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L. H. J.
Liber No. 54
Nov. 30
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are of his Lordship's Appointment, and are not bound to do any
Services without an adequate Compensation for them.
Being, however, under a different Predicament from the other
Officers, considered in One Respect as the private Agents of his
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p. 299
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Lordship, and in the other as having the Custody of publick Records
and the Muniments of the Peoples Estates, in my Regulation they
have been separated from the other Officers, as they had on similar
Occasions. Cease then your Endeavours to alarm, by suggesting
an Apprehension you cannot feel.
It is not only the Right, but the Duty of the Representatives of
the People to remonstrate against every Infringement of their Privi-
leges; but permit me to observe too, that they ought to be particularly
cautious in their Assumption and Exercise of Powers with which
they are not intrusted by the Constitution. Your Practice of ordering
the Attendance of Men at your Bar, and imposing ffines upon them
under the Term ffees is not to be defended, and this Proceeding is
so irregular and oppressive, that I am surprized it has not been
check'd by Opposition. The Opposition of one Man would at once
shew, that you have assumed a Jurisdiction you have not the Means
of compelling an Obedience to, and, consequently, not belonging to
your Body.
Your Claim of Privilege in the Article of Taxes, I presume will
not be easily admitted by the Upper House. Usage and Precedents
are against it, and as you have shewn a just Respect for the Senti-
ments of Lord Camden on another Subject, so I hope you will not
disregard his Opinion upon this Topick. On the Quere, "whether
the Lower House of Maryland be entitled to the Privilege they have
claimed on Money Bills," his Lordship's Answer was, "That the
Upper House are right in making a Stand, and should take Care
how they admit Encroachments of this Kind when they are sup-
ported by Arguments drawn from the Exercise of like Rights in the
House of Commons here; the Constitutions of the two Assemblies
differ fundamentally in many Respects. Our House of Commons
stands upon its own Laws; whereas Assemblies in the Colonies are
regulated by the respective Charters, Usages, and the Common Law
of England, and will never he allowed to assume all those Privileges,
which the House of Commons are entitled to justly, here, upon
Principles that neither can, nor must be applied to the Assemblies
of the Colonies; and in this Disposition of the Lower House to
assume to themselves any Privileges, which the English House of
Commons enjoy here, all such Attempts should be resisted, where
they are unreasonable with Firmness, and no Encroachment should
be established upon the Weight of that Argument singly; for I am
satisfied, neither the Crown nor the Parliament will ever suffer the
Assemblies to erect themselves into the Power of the British House
of Commons."
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