Correspondence of Governor Sharpe. 327

last Session are not yet all printed but will probably before
this Ship sails & in that Case Copies of them will be trans-
mitted you to be laid before His Ldp for His Approbation.
I am &c.

Letter Bk. IV

[Hamersley to Sharpe.]
D^r S^r
I am to Acknowledge the Receipt of your different favors
of 28^th May and 15^th June both within these few days & the
latter accompanyed with the Acts of Assembly &c. At present
I shall not trouble you upon either (till I have had an opportunity
of Perusing the Acts & Papers) Except as to what relates to
the Ordinary Licences, in which I am honored with his Lord-
ships Commands to give your Excellency, and the Upper
House immediate Satisfaction. I well remember the occasion
of Issuing the Restraining Instruction having been employed
by M^r Calvert to prepare it, and you know he then Claimed
the ffees arising by the Licences under his appointment as
Secretary. The Lower House having in 1763, sent up the
Bill for Establishing a College in the Province, which for
various objections was never returned them by the Upper
House, your Excellency, as I understood him, wrote for
Instructions how to Demean yourself in case the ordinary
Licences, which was the Principal fund Proposed by that Bill,
should be again brought under Consideration. M^r Calvert
came prepared with several Resolutions and Messages of the
Upper House in 1753, 1754, & 1755, asserting, as he under-
stood, the Proprietarys right to the ffees arising from these
Licenses, and upon Consulting M^r Yorke he was clearly of
opinion that the Proprietary had the Power by himself & his
officers of Granting and regulating the Licences in question,
though as to the Dutys arising upon the Issuing them he
seemed to Doubt, rather considering them as Casual Revenue
at the disposition of the whole Legislature. However as the
Fees were to be M^r Calvert's, If he could get them, and he
understood both your Excellency and the Upper House as
Inclined to Support the Proprietarys right, he desired the
Prohibitory Instruction might be sent out, in Order to gain
time for Information, and as the season of Peace seemed the.
proper opportunity for bringing the Matter to a Discussion
here If thought necessary, and in the mean time, If it should
be resumed by the Lower House, it might prevent many Dis-
agreable Messages between the Two Houses, and Exempt
your Excellency from the Odium of giving a Negative, which
he thought you could scarce avoid. Soon after the Issuing
this Instruction the Stamp Act Passed, which put an end to
the Proprietarys Claim by Vesting the Grant in your Excel-

Original.