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or Assent of any other, and entered upon your own Journals can
operate as a Confirmation of the Privileges claimed by yourselves.
If your Priviledges after this Kind of parliamentary Confirmation
stand as they did before they were thus sanctioned, it is very difficult
to have any Idea of the real Nature of its Operation, if they gain
thereby any additional Strength the Members of your House have a
Power of giving or communicating to themselves by their Resolves
what they had not before. We are therefore not satisfied with your
Distinction and hope you will excuse us for not knowing or even
assenting to what we don't understand
We observed to you in our Message " that we were willing to admit
the Corrections you had made of some Parts of the Bills after we
had returned it with a Negative, and that we would in Order to give
you the Satisfaction you desired proceed to point out our material
Objections, not thinking that any Forms ought to be so religiously
observed as to defeat the Duty we owed to our King anud Country
&c." This was said in Answer to that Part of your first Message
wherein you seemed to make some Apology for calling upon us to
point out our Objections by saying that " you hope we will point out
all our Objections tho' it may not be consistent with parliamentary
Modes of proceeding, and give us some Assurance of your Disposi-
tion to reconcile this Remark you would insinuate did not consist
with our Conduct, but why not? after you had applied to us for our
Objections and promised to pay a just Regard to them /how far you
have done so, let your contumelious Language speak/ the Forms we
spoke of were those you had transgressed and such as we could have
insisted upon for denying your Request, but as you had given us an
Assurance that our Compliance might be productive of some good
Consequence to his Majesty's Service we were willing to dispense
with them: This is the plain sense of that Passage to which you
would give a different Meaning, however, your Mistake of it gives us
great Pleasure as it has occasioned an Intimation of your Opinion
that the Privilege lately set up by the Lower House in Respect of
Mony Bills ought to be considered only as a Matter of Form, and
as we now find that you will admit our Amendments with more
Temper than you have lately done we shall propose them for the
future with less Ceremony.
Signed p. Order J. Ross Cl. Up. Ho.
The following Message with the Bill, entitled, An Act for reducing
the Allowances of the Members of the Upper and Lower Houses
of Assembly is sent to the Lower House by Benedict Calvert Esq.r
By the Upper House of Assembly 4. May 1758 :
Gentlemen.
We sent you a Bill the 19.th of last Month for reducing the Allow-
ances of the Members of the Upper and Lower Houses of Assembly
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U. H. J.
Liber No. 35
May 4
p. 330
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