Letter of Transmission. v

Josias Green, by Act, was given encouragement for printing the laws.
Several temporary laws were revived. A bounty was to be given on linen cloth
for the " encouragement of industry," and the Proceedings at the Session of
the next year show that avail was made of this act. Six languishing debtors
in as many County " Goals," as it is always spelled, are enlarged. One of these
debtors, Michael Taylor, had evidently made threats against another man and
must be bound over to keep the peace.

These are the enactments, but bitter controversies occurred over proposed
laws which failed and these controversies led to a spirited interchange of mes-
sages between the Governor and the Lower House. The latter may often have
been right in principle, but certainly showed a niggling and petty spirit. In
his opening address, Ogle urged, as he had previously, the importance of a
magazine and of an amendment of the militia law. Soon the struggle was
renewed over the disposal of the three penny export tax per hogshead of tobacco
for the purchase of arms and ammunition. The Committee appointed to inspect
the state of the Fund for this purchase made a long report with figures running
back to 1717. Nothing was finally done toward complying with Ogle's recom-
mendation.

The Journal of Accounts aroused bitterness concerning fees to the Secretary,
the Attorney General, and the Clerk of the Council. Some of these charges
related to the past struggle with Pennsylvania. On the boundary with Penn-
sylvania, there was little controversy at this time. The Pennsylvania Archives
refer to the meeting of the Commissioners in 1740 (Series I, vol. 1, pp. 595,
623) and to troubles in Cecil County and in Delaware (Pa. Col. Recs. I, p. 395).
In the midst of all this squabbling and of a series of attacks which the Lower
House was making to the Governor against the gentlemen of the Upper House,
Henry Trippe, a Delegate from Dorchester County, was expelled by the Lower
House from its membership, because he accepted the position of Deputy Com-
missary. Thereupon Ogle promptly prorogued the Assembly.

There were eight divisions during the Session. On July 14, by vote of 28
to 5 (three of the negatives coming from Calvert County, one from Talbot
and one from Dorchester), the House voted to pass the bill for the encourage-
ment of industry. It will be remembered that the membership of the House
was four Delegates from each of twelve counties and two from Annapolis, but
that the Speaker only voted in a case of tie. On the same day, by a vote of 26
to 8, the bill was passed for the trial of matters of fact in the Counties where
they arise. This was distinctly an anti-proprietary measure and the two An-
napolis delegates, Gordon and Dulany, voted in the negative, together with
Harris of Kent, Denton and Hall of Anne Arundel, Smith and Hall of Calvert
and Sheredine and Caswell of Baltimore.