24 Correspondence of Governor Sharpe.

Letter Bk. IV

enough to frame that Address & as sure am I that if any thing
could have been alledged against M^r Ridout they would not
have let the Opportunity slip. That the Assembly was pro-
rogued before the Lower House addressed me to dismiss
them is certain, but it is as certain that all the Gentlemen of
the Council present who were six in number desired me in
pressing Terms to prorogue them alledging that they had
been sitting near a month without doing the Business for
which alone they had been convened & had shewn by the Bill
they had framed entituled "An Act for Encouraging a Collec-
tion & publication of the Laws of this Province" by their
Votes in Consequence of the motion for a College Bill, & by
their Proceedings relative to an Address to His Majesty &c.
that those Members of the Lower House who were left (for
all the moderate men were gone off) had nothing in view but
by offering such Laws as they knew would not pass to lay a
foundation for Popularity against the ensuing Election ; such
were the Arguments & Reasons urged by the Gentlemen of
the Council when they desired me to prorogue the Assembly
& indeed they would have determined me to take that Step
long before had I not been satisfied that if they had been dis-
missed before they had addressed me on the Affair of M^r
Darnall they would have told their Constituents I prorogued
them in order to conceal his Knavery & to prevent their
making an Enquiry into the Proceedings of other Officers.
A fortnight or three weeks after the Assembly had broke up
M^r Calvert who lives in Prince Georges County happening to
pay me a Visit informed me that the People in that part of the
Province had been made to believe (as he supposed by M^r
Murdock) that the Assembly had been prorogued at M^r
Ridout's Instance lest they should have presented an Address
against him but that upon his (M^r Calvert's) declaring in a
publick Assembly at Marlbro that there was not the least
Foundation for such a Suggestion the Rumour died, no Person
choosing to acknowledge himself the Author of it or to con-
tradict M^r Calvert's Assertion, & I am confident the Inhabit-
ants in general were never so quiet & contented since I have
had the honour to serve His Ldp as they have been ever since
the Assembly broke up. We have since had a general Elec-
tion at which many well behaved sensible men were chosen in
the Stead of such as I never desired to see again in the House
& I cannot but flatter myself that the Persons who have for
many years past had the sole Management of Assembly
Affairs will now lose much of their Influence. Having I am
afraid tired your Patience by dwelling so long on one Part of
your Letter which indeed I could not read without some
Degree of Indignation at the Proceedings of those who as you