Letter of Transmission. vii

J. M. Leake, in his recently published scholarly monograph upon the
" Virginia Committee System," advocates the thesis that the Committee of that
Province's Assembly which corresponded with the Provincial Agent in London,
was the precedent followed in establishing Committees of Correspondence
between the Colonies immediately prior to the American Revolution. (J. H. U.
Studies in Historical and Political Science, 1917, number 1.) Maryland had
such an agent, while a Royal Province, in Nathaniel Blackistone; but, after
the Proprietary Government was restored, the agency lapsed (see E. p. Turner
on " Colonial Agencies in England " in 16 Pol. Sci. Quar. 24), although an
attempt to restore it was made while Benedict Leonard Calvert was Governor
(see Archives, vol. XXXVI).

In the Preface to volume 37, a conjectural division of the Lower House into
Proprietary and Country Parties, was made as follows: Proprietary Party;
St. Mary's, Hopewell; Kent, Blackiston, Willson, Howard, Hall; Calvert,
Benjamin Mackall; Dorchester, Hooper, Woolford, Taylor, Brannock;
Baltimore, Scott; Annapolis, Gordon; Anne Arundel, Dulany; Talbot,
Goldsborough, Hooper, Edmondson, Needles; Cecil, Ward; Queen Anne's,
Wright, Hemsley, Clay ton, Elliott, (22); Country Party; St. Mary's,
Waughop, Read, Jordan; Anne Arundel, Beale, Hammond, Warfield; Charles,
Courts, Middleton, Hanson, Hawkins; Cecil, Herman, Wood, George; Prince
George's, Magruder, Crabb, Belt, Sprigg; Calvert, Smith, Skinner; Somerset,
Gale, Alien, Dashiell, Caldwell; Baltimore, Matthews, Hamilton, Sheredine;
Annapolis, Gumming (27). The Speaker, John Mackall, of Calvert County,
was assigned to no party.

The full membership of the Lower House was 50, composed of 4 Delegates
from each of the 12 counties, and 2 from the City of Annapolis. There were 15
divisions of the House, at the session of 1732/3. The highest number of votes
cast was 47, and the lowest, 43. The divisions may be thus classified:
(I) On the bill for emitting bills of credit, the most important legislation of the
session, there were four divisions as follows: On March 30, should officers be
left out? Yes, 24, no, 22; on April 2, should the amount to be issued be
increased by £18,000? Yes, 29, no, 17; on April 3, should salaries of
Commissioners and clerks be £80, or £60? For the former, 25, for the latter
22; on April 5, shall the bill pass? Yes, 32, no 15. Calvert County had the
only solid delegation in this last vote, and no vote seems to have had a
political significance. (2) On the bill for the relief of insolvent debtors, there
were two divisions of no probable political significance: On March 21, 27
members voted that the amount of relief be £100, while 19 voted to reduce it
to £50, and on March 23, 30 voted yea, and 14 nay on the proposition that
handicraftmen make restitution by way of service. (3) On March 26, 27