The Upper House. 437

Sent by Col^o M. T. Ward who returns and says he De-
livered it

M^r Hamilton and M^r Scott from the Lower House attend
with M^r Roger Mathews a member Elected for Baltemore
County in the stead of M^r Sheredine who was not duely
Elected to see him Qualified.

U. H. J.

Whereupon the said Mathews took the severall Oaths
appointed by Act of Assembly and Subscribed the Oath of
Abjuration and Test according to the Direction of the said
Act and withdrew.
Col^o Holland and the rest of the members of this House
present to his Honour the Governour their answer to his
Speech to both Houses of Assembly in the Councill Chamber
at the Opening of the Sessions which Answer is as follows
viz.

To His Excellency Charles Calvert Esq^r Governor of
Maryland

The humble Address of the Upper House of Assembly
May it please your Honour
The Sorrow you have been pleased to Express in your
favourable Speech to both Houses of Assembly at the Open-
ing this Session for the present Inconveniency of calling an
Assembly at this unseasonable time of the year is very ac-
ceptable to us giving us a new Assureance of Your Con-
tinued resolution to Consult the welfare of this province,
for which we return our most hearty thanks.
And altho we are much Concern'd for the publick Charge
that must accrue, as well as for the personal fatigue of each
member in both Houses Occasioned by conveneing this Assem-
bly yet it is a Matter of some Consolation to us, to find that the
Gentlemen Attorneys begin to be so nicely Scrupulous about
the Oath they are required to take as a necessary Introduc-
tion to the practice of the Law, which we hope will be a means
to Oblige them to a Serious Consideration & Strict Observa-
tion of that Oath if ever hereafter they shall think fit to take
it.

p. 7

And we are humbly of Opinion that if those Gentlemen had
always heretofore with the same Care Conscientiously Con-
sidered the Oath they took as Practitioners of the Law, with-
out mentall Evasions and secret reservacons for quieting their
own Consciences and Oppressing the good people of this
province, there had been no occasion for calling an Assembly
at this time; or to form the Oath which they refuse to take,
and between which and the former Oath we cannot Conceive

p. 8