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L. H. J.
Liber No. 54
Nov. 20
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Exercise of such Powers, as are incompatible with the indubitable
Authority of Government, the permanent Security of Property and
the constitutional Liberty of the Subject. Pretences for Censure are
so easily framed that the most circumspect Behaviour can't prevent
them. When they unhappily excite Animosity, give rise to querulous
Expostulation, tend to promote popular Discontent, and obstruct the
Course of publick Business, tho' the Mischiefs they produce, are
much to be lamented, yet I can't but derive great Consolation from
Reflection, when they spring from Passions I am not answerable for.
Your positive Assertion, that the last Prorogation was an undue and
ill advised Exertion of Power, permit me, Gentlemen, to observe,
carries with it no Reasoning to convince my Judgment, nor any
Authority to preclude a Vindication, especially as the Motives, which
influenced me to apply for the Advice of those who are appointed by
the Constitution to give it, and the Reasons by which they evinced
the Propriety of their Opinion, have not been explained to you. When
Conjecture is indulged, there is great Danger of Deception. Jealousy
may raise an Alarm which an accurate Information of Circumstances
might prevent; and under this Influence, Animadversion be directed
against the Product of mere Imagination. Whether it would have
been more regular in your Department to have called for a Detail of
those Motives, and Reasons, and arraigned my Conduct in the Exer-
cise of an unquestionable Prerogative, because not agreeable to your
Views, or conformable to your Ideas, than it would be in mine, should
I require an Account of, and on the same Ground condemn, your
Conduct when exercised in any peculiar Privilege of your House, I
shall not undertake to determine, but I must remark that, a precise
Information of the Subject ought to have preceded your peremptory
Decision upon it, especially a Decision derogatory from the Charac-
ter of those, who are bound by the strictest Ties not to deserve the
Reproach it conveys.
I do not mean to shelter, under fforms, the Principles on which I
was advised, and pursued the Measure of Prorogation, and shall
therefore frankly explain them. When I acted upon them, I acted
on a Conviction that I performed a most incumbent Obligation.
When I review them I have great Complacency in the firm Persua-
sion, that I did what I ought, and should have been culpable, if I had
omitted. It can hardly, I presume, be a Question, whether when a
Subject in this Government is illegally deprived of his personal Lib-
erty, it is the Duty of the executive Power to relieve him. Whether,
where the Authority to afford Relief is placed, there the Applica-
tion for it is regular. Where this is cognizable, there the Propriety
of it is determinable ? The Right of Petition is established for Pur-
poses so important, and secured, and enforced by Sanctions so inter-
esting, that the Representatives of a free People, can never, on any
Occasion, dispassionately wish to impair, or discountenance it. They
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