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That by rejecting the Bill, they (the Upper House) supported His
Majesty's Rights against Usurpation.
That by assenting to the Bill, they should give up his Majesty's
Prerogatives, subvert the present Constitution, and introduce the
numberless Evils consequent upon all the Powers of Government

p. 36

being lodged in the Hands of the Lower House.
That the Lower House would give no Assistance, unless purchased
at the extravagant Price of His Majesty's Prerogatives, and the
Peoples Liberties thrown into their Hands by the Bill.

That the total Subversion of our present Constitution was in-
tended by the Bill, and lodging the several Powers thereof in the
Hands of the Lower House.

If those Charges can be fixed on the Lower House, I think their
Conduct liable to the severest Censures, and the Men who have
been instrumental in promoting such Measures, deserve the most
signal Marks of his Majesty's Displeasure, as well as the Contempt
and Abhorrence of all their Fellow Subjects. But if, on the other
hand, these hardy Allegations are not to be supported by any Thing
in the Bill, what do their Honours deserve for such cruel and un-
generous Misrepresentations? Could nothing less gratify their
Spleen against a particular Sett of Men, who happen to differ from
them in political Sentiments, than the Imputation of Schemes and
Designs to strip His Majesty of His Prerogatives, and to subvert the
present Constitution? What is this short of charging the Repre-
sentatives of the People of Maryland with being downright Traitors
and Rebels? When Parties run high (which, God knows, is the
unhappy Case of Maryland at present) great Allowance is to be
made for the sudden and extemporaneous Starts of Passion, in the
personal Contests and Altercations which may happen among the

p. 37

Abettors of different political Opinions; but in this Case there is
no such alleviating Circumstance. A Body of Men, a Branch of
Legislature, distinguished by the Appellation of The Honourable,
affecting, in Point of Constitution, a Similarity with the House
of Peers of Great-Britain, and claiming higher comparative Privi-
leges than they pretend to exercise, after a profound and solemn
Deliberation of nine Days, are at last delivered of a low, pitiful
Rhapsody, teeming with Billingsgate Invective contemptible for a
Diction perplexed, creeping and insipid, and totally void of Argu-
ment, Truth, and Parliamentary Decorum. Similes habent labra
lactucas; such Lips, such Lettuce, said the Philosopher, on seeing
an Ass mumbling a Thistle; such a Subject, such Penmen, say I;
in Truth they are well matched, and God grant so wretched a Cause
may never find more able Advocates. If the Objects of the Bill had
been a total Subversion of the Constitution, the Destruction of His
Majesty's Prerogatives, and a Usurpation of all the Powers of
Government, I dare say they would not have escaped the Animad-