402 Appendix.

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Md.Hist.Soc.
p. 59

House, what would be the Consequence of it ? The Proprietor would
soon discover, that though this Body were extreamly necessary to
him as a Cards du Corps, during the Existence of the other Body,
yet upon the present System they are nothing but an Incumbrance.
He would soon discover that the Four Thousand Pounds (or one
Half of it at least) which upon the old Constitution was distributed
among them to very good Purpose, might just as well, under the
present Reform, be added to his own Revenue. He would then exer-
cise his Power of unmaking, and though a general Disbanding might
not be expedient, yet it is extreamly probable that the Province, out
of twelve, would not have above two of her Guardians and Pro-
tectors left. Too much Refinement is apt to disappoint its own End.
Let me therefore advise these Gentlemen to leave to the People their
Representatives, if they would choose to continue necessary and im-
portant to the Proprietor. If their Honours can point out any one
clause in the Bill so derogatory from His Majesty's Prerogatives, and
the Liberties of the People, as this Passage in their Message, let it be
burnt, say I, by the Hands of the common Hangman. But it answers
no Purpose to spend any more Time in condemning such abject,
illiberal Sentiments, which must expose the Authors to the Contempt
and Indignation of every Reader of common Understanding, at the
first Glance, and convince the World that the Upper House, or

p. 60

rather the Few by whose Opinions they are directed, have forfeited
every Pretension to the least Degree of Esteem in the Eyes of their
Countrymen.

In the last Paragraph of their Honours Message, I find this curious
and remarkable Passage; —

"This House (meaning the Upper House) was by your Ancestors
erected, with a View to check and restrain the boundless Powers
their Representatives might otherwise be disposed to exercise over
them, and consequently to judge, and pursuant thereto exert our
Powers, whenever we see Occasion to prevent their Ruin." — A
License to assert just what they please, seems to be one of the
peculiar Privileges of these Gentlemen; but they exercise it with so
little Caution and Reserve, that the Imposition is generally too
glaring and obvious to require much Pains in detecting. — I must
trouble the Reader with the Act itself for settling the House of
Assembly by two distinct Houses, as I find it quoted by the Governor,
in a Message to the Lower House in 1757 [sic] [1657], which is
as follows: —
"Be it enacted by the Lord Proprietor, with the Advice and Con-
sent of his Council, and Burgesses of this Province, now assembled,
that this present Assembly, during the Continuance thereof, be held
by way of Upper and Lower House, to sit in two distinct Rooms
apart, for the more convenient Dispatch of the Business therein to
be consulted of, and that the Governor and Secretary, and any one