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Contempo-
rary Printed
Pamphlet
Md.Hist.Soc.
p. 63
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But for a whole Province to look tamely on, and to suffer their
Representatives to be vilified and traduced, to hear their Conduct
branded with Disaffection to His Majesty, and an Attempt to
trample upon the Liberties of the People; in one Word, to be stig-
matized with every opprobrious Appellation, which Malice and Fals-
hood can suggest, and at the same Time to be deprived of an Oppor-
tunity of defending themselves, would be a Proof of such general
Lukewarmness in the Cause of Liberty, as to render the Province
undeserving of so great a Blessing.
To confute these Calumnies, and to obviate the ill Impressions
which they might make on our Fellow Subjects, is a Talk surely of
the highest Importance to the Country, and if the Freedom with
which I have done it may be thought an extream Measure, let those
be answerable who have, by furnishing an extream Necessity for it,
afforded me so solid a Justification. — I must take some other Oppor-
tunity to remark upon their Honours Address to the Governor, which
has the same righteous Object in View, that of representing the
Majority of the Lower House in the respectable Lights of both
Fools and Knaves. — I fully intended to have made some few Ob-
servations upon it, in the Course of these Remarks; but the Abun-
dance of Matter, afforded by the Message, has already swelled this
Performance to a much greater Bulk than I at first intended, and
I am afraid tired my Readers Patience. — From what has appeared of
the Spirit of these Gentlemen, in these Remarks, I presume such of
my Readers as are unacquainted with the Subject, will not be very
forward in entertaining an ill Opinion of the Lower House, upon
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p. 64
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the mere Credit of their Assertions in the Address; and those who
are well informed, may be safely trusted with them.
Whoever will attentively consider their Honours Message, will
find that there is nothing in it to affect the particular Merits of the
Bill, not a single Objection being made to any Thing which has any
real Existence in it. Many heavy Charges indeed they have made
against it and a particular Sett of Men, for which they have been
much more indebted to their Invention than their Judgment.
The Charge they seem peculiarly fond of, and which they have
very often repeated in the Course of their Declamation, is, that a
wicked Majority have endeavoured to establish an absolute Power
upon the Ruins of His Majesty's Prerogatives; with this honest
View, it may fairly be supposed, to let His Majesty's Ministry at
Home see what staunch and loyal Subjects they are, and that the
Lower House are composed of Men of traiterous and rebellious
Principles. — It is to be hoped that the Ministry are better employed,
than to mispend their Time in reading such a Composition; or if they
were to descend so far from their Station, and are sufficiently phleg-
matic to drudge through it, they are too well informed of our
Constitution not to know, that the Gentlemen of the Upper House
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