e time expressly approved of
the Two Penny Act, and said: "In my own case, who am entitled to upwards
of seventeen thousand weight of tobacco per annum, the difference
amounts to a considerable sum. However, each individual must expect to
share in the misfortunes of the community to which he belongs."[508:A]
The law was universal in its operation, embracing private debts, public,
county, and parish levies, and the fees of all civil officers. Its
effect upon the clergy was to reduce their salary to a moderate amount
in money, far less, indeed, than the sixteen thousand pounds which they
were ordinarily entitled to, yet still rather more than what they had
usually received. The act did not contain the usual clause, by which
acts altering previous acts approved by the crown were suspended until
they should receive the royal sanction, since it might require the
entire ten months, the term of its operation, to learn the determination
of the crown. The king had a few years before expressly refused to allow
the assembly to dispense with the suspending clause in any such act. The
regal authority was thus apparently abnegated; necessity discarding
forms, and the safety of the people being the supreme law. Up to the
time of the Revolution the king freely exercised his authority in
vetoing acts of the assembly when they had been approved by large
majorities of the house of burgesses and of the council. The practice
was to print all the acts at the close of each session, and when an act
was negatived by the king, that fact was written against the act with a
pen.[508:B]

No open resistance was offered to the Two Penny Act; but the greater
number of clergy petitioned the house of burgesses to grant them a more
liberal provision for their maintenance. Their petition set forth: "That
the salary appointed by law for the clergy is so scanty that it is with
difficulty they support themselves and families, and can by no means
make any provision for their widows and children, who are generally left
to the charity of their friends; that the small encouragement given to
clergymen is a reason why so few come into this colony from the two
universities; and that so many, who are a disgrace to the ministry, find
opportunities to fill the parishes; that the raising the salary would
prove of great service to the colony, as a decent subsistence would be a
great encouragement to the youth to take orders, for want of which few
gentlemen have hitherto