Letter of Transmission. vii

We now enter upon the most humiliating period of Maryland history. For
a period of several years, the Governor and the representatives of the people
of Maryland indulged in petty bickering and fault finding, in quarrelling and
recrimination and did not enact the constructive measures needed to meet the
emergencies which arose from time to time. The members of the Lower
House were fussily insistent on their privileges and sometimes resorted to
sharp parliamentary practice, hoping thereby to gain their ends. The Governor
was bound by his instructions from a selfish and distant Lord Proprietary and
was often exasperated by the proceedings of the Delegates to such an extent as
to forget his dignity and to scold them. The Assembly which met in August,
1745, was one in which a bill for the limitation of officers' fees, bills to estab-
lish two new counties, a bill for laying a tax for the discharge of the quit rents,
and a bill for the trial of matters of fact in the County Courts were vetoed by
Gov. Bladen, who had, ere this, lost his whilom popularity. These vetoes
naturally irritated the Lower House. Fifteen acts were passed: four dealt
with laying out towns (one of which consolidated Baltimore and Jonestowns),
one prohibited raising swine and geese in Cambridge, one authorized the
building of a rolling house for tobacco, one provided for dividing parishes in
St. Mary's and Charles Counties, one directed the publication of laws, four
corrected defects in land titles, one validated a will, one established the gauge
of barrels and one determined the allowance for petit jurors. There were
many changes in the Delegates: St. Mary's sent an entire new delegation;
Kent replaced Calder by Harris; Calvert sent Mackall for Weems; Somerset
replaced Gale by Dennis (of the family of the Chairman of the Publication
Committee); Dorchester replaced Trippe and Hindman by Hooper and Suli-
vane; Baltimore replaced Aquila Paca, Scott and Caswell by John Paca,
Buchanan and John Hall; Annapolis sent Steuart instead of Tasker, who had
been transferred to the Council; Queen Anne's sent Hopper instead of Wright
and Worcester replaced Robins by Outten.

The main object of summoning the session was lost in a controversy between
the two Houses. Gov. Bladen announced that the Session had been called to
secure assistance for the garrison of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, whose
capture recently by the New England provincial troops and the British fleet
had been so brilliant an achievement. After some debate, the Lower House
agreed to make an appropriation for that purpose, recovering the money from
a tax on ordinaries, but they tacked to the bill a provision for a Provincial
Agent in London. This tacking was denounced by the Upper House, which
knew that the desire for such an agent was that there might be someone at the
British Capital to voice an opposition to the Lord Proprietary. The Lower