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Cloud upon our Provincial Transactions, will be evaded, and the
Merits of the contending Parties fairly laid before the impartial
Tribunal of the Public, without being perplexed with the Forms of
Parliamentary Proceedings, or obstructed by the Machinery and
Influence of Government. — I will now proceed to my Remarks
upon the Message, and will promise my Reader, if he is a Friend
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to Maryland, and a Friend to Truth, with a small Share of Sensi-
bility, his Disgust at any seeming Acrimony, or Intemperance of
Expression, will vanish, when he has duly weighed and considered
the Provocation.
Their Honours very unfortunately set out with two Allegations
against the Message of the Lower House.
First, That they set up for an unrivalled Zeal for his Majesty's
Service.
Secondly, That they arrogate to themselves the Rights and
Powers of a British House of Commons.
First, I have perused the Message of the Lower House over and
again, and cannot find any Passage in it claiming an unrivalled Zeal
for His Majesty's Service. It seems to me, that their Honours have
set out with a Resolution to be very prolix and long-winded, and to
be determined, whenever the Message does not afford them sufficient
Matter for Declamation, to supply the Defect by Fictions of their
own, imputed to the Lower House, without the least Colour of
Evidence. I shall not dispute their Right to treat the Creatures of
their own Imagination in any Manner they think proper, but it is
very hard that they should lay at the Door of others their own
legitimate Issue, because it happens to be deformed. To an Allega-
tion unsupported by Evidence, a bare Denial is a sufficient Answer,
and therefore I shall decline saying any Thing on this Head, until
some Passages out of the Message of the Lower House be produced
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to shew, that they set up for an unrivalled Zeal for His Majesty's
Service.
Secondly, Before I proceed to a Confutation of the second Charge,
I must beg Leave just to take Notice, that their Honours have mis-
recited the Message, when they alledge, that the Lower House claim
the Rights and Powers of the House of Commons. They do indeed
mention Rights and Privileges, but as to Powers, it is a Word their
Honours have, in the Plentitude of their Power to make the Lower
House say just what they please, substituted in the Place of the Word
Privileges. What Difference there is in the Import of the Terms,
needs no Explanation; nor can it be supposed that their Honours
intended the Alteration for any other Purpose, than to give a worse
Construction of the Views of the Lower House than perhaps might
have been warranted by the Word they have thought fit to discard. —
How disingenuous is such a Conduct !
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