Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 1753-1761. 67

the Interest of your Propriety is Connected with the Ease
welfare and Prosperity of your Tenants and Consequently
with this Act, But if the Improprieties of the Clauses ob-
jected to by your Lordship are such, as your Lordships Noble
& Generous Inclinations to make the People under your
Government happy, cannot Suggest an Extenuation of them,
we are convinced it would be vain and fruitless to urge any
other Motives to reconcile your Lordship to the Law.
We have reason to fear that we have tired your Lordships
Patience with this long Representation and most humbly
intreat your Lordship to Pardon the manner & Prolixity of
it, as well as the Earnestness We have Expressed for the
Continuance of this Act, so interesting, important, & neces-
sary. The best Apology we can make for the Trouble We
have given your Lordship in this Address is to tell the Plain
fact. We were irresistibly prompted to it by a Conviction
of the Certain & extensive Utility of the Inspection Act, by
our dread of the unhappy Confusion, and infinite distress the
Loss of it would Produce, By our Gratitude for the favours
by which your Lordship and your late noble Father have
distinguished us, and by our Zeal to Promote your Lordships
most important Interests. Upon our Motive in the Applica-
tion, We rely for your Lordships Pardon, and from your
Lordships Goodness, we hope for Success.
Benj^a Tasker Presid^t

At a Council held at the City of Annapolis on Thursday
the 29^th day of May in the fifth year of his Lordships Do-
minion Annoque Domini 1755.

Present.
His Excellency Horatio Sharpe Esq^r Governor

Lib. J. R.
& U. S.

The Hon-
ourable

Benjamin Tasker Esq^r
Col Edward Lloyd

Col Benjamin Tasker
Col William Goldsborough