338 Journal and Correspondence

May I not challenge you to say to the World if any Troops
have arrived at, or any hostile Measures been proceeded in
against, this Province, from any Request of mine, or Informa-
tion from me, to the Secretary of State? I have above told
you my Resolution of continuing in my Station, as long as
permitted, or the ostensible Form of the established Govern-
ment can contribute to preserve the Peace of the Province ;
and I will add one further Assurance, in hopes it may be satis-
factory to you, that as your Convention is to meet shortly they
shall find me here, and willing to continue acting in the same
Line I have hitherto done, so long as Maryland can reap any
peaceful Benefits from my Service, provided I can have
Assurances that my peaceable departure shall not be impeded,
whenever I find my remaining any longer here unnecessary, or
that my private Affairs at home indispensably demand my
Return :
Consistent with my Honour, and insulted Station, I cannot
add more but that, it made a Prisoner, I shall consider myself
treated as an Enemy, and such a proceeding as a Breach of
that Confidence I have implicitly reposed in you, which I
thought my Conduct, and the public Declaration of the Con-
vention justified. I am Gentlemen with respect,
Your obed^{t
humble Servt Rob' Eden.
To Chas Carroll Esqr Bar: John Hall Esqr & William Paca Esqr}

C. S. C.

No. 120.

[Council to Eden.]

Sir.
In Times of public Distress and Convulsion when a free
People are threatened with a deprivation of their civil Liberty,
Exertions for it's Preservation influenced by the purest Princi-
ples and conducted with all possible Attention to Form and
Ceremony, we hope will not be considered as an Indignity or
Insult to any Rank or Station in the Community. The Pro-
ceeding which your Excellency reprehends in your Letter
addressed to Ch^s Carroll, John Hall, & W^m Paca Esq^rs and
communicated by them to our Board, arose from an Impres-
sion that we who are intrusted with the public Safety, should
pursue with Vigilance every effectual Measure, tho' the Danger
to be guarded against may rest only in Possibility. The inter-
cepted Letters from Administration to your Excellency, we
own, furnish Grounds for Conjecture and Apprehension only
of your having held an injurious Correspondence; and whilst
we reflect on the general Tenor of your Excellency's Conduct,
the friendly Disposition you have often manifested and the
several favorable and impartial Representations, you have