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L. H. J.
Liber No. 46
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tion tends, as yours does, in my View of Your Paper towards Hurt-
ing the Liberty of your Constituents in a Very essential manner.
After some turning and twisting the words of the Act of Parliament,
and your elaborate Reasoning to prove a Place out of Parliament to
be not in Parliament and that Questioning must be by Somebody
and cannot be by Nobody in Order to make the words Questioning
and Place have the most extensive but not Legal Signification then
you tell me that I may see those Words Convey no other Meaning
than what is Contained in the former Proceedings of Parliament :
I must own I have never as yet and I believe no Man alive besides
your selves ever understood the word Questioned in An Act of Par-
liament to mean the making an Enquiry or asking a Question about
any Matter or Reasoning or Disputing or the same with any Person
whatsoever or in any Manner; But you Contend that those words
in the Statute can Convey no other meaning but what you have put
on them and that they ought not to be restrained to a Legal Sense
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p. 652
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but extended to every Sense: If so why did you add the other Words
You answer that you added them to explain Particularly what was
only contained in the General Words of that Act what occasion was
there for that Addition since you say they can Carry no other Mean-
ing Have you ever found that the House of Commons (to whom you
liken your selves) even Added or explained the words of this Statute
since the making thereof in that Manner Do you really think it sup-
portable either by reason Justice Decency or your Own Power That
when you insist upon a Right secured to you by an Act of Parliament
you should venture to add other Words to that Act and make the
Bulk of the People believe they are the very words of the Act, Would
it not have been more proper and prudent to make your Declaration
of your Privileges upon the very words of the Act only? Perhaps
you might by Mistake think yourselves more at Liberty to make
thus free an Act of Assembly but why you Ventured to make your
Experiment on this Act of Parliament, I could not at first conjecture,
unless it was for the Reason assigned in my Answer, " To preclude
or rather intimidate your Constituents from ever Presuming to ques-
tion any Behaviour of yours in a Legislative way not even by the
most Humble Inquiries ": And this Guess is now verified by your
own Expression which is That your Constituents know their Rights
with Regard to you as well as you do yours with regard to me and
they have too much good Sense and Good Manners to drive any of
you to the necessaty by a Personal Abuse of laying any Complaint
before the House for a Breach of Privilege " What Knowledge you
have of your rights with regard to me, I shall not determine, but only
say if you have a Imperfect one at Present I shall be glad that you
would Better Inform yourselves: — However I hope your Constitu-
ents will always Know and support their Rights so far with regard to
you as to Question you for any Behaviour in the House which they
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