Letter of Transmittal. xix

the funds to be raised from license fees and fines to be imposed upon hawkers,
pedlars and petty chapmen. The Upper House failed to concur on the ground
that these fees and fines belonged to the Lord Proprietary " for the support
of Government" and insisted upon substituting additional fees derived from
licenses on ordinaries. A deadlock resulted, and Sharpe then prorogued the
Assembly until May 1st, expressing his great disappointment that no action on
this important matter had been taken, and his belief that events in the near
future would convince the Lower House of the necessity for immediate action.
The Lower House ordered that the rejected bill be printed in its proceedings
as evidence of its desire to co-operate with the neighboring colonies in cultivat-
ing friendship with the Six Nations. Before adjourning, the Lower House
found an opportunity to adopt, by a vote of 41 to 3, the report of its Committee
on Grievances, action upon which had been deferred at the last session, in the
form of an address to the Governor again calling his attention to the growth
of Popery in the Province and the proselyting activities of the Jesuits and
other Romanish priests, and urging that His Excellency have a care to appoint
only loyal Protestants to office. No legislation of the least importance was
transacted at this futile session, only two trivial acts becoming laws.

The fifth session of the Assembly elected in 1751 was opened May 8, 1754,
with an address by Governor Sharpe. He again called attention to the further
depredations and encroachments of the French upon the Ohio territory, which,
he said, without question lay within the British dominions, and his conviction
that these hostile acts should remove any doubts on the part of the Lower
House that actual invasion had occurred, and convince them of the necessity
of immediately assisting the Virginians and the neighboring colonies in an
enterprise which they had already entered upon. He also urged the great
importance of sending commissioners to the Albany Conference with the Six
Nations to be held there in June. The Governor requested the Assembly to
cooperate with Pennsylvania by passing a law, as that province had shown an
inclination to do, for the punishment of persons who counterfeited the paper
currency of other provinces. Prophetic of today was the Governor's sug-
gestion that a remedy be found to reduce " the Excessive charge and burthen
this Country is at present Subjected to by the great Increase of Pensioners in
Several of Our Counties .... as the distribution of the great Sums annually
collected for the Relief of the poor, as it is now made, instead of being an
Encouragement to and a reward for Industry proves too frequently an In-
citement only to Debauchery and Idleness." He also recommended the " founda-
tion of a more perfect and more publick Seminary of Learning in this Province;
a Scheme, this, long Since put in Execution among our Neighbors to whom
our youth are Still obliged, much to the Disadvantage and discredit of this