366 Assembly Proceedings, Sept. 21-Oct. 29, 1742.

L. H. J.

May it please your Lordship
We his Majestys most dutiful and Loyal Subjects the Delegates
of the Freemen of your Province of Maryland in Assembly con-
vened return your Lordship our very hearty Thanks for your Speech
to the Upper and Lower Houses of this Assembly communicated to
us by our Governor Thomas Bladen Esq^r and for the Professions you
have therein been pleased to make of having our Welfare so much
at Heart
Could We be so happy as to have your Lordship residing amongst
us, whereby you might be better acquainted with our Affairs and
Circumstances, then you can well be at so great a distance from Us,
We perswade ourselves that good Understanding which is so neces-
sary for the General Interest of the Common Weal would at all
times be kept up and Cultivated betwixt your Lordship and your
Tenants, or did your Lordship think fit to consult with, and put Con-

P. 358

fidence in the Candid Informations and Benevolent dispositions of
the honest and disinterested People here, instead of the more partial
Advices of such as we have Reason to think are so real Friends
either to yourself or us, it is more than probable we should not have
had occasion to complain of the many Aggrievances, we labour under
and which are contained in our former Address, which already is or
in a short time will be presented to your Lordship; nor can We sup-
pose that your Lordship would otherwise, than from the Influence
of such Malevolent Councils have declared your Dissent to our late
Act for the Assessment and Payment of the Public Charges, whereby
many People have greatly Suffered, and had it not, by the kind and
ready Concurrence of our present Governor been timely prevented,
the whole Province must necessarily have been involved in the great-
est Difficulties and Inconveniences
As We are willing to flatter Ourselves that your Lordship upon
cool and deliberate Consideration will be satisfied of the Justness of
our Complaints, and thereby be induced to relieve us, we are unwill-
ing at this time to enumerate any new Aggrievances, altho' the with-
holding from us for a time, the proper Vouchers to support those
Complaints, by denying Access to the Public Registrys of the Prov-
ince, and the preventing us to Tax ourselves for the better maintain-
ing our Rights and Priviledges might well Justify us in so doing
We cannot however as well in Justice to your Lordship as to our-
selves omit upon this Occasion putting you in mind that your Lord-
ship hath here a large Country as yet uncultivated and uninhabited
the Peopling whereof must turn to the Interest of your Tenants and
greatly to the Interest of your Lordship as well as to the Trade and
Manufacture of Great Britain, and that it cannot be reasonably ex-
pected, that those who can remove themselves will continue or that
others will settle in a Place where these Properties are not secured
by fix'd and permanent Laws, which must always be the Case where