This objection he conceived
fatal to the bill, inasmuch as the commons never permitted bills of that
nature to originate in the lords. Dunning now took up the same line of
argument, and as Lord North denied the conclusion to which these members
had suddenly come, the speaker was appealed to for his opinion. The
speaker replied, that he had seen bills that had originated in the lords
that, he thought, ought not to have been brought into the lower house,
but that he never presumed to judge upon them himself, and in this in
stance it would be very unbecoming in him to do so, therefore' he would
leave it for the house to determine as was thought right. The second
reading was carried by a majority of one hundred and five, against
twenty-nine; and on the 31st of May, when the house went into committee
on the bill, several amendments were negatived, with equally large
majorities. On this occasion petitions were presented against the
measure from Thomas Penn, on behalf of himself and of John Penn, Esq.,
true and absolute proprietors of Pennsylvania, and the counties of
Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex, in Delaware, praying that the territory
granted by King Charles II. to their father and grandfather might not be
encroached upon by any extension of the frontiers of Canada. Ministers
denied that it was ever intended to entrench upon other colonies, and
the petition was ordered to lie upon the table; leave, also, being given
to the petitioners to be heard by counsel if they thought proper.
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