The Lower House. 171

ervation of such good Correspondence there would have been
no Room for questioning whether those freedoms which you
have taken in your Message of Octob^r the 27^th by Col^o Mackall
and five others was becoming you or no, for as it is a funda-
mentall Right inherent to both Houses of Debateing Approv-
ing or Rejecting whatsoever is propounded by the other House
We could never have imagined that our not giving Directly
into yo^r Measures (as to the Draught of the oath laid before

L. H. J.

us by M^r Attorney Generall) would have drawn upon us such
undeserved Calumnies as those of having Inverted the order
and End of our office of consulting his L^pps pleasure more than
his Intrest, and lastly of having neglected to give his L^pp the
necessary advices upon the late addresses transmitted to him
by your House
Certainly when you consider the thing you will have Just
reason to acknowledge that such unhandsome Reflections
have had no other foundation than Groundless Jealousies and
the mere mistakes of yo^r House for to say nothing of the first
two, which yet tend to a manifest breach of that Good Corre-
spondency which ought always to Subsist between the two
Houses, We may with a great Deal of Justice Complain that
Impossibilities are made to be a part of our Duty.
Gentlemen. You must needs Confess that you forget your-
selves Sometimes and give us room to believe that the precip-
itancy of your proceedings is the Naturall Result of your Zeal
for the good of your Country which however, you are so
Sanguine in the pursuit of that you never once considered
whether the Address mention'd in your message ever came
to our hands or no. We assure you it did not and that it
remain'd a mistery to us untill the publication thereof in print,
as to the Substance of it, altho' we had before been beholden
to Common Fame for the Truth of the ffact.
We are Sorry to find the Lower House of Assembly so farr
mistaken in Policy as well as in prudence of Governm^t as to
believe we had fail'd in our Duty by postponing the Inno-
vation which we found in the form of the oath to be advised
on by the Lord Prop^ry who by the help of the best Lawyers
in England might have been able to inform his Councill of
State here whether such alteracon (which related only to that
of the Kings Letter) might be consistent with his L^pps Charter
which we are of opinion is of great Security both to the
Liberty and the Rights of the people of this province. We
leave it therefore to any Impartiall Judge upon due Recol-
lection of the matter, Whether we have faild in our Duty, and
not rather done the part of true patriots, as well as of faithfull
Councillo^rs of State.

p. 183