Preface. xiii

MacNemara was provided for by appointment as Naval Officer at
Patuxent; but in 1718 Governor Hart reported his many misdemeanors
to the Assembly and asked for a law disabling him from practice, as
the Courts were not able to protect themselves. He had been indicted
for seditious language, and for fraud, suspended from practice in the
Chancery Court for turbulent conduct and contempt, and Judges of
the Provincial Court declared that they would resign from the bench
rather than be subjected to his insolencies. A clause disabling Mac-
Nemara from practice was included in an Act for the support of the
Magistrates. But he evidently had influence in England with the
Proprietary, or his guardian. The Act was disallowed on the ground
of tacking a personal matter on to a public measure, as being ex post
facto, and as having been passed without affording a hearing.
Opinions from three prominent English lawyers condemning the
manner of passing the Act accompanied the veto. At the next session,
1719, a separate Act disabling MacNemara from practice was passed,
in which it was sought to avoid the objections raised to the former Act.
The reply to this was a peremptory order from the Proprietary, who
had previously directed MacNemara to make due submission to the
Maryland Court of Chancery, for his immediate restoration to practice
without making such submission. Governor Hart indignantly resigned
the Seals, declaring that he would not retain the office of Chancellor
if he could not uphold its dignity. But MacNemara did not live to
enjoy his triumph over the Governor. He was dead when the order for
his restoration to practice was received.

The record of Governor Hart's administration shows him to have
been, though an intense partisan and a man of strong personal ani-
mosities, a judicious Governor, and one sincerely devoted to promoting
the welfare of the Province, a matter in which he showed great sagacity.
The revision of the laws, in 1715, and the negotiation of the arrange-
ment by which the quit rents were commuted for a duty upon tobacco
were the great achievements of his administration. He was tenacious
of the dignity of his office and also of its emoluments, and although
he had received many marks of the confidence and esteem of the dele-
gates, when at the close of his administration his request for an ad-
vance of salary that would accrue during furlough was refused by the
Lower House, he sharply accused its members of parsimony. The Pro-
prietary and his guardian had apparently grown weary of the constant
bickerings and factional strife in Maryland, and concluded that a per-
son of more conciliatory temper was needed in his place. In marked con-