to Salem, by the mere Caprice of Governor Burnet, who never pleaded an
Instruction for doing this--An Instruction from a Ministry who had
before treated them with unexampled Indignity--An Instruction which
they were not permitted to see. They had no Reason to apprehend a fixd
Design to alter the Seat of Government, to their great Inconvenience
and the manifest Injury of the Province.

We are not disposd to dispute the Understanding, Integrity, Familys &
Estates of the Council in 1728. We believe them to have been such,
that if they were now upon the Stage, they would see so many
additional & more weighty Reasons against proceeding to Business out
of Boston, that they would fully approve of the Resolution of this
House; as well as of what has been lately advancd by their Successors,
who are also Gentlemen of Understanding, Integrity, Fortune and
Family, in the following Words; "Governor Burnets Conduct in convening
the General Court out of Boston, cannot be deemd an acknowlegd or
constitutional Precedent, because, it was not founded on the only
Reason on which the Prerogative of the Crown can be justly founded,
The Good of the Community." We shall only add, that the Rights of the
province having been of late years most severely attackd, has inducd
Gentlemen to examine the Constitution more thorowly, & has increasd
their Zeal in its Defence.

You are pleasd to adduce an Instance in 1754 in Addition to that in
1747, which you say "makes it probable, that the House of
Representatives rather chose that the Court should sit elsewhere, when
a Comittee was chosen to consider of and report a proper place for a
Court House at a Distance from Boston". We beg Leave here to observe,
that both these are Instances of the House's interresting themselves
in this Affair, which your Honor now claims as a Prerogative: If the