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must make the Basis of their Charge, would have made Use of an
Epithet better adapted to that Spirit of Undutifulness and Disloyalty,
which their Honours have so freely imputed to the Lower House,
had there been, in his Opinion, the least Foundation for it. As I
think I have, to the Conviction of every unprejudiced Understanding,
cleared the Lower House from the Imputation above mentioned, I
hope I shall stand acquitted of unjustifiable Acrimony, when I
declare that their Honours, or rather the few by whose Opinions
they are directed, have, in this Instance, departed from the Char-

p. 40

acter of Gentlemen, by charging the Lower House (without the
least Foundation) with a Conduct repugnant to their Duty to His
Majesty, and inconsistent with our dependent State on our Mother
Country.

In what entire Security the Upper House wrote their Message,
how much they despised their Adversaries, and how little they con-
sulted the good Opinion of the World, the following Passage is an
astonishing Proof. — "We claim to be, and are in equal Degree with
yourselves, the constitutional Guardians and Protectors of the Peoples
Liberties." Fine Words! I wonder where you stole them. —

Could nothing but your chief Reproach
Serve for a Motto ? Swift.

To confute this shameless, this impolitic Allegation, nothing more
will be necessary than a short Enquiry into the Nature of this Part
of our Constitution, whence I think it must appear, that human
Sagacity could not have devised a Branch of Legislature more
absolutely dependent upon the Proprietor, and under a stronger
Influence, from the very Nature of their Frame, to obey implicitly
his Dictates, than the Upper House of Assembly. It will be needless
to enter into any nice Disquisitions on this Subject, since a bare
mention of some Facts will prove, beyond all Contradiction, the
absolute Falsity of this new Claim, and how little these Gentlemen
were under the Controul of that Spirit of Decency and Truth,
which they so warmly recommend to others, when they could vent

p. 41

an Assertion so affrontive to the common Sense of Mankind. — The
Facts I mean are then,
First, That they owe their Existence entirely to the Proprietor,
since he has the sole Right of appointing Counsellors, who, in
Consequence of that Appointment, become Members of the Upper
House.
Secondly, That as the Proprietor has a Right to create, so he
claims, and has exercised, a Right to discharge, at his Will and
Pleasure, the Members of the Upper House.
Thirdly, That it has been, is at present, and probable ever will
be, the Policy of the Proprietor to dispense his most valuable Favours
among those Gentlemen, thereby more effectually to secure them to
his Interest, all which Offices they hold during Pleasure, and are of
considerable Value.