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L. H. J.
Liber No. 52
April 17
p. 58
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Regard to it. How candid is it then to insinuate generally, that the
Commander in Chief of the King's Forces in North-America, ap-
plauded the Conduct of the Upper House in rejecting that Bill, when
his Objection is confined to a particular Part only, which has since
been omitted, and made in Terms which shew his favourable Opinion
of their good Dispositions to promote the Service of the King? As
to Mr. Pratt's Opinion upon several Parts of the Supply Bill of
1758, we must put your Excellency in Mind, that you insisted on
that Opinion to the late Lower House, and that, that House being
desirous of paying it all due Regard, in their Address to your Ex-
cellency, expressed their Wishes, that that Opinion had been accom-
panied with a State of the Case on which it was founded; but you
pleased to decline giving them any Satisfaction on that Head. Your
Excellency must be sensible how much Opinions of Council are
Governed, by the Manner in which the Facts they are founded on
are stated. And that this is not a mere speculative Notion, is evinced
by a Comparison between that Part of Mr. Pratt's Opinion, which
relates to Lord Baltimore's Right of appointing all the Officers for
carrying that Bill into Execution, had it passed into a Law, with the
Opinion of the present Chief Justice of the Common Pleas at Home,
when he was Attorney General, and adduced by the Upper House in
Support of the same Point. As, therefore, Opinions of Lawyers (for
in that Light we must consider Mr. Pratt in the present Case)
depend so much upon the State of the Facts laid before them, and
as the State on which that Opinion was given, does not appear, we
apprehend we shall stand excused in not paying an implicit Regard
to it. Your Excellency confines the Reprehension contained in Lord
Egremont's Letter entirely to the Lower House. On a like Occasion
the late Lower House animadverted upon the extream Disingenuity
of your Excellency, in wresting the Meaning of Mt. Pitt's Letter, to
the Disadvantage of that House; and we think it not very decent in
your Excellency, to pervert the Meaning of Letters from his Maj-
esty's Ministers, by arbitrary and forced Constructions, merely for
the Sake of throwing an Odium on our Proceedings. There is not a
Syllable in the Secretary's Letter confining the Censure of the Mis-
carriage of former Bills to the Lower House; and we will never
suppose, that our Conduct will be condemned, without a fair Op-
portunity of vindicating it. If we are wrong, we will on all Occasions
submit; but as British Subjects we claim a Right to be Heard, nor
shall we ever be induced to deviate from what we think Right, by
any Suggestion from your Excellency, that his Majesty's Ministers
disapprove of our Conduct. Under the Administration of so gracious
a Sovereign as at present fills the Throne, we trust, we shall never
incur the Royal Displeasure, by a firm Adherence to the Privileges
of our Constituents, and that while we express our ardent Desire,
and use our utmost Endeavours on all Occasions, to bring our Com-
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