Appendix. 401

Title of the Guardians and Protectors of the Peoples Rights. But far
different is our present Case, and therefore I must conclude in their
Honours Words, "That an Upper House is a Misfortune peculiar
to this Province." Their Honours are pleased to intimate, that they
will not be persuaded to give up their Existence, as long as there
are so many similar Bodies in America to countenance their Claim.
As I hope, upon a little Recollection, they must be satisfied that there
is not another Instance of any such Body in America, I presume the
Difficulty is removed, and that their Honours will be persuaded to
give up their Existence, and more especially, when I further assure
them, that there is nothing like it either in Europe, Asia or Africa.

Their Honours have hardened me against admiring at any Thing
they can advance, or I should be surprized at the following Passage
in their Message: —
"Were we as much disposed to rail at former Times as you seem
to be, we might, in your Taste, censure the Proprietor, and that Body
now called the Upper House, for admitting such a Branch as the
Lower House into the Legislature, and charge it upon them as an
Evil which the People of this Province most sensibly feel (as indeed
they do very much to their Cost) and which we fear their latest
Posterity will have Cause to lament." The Representatives of the
Freemen of the Province are constituted, by the Royal Charter,

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one of the Branches of the Legislature, and there it is alledged that
the Proprietor, in Conjunction with a Body of Men entirely his
Creatures, is liable ro Censure for admitting this Part of the Charter
to be inforced. This is setting up a Power, in the Proprietor and
his Council, to contravene His Majesty's Prerogatives, and to destroy
the Rights of British Subjects, and yet these Men have the Modesty
to assume the Title of the Guardians of the King's Powers and
Prerogatives, and of the Rights and Liberties of the People, both
which they most indecently insult in one Breath. It has always been
esteemed a Blessing peculiar to an English Constitution, that the
People are governed by Laws of their own making; but these State
Worthies have found out, that it is a Curse that the People of this
Province do indeed feel most sensibly to their Cost, and which they
fear their latest Posterity will have Cause to lament. The great Flaw
then in our Constitution, according to the Doctrine of those political
Sages, is, that the People have any Share in the Legislature at all.
Three Voices out of four will not satisfy those Gentlemen, nothing
less, it seems, than both the legislative and executive Powers, or, in
other Words, nothing less than absolute Power will do for this
absolute Lord and Proprietor of ours, or redeem the unhappy People
of Maryland from the Curse they labour under of not being entirely
his Vassals. — But let us suppose our Constitution was reduced to the
System these Gentlemen seem so fond of, by confining the Power of
Legislature to the Proprietor and that Body now called the Upper

p. 58