Letter of Transmittal. vii
seventeen favoring the establishment of a college on each shore, to replace the

existing county schools. The Upper House failed to concur in any of these
actions of the Lower House. The laws passed at this session were largely local
in character; the most interesting of them was probably the act adding twenty-
five acres to Baltimore Town. The acts of a general character of the greatest
importance were those strengthening the tobacco inspection laws and regulating
its shipment.

In his speech opening the Session which met May 15, 1751, the third session
of the Assembly elected in 1749, the Governor urged the enactment of a law
by which the exportation of corn might be prevented when the shortness of
the crop, as during the past winter, threatened the well-being of the people.
He also urged the improvement and straightening of the roads and the removal
of the innumerable gates which obstructed the highways. The future construc-
tion of canals was also touched upon. The importance of promoting more
friendly relations with the Indians was urged, but the Assembly seems to have
completely ignored all these recommendations of Ogle, however, and instead
of enacting needed legislation for the benefit of the province, the Lower House
promptly began to stir up the dormant fires of religious bigotry. The fear of
another war with France, and the recollections of the recent Jacobite uprising
in Scotland, were factors contributing to the demonstration now made in the
Lower House against the Roman Catholics. The Committee on Grievances
and Courts of Justice of the Lower House reported to that body, that unless
checked, the growth of popery in the province would become a grave menace.
The report declared that the Roman Catholics sent their children abroad to
St. Omar's and other papist seminaries to be bred in that religion, that large
tracts of land were held by the priests, that the Jesuits lived together in com-
munities having " public mass houses," some of them even conducting schools,
and that there were numbers of priests in the back settlements ready to corrupt
the foreigners against the English. Charles Carroll of Annapolis, the father of
Charles Carroll of Carrollton, described as " a powerful and leading Roman
Catholic," incensed by these reflections upon those of his faith, posted an
" advertisement " upon the door of the Lower House while this body was in
session, which caused the House to order his arrest by the Sergeant-at-arms.
The contents of this " advertisement" are not disclosed, but were felt by the
House to contain " matters scandalous and malicious, reflecting upon the
proceedings of this House in general and a member thereof in particular."
Shortly afterwards Carroll was turned over by order of the House to the
sheriff of Anne Arundel County, who was directed to keep him close confined
" until he made a due submission and be discharged from such confinement by