382 Appendix.

Contempo-
rary Printed
Pamphlet
Md.Hist.Soc.

Faults there might have been in the Bill, yet as the Lower House,
by an express Message accompanying it, requested the Upper House
would point out their Objections, and at the same time gave them
an Assurance of their Readiness to make Alterations to Passages
justly exceptionable, the Upper House, by declining any Measures
of Accommodation, have made themselves answerable for all the
bad Consequences attending the Miscarriage of the Bill. — But now
let us consider this Matter in another Light. The Lower House
have sent up a Bill nine Times to the Upper House, which the latter
have as often rejected. Each House throws the Blame on the other,
that nothing has been done for His Majesty's Service; and as the
Dispute is inflamed to a great Degree of Animosity, there is very
little Prospect that the two Houses should ever come to any Agree-
ment on this Subject. What then is to be done? Which of the two
Houses is to recede? Let us suppose that both Parties think them-
selves right, and then we cannot but applaud the Firmness of both,
in adhering to their respective Opinions. But it has been urged,
that the Upper House have the Opinion of the late Attorney General
in their Favour, and this ought to turn the Scale, and induce the

p. 21

Lower House to alter their Mode of Taxation; to which I answer —
First, That notwithstanding all the Asseverations which have been
published to the contrary, it appears most clearly, from the Opinions
of the Attorney General, laid before the Lower House, that he did
not give them upon a View of the Bill and Messages between the
two Houses, but upon a Case stated, because he expressly refers to
such a Case *.
Now as the Opinions were sent down by the Governor to the
Lower House, it follows that the Case, on which those Opinions were
founded, must have been stated by the Proprietor's Adherents, and
consequently in a Manner to countenance, as much as possible, the
Claims of his Lordship.
It is well known, that very minute Differences, in two Cases rela-
tive to the same Matter, may produce Opinions totally repugnant,
and yet both right. With little Reason then can it be alledged, that
an Opinion thus procured ought to have any Weight in influencing
the Lower House to depart one Tittle from what they had before
asserted. If indeed the Government and the Lower House had
concurred in stating a Case, and submitting all controverted Points
to the Determination of the Attorney General, it might have been
contended, with some Reason, that his Opinion ought to be decisive.

p. 32

But would any Man of common Prudence, in the petty Concerns of
private Life, suffer the smallest Part of his Property to be affected
by the Opinion of a Lawyer, procured by the Ex Parte Represen-
tation of his Opponent? With how much more Reason then is

* Attorney General's Opinion: "Having given my Sense upon each of the Objec-
tions, so far as they have been taken up and maintained by the Upper House, in
the Margin of that Part of the Case, I shall only add here," &c. [This appears
as a footnote in the original.]