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Members of your House for only accepting of Offices under
the Government since their Election, although there is no Law
of this Province to render them unqualifyed, or incapable to sit
for that Reason: Had the Gentlemen You have been pleased
to expel been guilty of, or charged with any Misdemeanor in
their Duty as Members of your House, You would have been
the proper Judges how to proceed, and I would not pretend
to interpose, but when you have proceeded to so great a
Length, as either to make a Vote, or Resolution of your own
house, equally valid and binding to an Act of Assembly or
else to form a violent and unreasonable Construction upon
Laws, so as to make them agreeable to your Purpose, I could
not, without being wanting in my Duty to his Majesty, His
Lordship the Lord Proprietary, as well as the Discharge of the
Obligation I am under to preserve the Rights and Liberties
of his Majestys Subjects under my Government, delay exer-
cising that Authority with which I am intrusted in preserving
Our Constitution, & hindering One Branch of Our Legisla-
ture from engrossing the same Power and Authority which is
vested, and only vested in the whole.
It has always been the Custom of Our Mother Country, to
keep up & support that necessary Dependance, which One
Part of the Legislature has, and ought to have upon Others,
to the End that Publick Interest may be carried on by the
united Endeavours of all the Parts of the Legislature: It is by
observing these wise Maxims, that Our happy Constitution is
so firmly established, and Nothing can in all Probability tend
more to weaken that Establishment, than the overthrowing
that Dependance I have been mentioning; and It is evident
to any considering impartial Man, that your expelling your
Members in the manner You have done, is assuming a Power
to your selves entirely independent, and indeed destructive of
the Other Parts of the Legislature, and of the Liberties and
Properties of his Majestys Subjects, which not only as a Gov-
ernor but as a Subject to his Majesty King George, I am
obliged to support and maintain to the utmost of my Power;
And therefore with the Advice of his Lordships Council of
State, I dissolve this present General Assembly, and It is
accordingly dissolved
The aforegoing Speech being read, is approved of; and It
is the Opinion and Advice of this Board that his Excellency
be pleased to dissolve the present General Assembly
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Lib. M.
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