xii Letter of Transmittal.

ber 24, 1754, until January 15, 1755, because the Lower House had failed to
pass the Supply Bill for His Majesty's service as amended by the Upper House,
but its meeting had been postponed by the Governor until February 22d. Sharpe
opened the session with a speech calling the attention of the Assembly to the
fresh encroachments of the French and Indians on the western frontier, and
the necessity of immediately providing funds for defence. He submitted a letter
dated at Whitehall, October 26, 1754, from Sir Thomas Robinson, one of the
King's principal secretaries of state, calling for the immediate cooperation of
Maryland and the neighboring colonies in military preparations. The Governor
urged the prompt appropriation of sufficient funds for defence, the passage of
laws to regulate the hire of horses and wagons required for military service,
and the fixing of rates charged by ordinaries for quartering soldiers on the
march. Robinson in his letter declared that the King had ordered two regiments
of five hundred men each, commanded by Sir Peter Halkett and Col. Thomas
Dunbar to proceed to Virginia and there to be recruited to seven hundred men
each. Governor Shirley of Massachusetts and Sir William Pepperell were
ordered to raise two more regiments of one thousand men each, of which they
were to be the colonels, and to issue commissions to such officers as they might
select. These troops were to be armed and clothed by the Crown, but the colonies
were to provide fresh victuals and other necessities for all the troops, and
facilities for officers to travel. The local governments were ordered to provide
for quartering the troops and for impressing conveyances. Halkett and Pep-
perell were to be in command until a general commanding officer should arrive
from England. With the arrival of Braddock in February 1755, Sharpe was
supplanted by him as commander-in-chief of the British forces in America.

The Lower House immediately proceeded to consider the ways and means
to raise £10,000 for military purposes under the title of "An Act for raising a
Supply towards his Majesty's Service," commonly known as the Supply Bill.
A proposal to raise this amount by a poll-tax of one shilling sixpence was de-
feated by a vote of 36 to 10, the leading members of the Proprietary party and
a few of the County party voting for it. The Committee of Laws, March ist,
then introduced a bill, which was promptly passed, to raise £10,000 by various
taxes and licences. The Upper House rejected the bill, citing four reasons for
its action, but it was generally recognized that one item, the fees from licences
from ordinaries, was the real reason for its rejection, the Proprietary having
again asserted his right to the money derived from this source. The four
objections to the bill cited by the Upper House were: (I) that the proposed
issue of additional bills of credit to the amount of £4015-6-0 would inflate the
paper money to a dangerous extent and depreciate the currency now in circula-
tion; (2) that the further appropriation of licences from ordinaries struck at a