Letter of Transmittal. xxxv

the manuscript libers has been used. In a few instances where obvious errors in
the manuscript have been detected by the printer and corrected, the printed form
has been followed.

The Acts of the Assembly also exist in printed form and in the official manu-
script libers owned by the State. In general the printed session laws have been
used as the basis of the acts as they appear in this Archive, but these have been
also checked up with the manuscript libers containing the laws, and where differ-
ences occur the latter have been followed, unless errors have been detected in
these which have been corrected by Jonas Green in his contemporary printed
session laws.

The proceedings of the Upper House exist only in the official manuscript
form and are preserved in old libers as are the proceedings of the Lower House.
The Upper House, representing the Lord Proprietary, and identical in member-
ship with the Governor's Council, was composed of members appointed by the
Proprietary. These not being elected as were the members of the Lower House,
had no incentive to print their proceedings to gain favor with an electorate, as
did the Lower House.

In the Appendix will be found a number of hitherto unpublished papers, pre-
served among the manuscript archives of the State, bearing upon matters re-
ferred to in the proceedings of the Assembly for the years 1755-1756. These
papers include: (1) a petition dated March 3, 1755, which was circulated by the
rector, vestrymen, churchwardens, and other parishioners of St. Paul's Parish
in Baltimore County, bearing numerous signatures, asking the authority of the
Assembly to levy a tax for the repair of the parish church; (2) a petition of the
freeholders and inhabitants of Calvert County, endorsed May 22, 1756, ap-
proving the address of the Lower House to the Governor dated July 3, 1755,
requesting the enforcement in Maryland of the Penal Laws of England against
the Roman Catholics; (3) three undated petitions, practically identical in word-
ing, of the freeholders and freemen of All Saints Parish in Frederick
County requesting its division into two parishes upon the death of the rector,
circulated in various parts of this very large parish and bearing the signatures
of numerous inhabitants, some of the signatures being in German script and so
faded as to be practically undecipherable; and (4) a copy of Governor Sharpe's
accounts for the support of the ranging parties on the western frontier from
February to May 1756, which was the subject of a bitter controversy between
the Governor and the Lower House.

The index of this, as of the two preceding volumes of the Archives, has been
compiled by Miss Elizabeth Mann.