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L. H. J.
Liber No. 49
Dec. 1
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sioncd by our Lord Proprietary or Governor for that Purpose, we
shall take no further Notice of him, or his Office, than to point it
out as an Innovation in our Constitution, to which we will not submit.
Your Excellency's having a Right in certain Cases, as the Chief
Branch of the Legislature, to give Law to us, we do not clearly under-
stand; but presume you mean the Power of Convening, Proroguing
and Dissolving us, which we do not dispute. It will be Time enough
to answer what you are pleased to say, of the Authority of each, over
the Servants of the other Branch of the Legislature, when it appears
to us, that your Excellency, in your Legislative Capacity, has a
Servant necessarily and constitutionally Attendant on you, in the
Discharge of your Duty; but as this is not the Case, why you should
prevent a Person, you are pleased to favour with such an Appellation,
from giving Evidence before our House, or endeavour to protect him,
against the ancient and undoubted Authority of it, we leave to the
Judgment of others.
Upon this Principle then, that your Excellency has not in your
Legislative Capacity, any Servant necessarily and constitutionally
Attendant on you, for the Discharge of your Duty, give us leave to
say, that Mr. John Ridout (or your Secretary, or by whatever Ap-
pellation it would be most agreeable to you to have him called), ap-
pearing before our House, whether by your Consent we neither know
nor think it material (though it is pretty extraordinary, that your
Secretary, as you are pleased to call him, and who, 'tis probable, has
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p. 114
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not been but just appointed to his Office, should know so little of his
Duty, as to come before us without your Consent), we had a Right
to interrogate him in the Manner we did, and to issue a Warrant to
our Serjeant, to take him into Custody, for a Breach of our Rights
and Privileges, in refusing to give Evidence before this House, and
for a Contempt of the Authority of it, in not attending according to
Order. And we must say, we are sorry your Excellency should have
dropped such an Expression, as that we had no Authority over him
when present, let him have behaved as he would; and we think our-
selves so far from having given you any Cause of Complaint, of any
Attempt in us to exercise an unconstitutional Authority, in request-
ing Mr. Ridout to appear before us to give Evidence, that we are
satisfied we have as much Right to call him before us, as any other
Gentleman that may reside in your Excellency's House, and as much
Right to call one of your Family before us, as one of any Gentle-
man's Family in the Province.
And we must here take the Freedom to tell your Excellency, that
if the calling a Gentleman in your Family, Your Secretary, and en-
deavouring thereby to protect him against the Authority of this
House, be one of those Rights and Privileges, which you intend,
whenever you shall leave this Government, to deliver up to your
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