238 . Correspondence of Governor Sharpe.

Letter Bk. IV

[Sharpe to Baltimore.]

The 11^th of Nov^r 1765.
My Lord
In the Letter I took the liberty to address to Your Ldp the
3^d of last Month I advised your Ldp of my having been
obliged to meet the Assembly the 23^d of Sept^r of the two
Houses having concurred in a proposal for sending three
Members of the Lower to a Congress that was about to be
held at New York & of my having afterwards at their own
Request prorogued them to the 30^th of last Month. During
their Recess I received a Letter from Capt Hawker of His
Majesty's Ship Sardoine then off Newcastle on Delaware
informing me that he had received from on board the Ship
Charlotte bound up to Philadelphia & had then under his
Care some of the Stamp't paper that was ordered for this
Province upon the Assembly's Meeting 1 sent a Copy of the
Letter to the Lower House & desired them to give me their
Advice on the Occasion which however they altogether
declined doing, & I am satisfied that if I was to order the
Paper round & to be landed without their Consent publickly
declared the Populace would immediately destroy it. As to
the Person who was appointed to receive & destribute the
Stamp't Paper in this Province he continues still at New Vork
being unwilling to resign his Office & at the same time too
much terrified to return hither, & indeed if he was to return
& did not immediately resign I know not what lengths the
Resentment of the People might carry them. By what I can
learn there is not one of the Persons appointed to distribute
the Stamps in these Colonies that hath yet ventured to act &
as scarcely any Business publick or private can be securely
transacted without them the Courts of Law Custom Houses &
all publick Offices are in a manner shut up & will probably
remain so till it can be known whether the Legislature of
Great Britain are determined to enforce the Law or not. That
your Ldp might see what the Colonies have to offer against
the Stamp Act & particularly Those who reside in Virginia &
Maryland I lately transmitted in a Letter to M^r Calvert a
Pamphlet which had been published here & is I think by far
the best that has appeared in favour of the Colonists Preten-
sions. The Gentlemen who lately met at New York from the
several Colonies as Deputies from the respective Assemblies
having joined in & from thence transmitted a Petition to His
Majesty & Memorials to the two Houses of Parliament on the
Subject of the Stamp Act I doubt not but Your Ldp will have
heard thereof long before this comes to hand: as there hath
been so great a Change in the Ministry since the last Session
of Parliament & the present Secretary of State for the South-