"3
There is a sort of Impropriety, as I take it, in saying that every
Order from a Minister of State comes immediately from the Crown.
However, little Inaccuracies in diction are not to be regarded in a
performance fraught with reason and sound argument: It is rather to be
wondered at that we meet with so few Imperfections, since we are
assured by his Honor that he had taken "one Day only for his Reply" to
an Answer which he intimates cost a Committee of the House full Eight
Days hard Labor.4 Some men are said to have intuitive knowledge; and
such have nothing to do but write down pages of unanswerable reasons
as fast as the Ink can flow.
It was doubtless from this opinion that "every Order from a Secretary
of State comes immediately from the King," or as his Honor elsewhere
more properly expresses it, is a 'Signification of his Majesty's
pleasure,' that he concludes it to be his Majesty's pleasure that he
should not communicate them; for such a prohibitory order is said to
come from the Secretary. But the House seemed to think it impossible
that our gracious King, should hold his Subjects to a blind obedience
to Orders which they were not permitted to see; and therefore
concluded, and as I humbly conceive very justly, that this order in a
particular manner, was to be suppos'd to be an Act of the Minister and
not of the King--His Honor indeed speaks of it with great Veneration;
and tells them that "the restraint he is under appears to him to be
founded upon wise Reasons.
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