The Council and Burgesses protested in an address to the King. They were alarmed that this case had been decided without a legal trial by jury, they said. It had never been the practice to charge "interest upon interest" in "open running accounts." They thought it wrong that "the reports of merchants" who were not under oath and were inclined to favor one another, should be permitted to overrule the verdict of legal juries. If the planters were to be loaded with whatever charges their factors thought fit, it would greatly discourage trade and industry.[30] But they were unprepared for the extreme lengths to which the merchants would go. At a meeting of the Council in October, 1731, they could hardly credit their ears when Gooch read them a letter stating that they were about to present a petition to Parliament concerning the colonies. They wanted first a law prohibiting the Assemblies from passing any acts affecting trade and navigation, second, a law making real estate liable for debts, and third, a law permitting appeals from the Virginia General Court to the Privy Council in suits involving L100 or more.[31] Gooch wrote at once to the Board denouncing this attempt to muzzle the Assembly. "When I considered, my Lords, how long and happily the British subjects have traded to America and acquired great riches under the ancient establishment made in these points by the Crown, set forth in the royal charters and instructions, without seeking to abridge the people of the plantations of their birthright as Englishmen, or limiting the Crown in the methods of government, I must confess I was somewhat startled."[32] The Council also protested vigorously. It was impossible for the Assembly to avoid all legislation affecting trade, they said in a letter to the Board, since it might prohibit certain vitally necessary laws. If the merchants objected to any act of Assembly, they could lay the matter before the King. As for making the land of the planters liable for debts, it was pointed out that there was no law making the lands of the merchants liable to the demands of the colonists. Yet the factors were as often in the planters' debt as the planters in theirs. It would create uneasiness in the minds of a loyal people to find they had not equal justice. And to allow appeals to the King in cases involving as little as L100 would be a heavy burden; for the expense of the planter, who would have to make a voyage to England to defend his rights, would be as great as the sum involved.[33]