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p. 106
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It is very true that upon intimation given us that the Upper
House intended to alter the usual Duration of several Bills sent
to them We resolved to keep in Our Power that Bill for Arms, &ca
in Order, as your Excellency is pleased to Express it, to make Sure
of those Bills with their Accustomed Duration, wherein the Interest
of the Country and the Administration of Justice are so nearly
Concerned, and altho this may look like a Restraint on that House,
which they say is inconsistent with their Priviledge as a Branch of
Legislature, it is not more than what they have done to Our House
in this and former Assemblies; For in the very First Message sent us
this Session, they tell us they would not Pass any Bill whatsoever,
until we should send them another in the manner they required
If it be true (as we hope will never be denied) that the Priviledges
of the Delegates of Maryland duly elected and Convened According
to the express Terms of the Royal Charter and Laws of the Country,
are at least as Sacred and as little to be violated, as those of the Upper
House, who we doubt cannot shew the like Vouchers for their
taking a Share in the Legislature; It is strange that that Conduct
should be reckon'd Irregular, Unparliamentary or Unreasonable
in Us, which even by your Excellency is said to be Reasonable in
them
We are told this Intimation was not given us from their House,
and therefore We are Irregular in taking such notice of it: but We
submit it to your Excellency's Judgment, whichever way the In-
formation came, whether the Event doth not fully shew Our Fears
to have been well grounded by their refusing to give us any Satisfac-
tion in the matter, and having resolved never to give Our Bills a
second Reading until We should send up this other Bill; and We
think therefore it would have been a Trespass upon Common
Prudence in us to part with the only apparent Means left us of
procuring those useful Laws when the Contrary Conduct in the
Upper House is Justified by your Excellency
We could have very sincerely wisht this Practice had never been
between the two Houses, but every one who reads Our Proceedings
must Acknowledge it took its Rise in the Upper House, and it is to
prevent any thing of the Kind for the future, to maintain and support
the Priviledges Of the Delegates, and to preserve to them a freedom
of Action that we are Obliged now to submit to the Inconveniency
of having Our Temporary Laws cease for a while, rather than come
into such Measures as must in their Consequence render our having
any Laws whatsoever precarious to depend solely on the Will of An
Upper House, and to be purchased at any price it should be thought
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