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Contempo-
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Pamphlet
Md.Hist.Soc.
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some new Demand, and that, my Lords, of some new Dispute." To
any Person who is acquainted with our public Affairs I could very
safely appeal, whether their Lordships, reporting upon our Proceed-
ings, would not speak with much more Propriety in what I have
delivered above, than in the Terms of the Passage their Honours
have quoted from the Report on the Pennsylvania Acts.
The Upper and Lower Houses, say their Honours, are coaeval.
This is nothing but a Play upon the Words Upper and Lower, which
being relative Terms, and mutually implying each other, can neither
of them exist independently of the other. For let it be supposed that
the Legislature, according to the Plan of the Charter, had consisted
only of two Branches, to wit, the Proprietor or his Deputy, and the
Delegates of the People, from the first Settlement of the Province
till Yesterday, when his Lordship's Council were admitted a Branch
of the Legislature, and the necessary Distinction of the Upper and
Lower House was introduced; the Proposition To-day, that the
Upper and Lower Houses are coaeval, would be just as it is in their
Honours Message. But the Right of the People to have their Repre-
sentative in the Legislature, and the Right of his Lordship's Council
to be a Branch of it, are not coseval, the former being derived from
the Royal Charter, and the latter from a Law made several Years
after the Settlement of the Province, which Law was made only for
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p. 56
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that particular Session, and expired with it; so that their Honours
Right (from any Thing that has been yet published to the World)
depends solely upon the Connivance or Acquiescence of the other
two Branches, and not upon any positive Establishment.
The next Passage in their Honours Message, which I shall take
the Freedom of remarking upon, is this; — "The several Legislatures
in British America (except one or two at most) consist of three
Branches, and the middle Branch (three Instances only excepted)
is appointed in like Manner with ourselves." In order to support
this Position, it is incumbent on their Honours to prove that the
Middle Branch, in the Colonies they allude to, is appointed by a
Subject, and from the Nature of their Constitution entirely under his
Influence and Controul; for an Appointment from his Majesty will
not prove the Similarity, a Point not to be insisted on without some
Degree of Irreverence. If we were under the Government of the
Crown immediately, a middle Branch would be a Blessing, because
they could be under no possible Bias to pursue Schemes. destructive
to the Interests of the Country. The King would be the Father of
His People, and would rejoice in their Felicity, instead of fostering
Schemes for His own personal Emolument, to the Oppression and
Impoverishment of the Community; their Honours could not take
more effectual Steps to recommend themselves to the Favour of their
Royal Constituent, than by cooperating heartily for the public Good,
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