570 Assembly Proceedings, May 1-June 4, 1744.

L. H. J,

p 424

Attempt getting into our Hands any share or part of the Power of
Government, as is in that Message supposed; and we should think
our Selves very happy, as well as those we Represent, could we pre-
serve our own Rights, Liberties and Privileges, without infringing
on the prerogatives of Government, the Right of which devolved on
the Lord Proprietary by the Royal Charter, we know of none so wild
as to Deny; but how Majesty itself has been drawn into the Present
Case, we are at a loss to know, unless it was to Render the thing
more Terrible and give the greater fforce to the designed accusation.
And now we Crave leave to refer your Excellency herein, to the
Letters or Demands of the Six Nations of Indians, communicated
by you to this House last Session, Viz. No. I and 2; which, and a
Message from your Excellency of the 24^th of October 1742, gave
Rise to an Address, in Answer thereto, of the 29^th of the same month,
and of which Address, your Excellency was pleased to approve in
the following Paragraph of your Speech, at the Close of the said
Session; viz. " I cannot but express my Satisfaction of your Treat-
ment of my Message relating to the Indians, and you may rely on
my zealous Endeavours, in the Disposition of the public Money, for
the Honour and safety of the province " and yet the said Address
contained the Substance of the 18^th and other Articles of the In-
struction mentioned, and now found fault with, and highly con-
demned in your Message.
We readily acknowledge the Power of War and Peace to be in
the Crown, and those devolved as aforesaid, and doubt not it will be
granted that giving Money and Support to such War or Peace is
the Privilege of the People, whose sense of, and Disposition to either
is seldom rejected.
The Basis of the present intended meeting with the Indians, can-
not come properly under the Denomination of War or Peace, for a
Treaty to the latter purpose must Suppose a Rupture Precedent;
and we know of none, nor the least Provocation given by the People
of Maryland to the six nations: and it plainly appeares from the
aforesaid Papers or Letters, that their Demand is to be paid for
Land, for which the possessors of such Land have already paid his
Lordship the Lord Proprietary, so consequently is a Matter relating
to Private Right, and more properly may be called a Treaty of Bar-
gain and Sale, in which we contend that his Lordship should bear a
Part, if not the whole.
The lofty Terms of War and Peace, we suppose are introduced
on the Present Plan of raising the accusation higher, against the
Lower House of Maryland Assembly, to condemn which, the ad-
visers of the Message have exerted a more than ordinary Sonorous
Chicane.
Upon the most Mature consideration of the said Instructions, we
cannot conceive that they contain any one Article or Matter, which