Appendix. 397

tion, seem to think it so. — "If you have no Foundation for this
Behaviour, what Regard will any Thing you say deserve?" The
Truth is, the Lower House were anxious that their Bill for His
Majesty's Service might pass into a Law, and when Men are san-
guine in the Pursuit of a particular Object, it is a very common
Frailty to be buoyed up with fallacious and delusive Hopes. This is
however catching at less than Straws, for the Expression is, not
that they hope, but that they are willing to hope. But whatever
Opinion the Lower House might entertain of the Disposition of the
Upper House, with regard to the Passage of the Bill, I do not think
the Merits of the Cause in the least influenced thereby, since their
own Persuasion of its Preference to every other Plan, will afford
a sufficient Vindication of their Perseverance, till His Majesty, to
whose Decision they have always been desirous of submitting, shall
shew a different sense of it. But to return to the Point. —

It is as difficult for me to believe, that their Honours are, from
the Nature of their Constitution, the Guardians and Protectors of
the Peoples Rights, as that they acted with that independent Spirit
they profess, when they tamely acquiesced under the Appointment
of a menial Scrivener, with Qualities that have rendered him gen-

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Md.Hist.Soc.

erally obnoxious to the Province, to become a Member of their
illustrious Body. They should have given some Indications of a
Spirit to support their own Dignity and Weight, in which they are
so much interested, before they can rationally expect from the
People the least Credit to the warmest Professions of Regard for
their Interest, to which they have no Sort of political Tie. They
should have acted upon the good old Maxim — Principiis obsta, and
firmly remonstrated against so insulting a Measure, instead of whis-
pering their Complaints and Discontents in a Corner. They should
have considered, that the Influence of Example is generally from
bad to worse, and that the next Step (according to the Rules of
Gradation) might probably have ushered into his Lordship's Council
some of that respectable Body of Men, vulgarly called Footmen; so
that in Time the honest, well-meaning People of Maryland, might be
blessed with most hopeful Guardians and Protectors. A spirited
Representation to the Proprietor, or a seasonable Secession from
the Board, must have defeated this little Upstart Favourite, de-
graded him to his primaeval Meanness and Obscurity, and prevented
in future the like Attempts upon the Honour of the Proprietor, the
Dignity of Government, and that Rank and Character which their
Honours ought to endeavour to support in the State. Had they
acted in this Manner, they would have given a much stronger Proof
of their Independency, than by the most vehement verbal Declara-
tions. — But as to their Claim of being the constitutional Guardians

p. 50

and Protectors of the Peoples Rights, it is a Proposition rather too
hard of Digestion; no Man can assent to it, without renouncing

p. 51