LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

BALTIMORE, February 1, 1933.
To the Maryland Historical Society.
GENTLEMEN :

This volume of the Archives of Maryland, which your Committee on Pub-
lications now has the honor to submit, contains the Proceedings and Acts of
the General Assembly of Maryland for 1752, 1753, and 1754. It forms
Volume L of the general series, and the twenty-third volume of the sub-series
dealing with Assembly affairs. The first volume of the Archives appeared in
1883, so that the present volume marks a stewardship spanning half a century,
during which the Maryland Historical Society has prepared and published
annually for the State a volume of its early records, under a biennial appro-
priation made by the General Assembly.

The three years from 1752 to 1754, which this volume covers, was a period
when relations between England and France, that had been temporarily patched
up in 1748 by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, were again being subjected to the
severe strains that were destined in 1756 to result in the outbreak of the Seven
Years War, or as it was called in the colonies, the French and Indian War.
The French were extending their chain of forts southward from Canada, and
their presence in increasing numbers on the Ohio was a serious threat to
Maryland and the neighboring British colonies. The home government realized
the danger and began to take steps to strengthen the defences on the western
frontier. Troops were dispatched from Great Britain to North America and
the colonies were called upon to furnish men and supplies and money for the
inevitable conflict. That Maryland fully shouldered her share of the burden
in its earlier stages is not borne out by a study of the records during these
three years. The importance of the impending struggle between England and
France was at first not fully realized and was overshadowed in the Province
by the increasing hostility between the Lord Proprietary and the people of
the Province as represented by the majority in the Lower House, who felt that
the Proprietary was not bearing a proper proportion of the expenses of the
government and those incident to the preparations for war; and there was
a long delay in making the necessary appropriations for men and supplies.
The Proceedings of the Assembly bring vividly before us the details of this
struggle between them.

The Province was fortunate during this trying period in having the office
of governor filled by men possessed of ability, common sense and tact. Samuel