The Upper House. 243

Lower house by M^r Harrison and M^r Johnson w^ch Message
is as follows viz.

By the Lower House of Assembly October the 28^th 1725
May it please Your Honours
The two Servants we mention in our Message of the 27^th
stand Comitted as Persons of Evil fame for want of Security
for their good behaviour and if they were tryed Convicted
and punished in any manner saving Life the same reason for
securing the publick peace might Subsist as well after punish-
ment as before and even after an Acquittall, for the End of
Security for the peace is not to punish Crimes but to prevent

U. H. J.

them: and as the preventative Justice is of all others the most
Conducive to the well being of any people, we hope yo^r Hon^rs
will not Insist on any thing that looks like depriving us of it
The Case of Criminal Servants fees and the Act relating to it
no more Exempts Servants from being bound to their good
behaviour than the Statute of the 4^th of his Majesty deprives
his Subjects of having the peace Secured to them against Con-
victs and therefore we think that Act Concerns not this
Argument We cannot think a restraint by Imprisonm^t from
Misbehaviour can be any Evidence of good behaviour unless
it be a vertue in any One not to do what he cannot do, and
if there were Cause at first to Committ such persons the
same Cause seems to Continue without Alteration for it may
be presumed some person would be prevailed with in favour
of Liberty to be their Security in so small a Sum as is generally
Expected on such occasions were not their behaviour so
notoriously bad that all the Assurances of reformation they
could give whilst in Goal could not prevail with any to trust
them, and if no Single Subject will trust to their good behav-
iour for 10^l or 15^l why should the whole of every Subjects
moveable Estates as well as person be Exposed to the Depre-
dations of such unruly people Where Servants are return'd
to their Masters after punishment without Exacting Security
it is generally where Masters or others are not under ill Ap-
prehensions concerning them. But we hope yo^r Hon^rs will
not insist on its being matter of right for the Servants to be
Exempt from being bound to his good Behaviour because
he has been either acquitted or Convicted of a Crime tho the
Magistrate see Cause for it for as we Esteem it to be the duty
of every Legislature to have a tender regard to the property of
Masters we think it much more so, to have a tender regard
for the preserving the publick peace in which not only the
property of Masters but of every other Subject is effectually

p. 66

concerned And we pray yo^r Hon^rs to Consider what other

p. 67