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L. H. J.
Liber No. 52
April 17
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the Information of his Majesty's Ministers. Since, therefore, it seems
to be your Excellency's Opinion, that we have no Occasion for an
Agent in the particular Instance mentioned in your Message, for
Reasons which may be extended to every other Cause of Complaint,
we think it amounts to little less than a general Denial of the Ex-
pediency of establishing a Person in that Character. This, we con-
ceive, is a Doctrine of so dangerous a Tendency to the Rights of our
Constituents, that we must insist a little on your Excellency's Pa-
tience, while we explain and enforce the Right of the People to
appoint an Agent, and the Expediency of exercising that Right. The
great End of employing an Agent, is to represent, and bring to a final
Determination, any Matters in Dispute with the Proprietary, by
which the People may apprehend themselves aggrieved. If the People
think themselves aggrieved, they have a Right to apply to his Majesty
for Redress. If they have this Right, it follows, that they must
have a Right to the Means of giving his Majesty the fullest In-
formation upon the Subject of their Appeals; and this, no doubt
his Majesty, from his known Love of Justice and Tenderness to all
his Subjects, would require; so that we conceive it not only an
Invasion of the People's Privileges, but derogatory from his Maj-
esty's Dignity, to withhold from him the clearest Lights we can
give him for the Information of his Judgment. If it be undeniable,
that every Individual has, on proper Occasions, a Right to appeal
to his Majesty, and to employ any Agent he thinks proper to inforce
his Cause, and place it in the most advantageous Light, it follows,
a fortiori, that a whole Body of his Subjects must have this Right;
we hope, therefore, we shall be excused if we say, it is too assuming
in a Governor to undertake to judge of the Expediency of the People's
having an Agent to support their Interests, when he may be con-
sidered as the Delegate of the Lord Proprietary, against whom they
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p. 57
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may be desirous to exhibit their Complaints, and the subordinate
Instrument of those very Encroachments by which they are ag-
grieved. But besides this, we think your Excellency a little unhappy
in your Reasoning; for you infer, that there cannot be that great
Necessity we seem to apprehend for the Appointment of an Agent,
because the Ministry have been informed from our Journals of the
Nature of our Disputes. Now we think your Excellency could not
have produced a stronger Instance to shew the absolute Necessity
of our having one, unless the Inefficacy of a particular Measure
can be supposed to render any other Step unnecessary; for what
have the Ministry done in Consequence of this Information, and
your Excellency's Intimation to Mr. Pitt, one of his Majesty's then
principal Secretaries of State, that you were afraid no Supplies tor
the King's Service would be granted in this Province, unless his
Majesty should be pleased to have the Dispute thoroughly examined
into, and finally settled Have they determined the Disputes? Has
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