376 Assembly Proceedings, Sept. 28-Dec. 16, 17 57.

L.H.J.

Liber No. 49
Dec. 16

Mr. John Hammond Dorsey hath Leave to go home.

Benedict Calvert, Esq; from the Upper House, delivers to Mr.
Speaker, the several Paper Bills (the Ingrossed Bills of which were
severally Read and Assented to by both Houses); which said Paper
Bills were severally thus Indorsed, " By the Upper House of As-
sembly; The Ingrossed Bill, whereof this is the Original, is Read
and Assented to."
Signed p Order, J. Ross, Cl. Up. Ho.

His Excellency the Governor communicated to Mr. Speaker, the
following Message, viz.

Gentlemen of the Lower House of Assembly,
Upon turning to the Proceedings of the late Lower House of As-
sembly, referred to in your Address of the loth Instant, for those
repeated Representations of that Lower House to me of the Neglect
of several Naval-Officers to account for the Duties imported on
Servants, which I understand they never could receive, I can find
but one such Representation of that House : The same Address relates
likewise to the Commissioners of the Currency-Office, complaining
that they had not Credited the Public with the Monies paid into that
Office by Trippe, Porter and Bradford, tho' in Fact, as I am well

p. 218

informed, those Monies were not paid into that Office, nor even to
the Commissioners themselves, but were paid by those People to the
then Clerk of the Commissioners, out of the Office, notwithstanding
he had no Authority either by Virtue of his Office as Clerk, or from
the Commissioners, to receive the same. And as that House desired
that the Bonds of these Officers may be put in Suit for these Neglects,
so you, in your Address of the loth Instant, complain that their
repeated Representation, and their earnest Request, have not yet
had the desired Effect. And tho' you are at a Loss to account for my
failing to sue those Bonds, agreeable to the Desire of that House, yet
from a Declaration I made, in what I then thought a satisfactory
Answer to that Address, and which I now renew, " That I will never
Countenance any Officer who does not diligently and faithfully
discharge his Duty," you are so good as to attribute that Failure to
any Cause, rather than a Disregard in me to the reasonable Com-
plaints of the Representatives of the People: And I was indeed in
Hopes, that my constant Care and Attention to the Ease and Happi-
ness of every Individual over whom I have the Honour to preside,
might have induced the Representatives of the People, especially
after the foregoing Declaration, to have hit upon the true Cause of
my failing to sue those Bonds, by attributing it to my not being
satisfied that those Officers had been Guilty of any Breach of Trust
or Negligence in the Discharge of their Duty. But as you seem to
think I was not sincere in that Declaration, I shall for once, lay before
you the Reasons which have induced, what you are pleased to call, a
Failure in me.