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Pay the Judges & not his Lordship Let them be in Earnest,
and I will heartily Joyn Issue with them. Let a Bill be framed
to Appropriate even the whole of this Revenue (I had almost
said) for the better Establishing & securing the Independency
of the Judges, & for rendring the Office Worthy of the Accep-
tance of Men of the greatest Abilitys & Integritys in the Pro-
vince, and they shall not want my Concurrence. In this Tract
they can scarce go greater lengths than I will wish to follow
them. But I will be Consistent with myself. I will still Insist
upon my rights till I see proper occasions to suspend them,
and when those Occasions Cease, I will again Resume them.
The Lower House will not seriously Contend that their College
Bill was of a Frame & Composition to induce a Reluctant
Consent: But I will not Descend even to Criticise upon the
Bill, it is a Compliment it does not deserve at my hands. The
matter has unawares carried me into a Length I never
intended, as this Letter was only Designed to Introduce to
you an Instruction Restraining your Assent to any Bill respect-
ing my Licences without a suspending Clause. It is the
result of the best opinions here, it will shorten and Cutt off all
Disputes between the Two Houses, the Lower House will
have an opportunity of dispatching their Ordinary Business
without protracting their Session unnecessarily, or burthening
my Tenants with unreasonable Expences: The Upper House
will be Delivered from Disagreable and unfruitfull altercations,
and will Avoid all the Imputations of Designing Men. The
suspense being my Act will Transfer the odium (I fancy) from
you & the Council to myself, but in so doing My Rights will
be so far preserved, that my own Consent must precede the
Abolition of them. If my Assembly and I shall still have the
Misfortune to Differ in opinion, It is for our Mutual happi-
ness that the Decision will then Devolve upon his Majesty and
his Ministers, where I shall always be ready to submit my
rights. In the mean time no Inconvenience can result to my
Province from the Postponing of a Bill for Endowing a Col-
lege, which was first thought of (when no other Plausible
Application occurred) in the second Century after my Grant,
as a Popular & subsisting Pretence, for Continuing a Claim
wch the Restoration of Publick Peace and Tranquility had left
no longer a pretence for. I mention this Bill as being the last
Attempt I have heard of, and what I expect again to hear of,
tho by the Zeal and Activity of the Upper House Defeated or
Laid aside for a time. I am
Sr
Your Assured Friend & Real
Southton Row Humble servant
7 Febry 1765. F Baltimore
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