ROOMS OF THE MARYLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY,

                                BALTIMORE, December 1, 1888.

    To the Maryland Historical Society:

         GENTLEMEN:

      The Committee on the State Archives beg leave to submit the first

    volume of the correspondence of His Excellency Horatio Sharpe, being

    the sixth volume of the Archives, and covering the period from his

    arrival in the Province in 1753 to the year 1757.

      The letters of Governor Sharpe, as contained in his Letter Books, the

    replies to these letters, belonging to the State, and the many important

    letters from Frederick, Lord Baltimore, and his uncle and secretary,

    Cęcilius Calvert, found among the recently acquired Calvert Papers,

    have been made use of for this volume. -

      In view of the large number of letters still missing from the collection,

    it has been thought desirable to add a preliminary and partial list of

    these, in the hope that they may yet be recovered to the State.

                        Respectfully submitted,

                                      JOHN W. M. LEE,

                                      HENRY STOCKBRIDGE,

                                      BRADLEY T. JOHNSON,

                                              Committee.