The Upper House. 483

How Surprising will this Appear if properly represented
that such things were Acted under the Auspicious Reign of
his Sacred Majesty King George the Guardian and Defender
of the Faith, And in the Government of a Lord Proprietary
who has so Often professed himself of the Protestant Religion
under the Tuition of his noble Guardian always of that Per-
swasion.
How happy might those of the Roman Comunion be in
Maryland had they Accepted the Terms offered by me in a
publick Declaration which are so Easey as even their Duty
required Viz. That they should not Interfere with the Affairs
of Government which did not appertain to them And not to
Pervert the Protestants from their Faith & by Consequence
from their Allegiance As is the Constant Practice of the num-
erous Jesuits here. Would to God the poor Protestants in
fforeign parts now indeed under psecution on the Score of
Religion might be Indulged with the same Lenity the Roman-
ists Enjoy here.
The Papists having Insinuated in Great Brittain that they
were psecuted in this Province, In Order to Obviate that
Calumny, I was Obliged at the Opening of the Last Sessions of
Assembly to make them a publick Challenge (which I now
again repeat) to give one Instance wherein Any of their
Comunity were persecuted, or even prosecuted by Law for

U. H. J.

Conscience Sake. The only Reply made on their part was by a
Gentleman Who informed me some of the Principal of the
Roman Catholicks had shewed him a Paper that was Intended
to be presented me by them in which he said they seemed to
Acknowledge they had not been psecuted but at the same time
it Contained something which looked like a Claim of Right.
At the Mention of this I Expressed my Dislike to their
Claim And doubt not my so doing And the hopes they had of
my Sudden Removal from my Station were the reasons that
Paper was never offered to me.

Gentlemen.
The Pretence of the Papists that Maryland was granted
as an Asylum to them from the Rigour of the Penal Laws in
England is a Position of theirs which has long Amused the
World and perhaps I am the first that has Discovered or at
least maintained it was an Imposition, for they Cannot have
a better right than what the Charter Admitts them to, And in
my Opinion there is so farr from a pvision being made therein
that the Government should be in their hands in any Degree
that there is not even an Exception made for the ffree Exercise
of their Religion.

p. 12