The Upper House. 105

your Agent Bill we have at large explained upon what Principles
we are equally with yourselves entitled to One. And we refer to
that Message for a clear Reputation of your Objection to our Pro-
posal. The Case you have put to shew that our Proposal was un-
reasonable, may impose upon those who have not been accustomed
to examine Matters of an extensive and complicated political Nature,
but they who can penetrate deeper into the Subject will perceive
a variety of Circumstances which ought to be maturely considered
and which your short familiar Case doth not include. Wee should
think that the Case might more properly be stated in this Manner.
Two Men are concerned in a Joint Stock, and have a Difference of
Opinion about their respective Rights, is it not just that each should
be heard in settling their respective Pretentions, & equally just that
if the One requires part of the common Property to support his
Claims, the other should be allowed to apply an adequate part of it
in his Defence? We do not say that our Case suggests a proper
Idea of the Question, because there is a peculiar Complication of
Circumstances arising from various political Rights which can't be
comprehended in these short Illustrations. Our View we most
sincerely declare in proposing the Expedient of an Agent, was to
bring to a final Determination all our little Differences that these
Occasions of Jealousy & of the Obstruction of the Public Business
might be extinguished, and we conceive, that the Expence of main-
taining Agents for this Purpose two or three Years would be amply
compensated by the beneficial Consequence of having so many Bars
to the Institution of useful Regulations removed, & we are un-
feignedly sorry that the proposed Expedient hath been rejected upon
such Pretences as do not evince that serious Regard for the Welfare

U. H. J.
Liber No. 36

Dec. 19

and Prosperity of the Province, we expected you would on so fair an
Opportunity have shewn & which would have repressed all petulant
Salies of a ludicrous Humour & an Affectation of Wit which at
best seems only to have consisted in some very feeble Effusion.
Consistently with your candid design of giving a full & impartial
Information to the Public, we presume the Bill you framed for the
appointment of an Agent, will be published in Order to its being
seen that, conscious of the Purity of your own Intentions, you have
not had the least difficulty in trusting yourselves with a large Annual
Sum of Public Money, for which you would be liable to no Account,
and which you might apply to what Uses and Purposes you should
think fit, for tho', in the Title & Preamble, you speak of the Ap-
pointment of an Agent, none of the enacting Clauses restrict you to
that Application of the Money. And if in the Extent of your En-
quiries, you can (we Speak not of Times of Turbulence and Faction)
find any Instance of a like Power being asked by & vested in a
British House of Commons on any Occasion, you will explain it, that
none may suspect your having been actuated by any Other, than the

p. 285