Letter of Transmittal. xix

accused of crime, as the result of pressure brought upon him by their influential
co-religionists, and ended with the usual charges of attempts by Jesuit priests
to convert the slaves and arm them for the destruction of the Protestants, in
case the country was menaced by a foreign and Catholic foe. Sharpe in a heated
and lengthy reply on July 8th, declared that as the Darnalls had conformed to
the established church, and as they performed with ability the offices to which
they had been appointed by his predecessor, he saw no grounds for their removal.
He then analyzed in detail the charges that favoritism had been shown on ac-
count of their faith to certain specified persons accused of crime, and declared
that he did not know at the time that clemency was granted what their re-
ligion was, but felt certain that leniency towards them was called for. He ended
by declaring that no law for security against the Roman Catholics had ever been
presented to him by the Assembly for his approval, and that he would not in
a matter of such moment undertake summarily to put into execution in Mary-
land the Statute of William and Mary without taking time to consider the
matter carefully, but would employ such other measures for the security of the
Province as seemed necessary.

Reference has already been made to the dismissal of Lloyd Buchanan, the
delegate from Baltimore County, from further attendance as a member of the
Lower House, because he had disqualified himself for membership by " accept-
ing of a Commission from Henry Darnall, Esq.; Attorney General, for the
Prosecutor's, Place in Baltimore County, by shewing the same to the Chief
Justice of the Court, and leaving it in his hands, ..... and acting Prosecutor
at the same Court." One wonders if Buchanan had not been of the Proprietary
party whether he would have been so quickly ejected.

During the session, doubtless with a view to hurrying the enactment of the
various defence bills before the Lower House, the Governor sent two messages
reporting sundry Indian outrages on the frontier of Frederick County. On
June 28th he wrote that Col. James Innes had reported that on June 23d two
men and one woman had been found killed, and that one man, one woman and
six children had been carried off as prisoners; and in a second message dated
July 5th, he reported that fifteen more persons out of a party of nineteen had
since been killed while on their way to Fort Cumberland for safety. Two days
later he sent another message to the Lower House announcing that the French
fleet from Brest with four thousand troops had arrived at Louisburg. He also
declared that as no couriers had arrived recently at Fort Cumberland from the
west, he was fearful that the enemy was between this fort and the expedition
under Braddock, and added that he was unwilling to adjourn the Assembly, as
requested by the Lower House, until he had brought these matters to its atten-
tion. On July 8th, however, "Finding the Business, for which you were