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L. H. J,
Liber No. 49
Oct. 11
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the Head and Chief Branch, have also mine, and particularly some,
which neither of the other, singly nor both together, have any
Power to exercise.
As these several Branches are constitutionally independent of each
other, except in certain Cases, where I, as the Chief, have a Right
to give the Law to the Rest, so likewise are the Servants of each
free from the Authority of either of the others; and therefore,
wherever, in any Case, Offence shall be given by the Servant of one
to any other Branch of the Legislature, the Parties offended must
be content either to overlook such Offence, or to apply to that Branch
whose Servant such Offender is, to obtain Satisfaction; and this is
the Method I pursued with Regard to your Serjeant; for, instead
of sending the Sheriff, or any other Officer, to take him into Custody
for the Insult offered me, I made my Application to you: And why
I am not to be treated with the same Decency that you are, and have
not as good a Right to protect my Servants, and prevent their
suffering by the Authority of others, cannot easily be conceived.
Upon these Principles, then, give me Leave to proceed a little
further. You tell me that Mr. John Ridout, whom I call, and who
you know is, my Secretary, " was Guilty of a Contempt of the
Authority, and of a Breach of the Rights and Privileges of this
House, at the Bar thereof; " you say the Contempt he committed
was at the Bar of your House, but you do not say how he came
there; I am sure he came not there by my Consent, pursuant to any
Application from you to me for his Attendance: And if you have
called him, whom, at that Time, you knew to be my Secretary, and
subject only to my Authority, before you, without pursuing the
regular and parliamentary Method for that Purpose, as in this
Instance, you have committed the first Irregularity, both with Regard
to him and me: So you had not only no Authority over him when
present, let him have behaved as he would; (and yet, from what I
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p. 37
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can learn of this Affair, I cannot disapprove of his Behaviour) but
this is giving me a new, and the first Cause of Complaint of an
Attempt by you to exercise an unconstitutional Authority, in sending
for a Person to appear at your Bar, with whom you have nothing to
do, and who is constitutionally under my Protection, and conse-
quently of a Contempt of my Power, and of a Breach of the Rights
and Privileges incident to my Station. And I must here take the
Liberty to tell you, Gentlemen, that these Powers, Rights and Privi-
leges, I am determined, whenever I shall leave this Government, to
deliver up to my Successor, as full and entire, in all their several
Branches, as they came to my Hands.
I would not, from what has passed, be understood as if I were en-
deavouring to conceal any Thing from your Knowledge, which it may
be proper you should know; and as the Lower House of Assembly
have always found me ready to give them, in their public Consul-
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