The Upper House. 59

of that Power which You have declared in a Message and Resolution
you are invested with shall think fit A Power which the House of

Commons in England makes no Claim to, And to Obviate any Pre-
tence of representing it in a wrong Light I will use your own Words
in your Message wherein You declare you conceive it to be the un-
doubted Right of the House of Delegates alone to raise upon the
People of this Province any Sum of Money or other Tax and for
such time and in such manner and to be applied to such uses as that
House shall think proper, And You have likewise resolved that it is
the undoubted right of the House of Delegates to raise on the
People of this Province any sum of Money or other Tax and for
such time and in such manner and to such uses and Purposes as to
them shall seem proper this is a stretch of Power unknown to a
British Constitution and by what Authority or upon what Pretensions
You have made it Yourselves only can tell if this Project of an Agent
should ever succeed it would answer a very necessary purpose to
the Province viz^t furnishing a very plausible pretence of rendering
no Account of considerable sums, amounting as I am informed to
above four hundred Pounds sterl raised several Years since by pri-
vate Subscriptions on pretence of defraying the Expence of bring-

U. H. J.
Liber No. 34

ing some Complaints which the County has been long amused and
inflamed with to a decision in England and altho much less than
half the Money already subscribed would have been Sufficient for
the end to which it was pretended to be Raised not one single Publick
Step is yet taken to bring the Complaints to any issue or Determina-
tion, nor is it to be imagined by any sensible Man who will make Use
of his Reason that the Managers ever intended there should be any
Determination of them During these Transactions and this Waste
of time in your House the People without Doors were Exasperated
that no Supplies were given for the Defence of Louisburgh as well
as at the Probability that no Business would be done and that the
Country would be run to a great and fruitless Expence which
Alarmed the Managers and made them think it necessary to en-
deavour to Pacify them to this end an Inclination is dissembled to
Carry on the Publick Business and a Conference was proposed to
the Upper House to settle Officers Fees, which was readily agreed
to and Conferees appointed to these some Members of your House
were joyned who had for several Years industriously endeavoured
to inflame and keep up the unhappy differences which have too long
subsisted in the Country wherein they have been but too successful
this Choice of your Conferees gave every Man who was anxious
for and sincerely wished the Publick Welfare a very bad Prospect
of the Event and these Gentlemen acted as it was Expected & fore-
seen tho' they behaved plausibly for some time in View as I have
Reason to believe to gain time to send me two unmannerly Addresses
one about the Pound of Tobacco p taxable Levied in Virtue of the

p. 99