeachments by the provincial Council, and to all other Cases by them respectively judged of Importance, shall be resolved and determined by the Ballot; and unless on sudden and indispensible Occasions, no Business in provincial Council, or its respective Committees, shall be finally determined the same Day that it is moved.

XXI.

T H A T at all times, when, and so often as it shall happen that the Governor shall or may be an Infant under the Age of one and twenty Years, and no Guardians or Commissioners are appointed in Writing by the Father of the said Infant, or that such Guardians or Commissioners shall be deceased; that during such Minority, the provincial Council shall from Time to Time, as they shall see meet, const.i.tute and appoint Guardians or Commissioners, not exceeding three; one of which three shall preside as Deputy and chief Guardian, during such Minority, and shall have, and execute, with the Consent of the other two, all the Power of a Governor, in all the publick Affairs and Concerns of the said Province.

XXII.

T H A T as often as any Day of the Month mentioned in any Article of this Charter, shall fall upon the first Day of the Week, commonly called _the Lord's Day_, the Business appointed for that Day shall be deferred till the next Day, unless in case of Emergency.

XXIII.

T H A T no Act, Law, or Ordinance whatsoever, shall at any time hereafter be made or done by the Governor of this Province, his Heirs or a.s.signs, or by the Freemen in the provincial Council, or the general a.s.sembly, to alter, change or diminish the Form or Effect of this Charter, or any Part or Clause thereof, or contrary to the true Intent and Meaning thereof, without the Consent of the Governor, his Heirs or a.s.signs, and six Parts of seven of the said Freemen in provincial Council and general a.s.sembly.

XXIV.

A N D L A S T L Y, That I the said _William Penn_, for myself, my Heirs and a.s.signs, have solemnly declared, granted, and confirmed, and do hereby solemnly declare, grant, and confirm, That neither I, my Heirs nor a.s.signs, shall procure or do any Thing or Things, whereby the Liberties in this Charter contained and expressed shall be infringed or broken; and if any Thing be procured by any Person or Persons contrary to these Premisses, it shall be held of no Force or Effect. I N W I T N E S S whereof, I the said _William Penn_ have unto this present Charter of Liberties set my Hand and broad Seal, this _five and twentieth_ Day of the second Month, vulgarly called _April_, in the Year of our L O R D _One Thousand Six Hundred and Eighty-two_.

William Penn.

L A W S _agreed upon in England_, &c.

I.

T H A T the Charter of Liberties, declared, granted, and confirmed the _five and twentieth_ Day of the second Month, called _April_, 1682, before divers Witnesses, by _William Penn_, Governor and chief Proprietor of _Pensilvania_, to all the Freemen and Planters of the said Province; is hereby declared and approved, and shall be for ever held for Fundamental in the Government thereof, according to the Limitations mentioned in the said Charter.

II.

T H A T every Inhabitant in the said Province, that is or shall be a Purchaser of one hundred Acres of Land, or upwards, his Heirs and a.s.signs, and every Person who shall have paid his Pa.s.sage, and taken up one hundred Acres of Land at one Penny an Acre, and have cultivated ten Acres thereof; and every Person that hath been a Servant or Bondsman, and is free by his Service, that shall have taken up his fifty Acres of Land, and cultivated twenty thereof; and every Inhabitant, Artificer, or other Resident in the said Province, that pays Scot and Lot to the Governments shall be deemed and accounted a Freeman of the said Province: And every such Person shall and may be capable of electing, or being elected Representatives of the People in provincial Council or general a.s.sembly in the said Province.

III.

T H A T all Elections of Members, or Representatives of the People and Freemen of the Province of _Pensilvania_, to serve in provincial Council or general a.s.sembly to be held within the said Province, shall be free and voluntary: And that the Elector, that shall receive any Reward or Gift, in Meat, Drink, Monies, or otherwise, shall forfeit his Right to elect; and such Person as shall directly or indirectly give, promise, or bestow any such Reward as aforesaid, to be elected, shall forfeit his Election, and be thereby incapable to serve as aforesaid: And the provincial Council and general a.s.sembly shall be the sole Judges of the Regularity or Irregularity of the Elections of their own respective Members.

IV.

T H A T no Money or Goods shall be raised upon, or paid by any of the People of this Province by way of publick Tax, Custom, or Contribution, but by a Law for that Purpose made; and whosoever shall levy, collect, or pay any Money or Goods contrary thereunto, shall be held a publick Enemy to the Province, and a Betrayer of the Liberties of the People thereof.