and that being granted, the Remedy was adequate from the Equivalent in Money, 
and no Instance could be given where any greater Allowance for the Value of 
Tobacco had been given as an Alternative in Payment of Dues. 
You will please to observe that the Prayer of Mr. Camm's Petition is that the 
Act shall be declared ab initio Void, meaning thereby a Retribution, this was much 
laboured by Mr. Paris, against this I argued that there was no Repugnancy in this 
Act to any Act of Parliament whereby to bring it within the Statute of 7 and 8 of 
Wm. Cap:22 S 9 but that if it had carried with it such Repugnancy, that it did not 
ly within their Lordships Jurisdiction to declare it ab initio void, all that they could 
do was, if they saw good Cause, to represent it to his Majesty voidable, nor could 
the King from the manner in which Mr. Camm had pursued his Remedy, go 
further than to repeal the Law, which Repeal cannot carry along with it any Retribution, 
against those who had acted in consequence of the Act, whether in their 
publick or private Capacity. 
Upon the whole, tho my Arguments have not prevailed so far as to save the Act, 
Mr. Camm has lost the grand point aimed at of Retribution, which, in my humble 
Opinion, he can never attain through the Rules of Office, nor even through the 
ordinary course of law, by means of an Appeal to the King in Council, because, 
as I have already observed, this Act does not come within the Statute of King William, 
so as to make it ab initio Void. 4613 
From clerical sources a variant version of the hearing appeared in which 
it was declared that the members of the Board of Trade 
were willing to report agreably to our request, that the acts ought to be declared 
null and void ab initio provided a precedent could be produced for the use of such 
words. No precedent being to be found, as I conceive the case was new, it seemed 
to be the opinion of their Lordships that our remedy, laid properly at law for that 
the act must certainly be deemed no law when it came to dispute by an appeal, for 
instances were not wanting of acts so deemed, which had been observed many 
years as law in some of the plantations. 462 
The Board of Trade, in its July, 1759, representation, advised disallowance 
of the 1755 and 1758 acts and also of two of the acts repealing the 1748 act for 
certain localities. The specific grounds of disallowance were the unjustness of 
the acts in their principles and effects and the fact that they were passed 
contrary to the royal instructions. In addition to the disallowance an additional 
instruction to the governor was advised, requiring him for the future strictly to 
observe the directions contained in the 16th article of his instructions. 463 The 
46ia Abercromby to John Blair, President of the 
Virginia Council, June 30, 1759; MS James 
Abercromby Letter Boo\, 162-64 (Virginia 
State Library, Richmond, Va.). 
462p erry> op _ citi 510 . c f_ jctp, 1759-63, 43, 
45-47- 
463 p erryj o p. eft., 458-60