Letter of Transmittal. xxi

in the best Posture for defence things would at that time admitt and to declare
that we think from this Prudent Conduct of your Excellencys our Borders have
been preserved from the Calamities our Neighbours now suffer."

The Governor, under date of March 2d, notified the Lower House of the
depredation of the Indians in Pennsylvania near the Maryland-Pennsylvania
line, and the measures he had taken to send two ranging parties of twenty men
each under Lieutenants Baker and Shelby to protect the inhabitants of Fred-
erick County who had petitioned him for assistance. Again on March 30th
he sent a message stating that the settlements near Carlisle, Pennsylvania, were
threatened, and later in another message reported sundry Indian outrages.

On March 5th the Lower House in a message to the Upper House said that
as it would take considerable time to prepare a bill for defence, it would like
immediate concurrence in an ordinance for the payment of £500 out of the
Loan Office, to be placed at the disposal of the Governor, to be expended by him
to maintain the ranging parties under Baker and Shelby and for the purpose
of offering a bounty of £10 for the scalp of every enemy Indian. It will be
noted that the value of scalps in recent months had risen from £5 to £10, and
was soon to go even higher. The ordinance was promptly concurred in by the
Upper House, and scalps must have come in quite plentifully for it was neces-
sary on April ist to appropriate £250 additional by ordinance for these same
purposes.

Special elections were held during this session in Anne Arundel and Charles
Counties to fill vacancies in the Lower House caused respectively by the death
of Dr. Charles Carroll (1691-1755) of Annapolis and by the resignation of
Henry Moore of Charles County. Two young men were now returned to
the Assembly who were to figure conspicuously in public life for many years.
These were Charles Carroll, the Barrister (1723-1783), son of Dr. Charles
Carroll, of the Protestant branch of the Carroll family, and Daniel of St.
Thomas Jenifer of Port Tobacco Parish, Charles County.

The preparation of the £40,000 Supply Bill for His Majesty's service was
entrusted to the Ways and Means Committee, and on March nth Philip Ham-
mond of Anne Arundel County, chairman, brought in a report recommending
that the money be raised by taxes, licences, and duties on numerous articles,
which it was estimated would yield about £8,000 annually, sufficient in five
years to " sink " an issue of £40,000 paper money. These included new or in-
creased taxes and duties on spirits and wines, an annual licence on billiard tables;
additional import taxes on negroes, horses, pitch, tar, and turpentine; taxes on
various writs and other legal papers; and special taxes on land and on land sur-
vey warrants. The tax on legal documents was to be made effective by stamping
each paper. This was concurred in by both houses without objection, although a