402 Assembly Proceedings, October 4-November 26, 1763.

L. H. J.

Liber No. 52
Nov. 25

House of Assembly 25,^th Nov.^r 1763. Read the Second time and will
pass,
Signed p Order. J. Ross Cl. Up. Ho.

Which Bill was Read here and passed for Ingrossing.
The following Message.
By the Lower house of Assembly Nov.^r 25.^th 1763.
May it please your Honours.
If your Honours were really disposed to preserve that Harmony
which you say you wish might Subsist between the two Houses,
your Message of the 23,^d we conceive, would have been in a very
different Strain. We cannot be of Opinion, that entering into a
Course of Reasoning with your Honours to induce you to depart
from any Resolution, when we think it unsupported by Arguments,
to produce in us a Conviction of its propriety, can with Justice be
imputed to a disposition to Interrupt the Harmony which ought to
Subsist between the two Houses, nor can we look upon your Reso-
lutions as so sacred that they must not be Controverted, even when
they appear to us to be highly unreasonable It should be the En-
deavour of Both Branches to render every Bill as perfect as they
can, and as a free Communication and interchange of Sentiments
are the most likely means to produce this end, We are Surprized your
Honours should Charge our last Message upon this Subject with
irregularity and Especially when every Session might probably
furnish Instances of the like practice, Why did not your Honours
make the same Objection to Messages of a Similar nature in this
Session upon the Inspection Bill, when you had declared your
Resolutions as peremtorily as upon the present Occasion The answer
is Obvious, you were very unwilling to loose the Benefits of that
Law, but the Bill for the Establishment of a Seminary of Learning

p. 214

is not quite so palatable to your Honours for reasons which you
evade to Publish, and therefore We presume the Public will not be
inclined to make the most favourable Constructions upon them, nor
shall we conclude but that it is the Subject itself which gives your
Honours so much Offence, and we declare to you that whenever your
Resolutions may be Inconsistent with the Interests of our Con-
stituents, We shall not be Solicitous to preserve the Harmony you
wish for, since an implicit Acquiesence in your Resolutions must be
the Condition of it. But Supposing it the Duty of this House to pay
that regard to your Resolutions which you seem to Exact, We can-
not Conceive in what respect they are Contravened by our last
Message. You did not Chuse, you say, to determine hastily upon
the Bill, and therefore Referred it. We did not, in Our Message
of the 22.^d Instant, desire you to come to any determination upon
it, but on the Contrary after you had told us, that you were of
Opinion that the Bill was in Many respects, imperfect and very ex-