xx Introduction.

chief to order troops from one part of a colony to another, as the Maryland
Assembly sought to do in the case of Fort Cumberland. He regretted that he
could not come to Annapolis and meet the Assembly, but felt sure that it would
now view matters " on a true Constitutional Footing " and enact such legisla-
tion " as is not only agreeable to our Instructions, but agreeable to our happy
Constitution of Government in the British Dominions " (pp. 425-428). The
Lower House of February 14 replied somewhat ambiguously, promising " to
manifest our Care for the Preservation of the Lives, Liberties, and Proper-
ties of our Fellow-Subjects, our Zeal for the Common Cause, and Duty to our
most Gracious Sovereign " (pp. 429-430); and the next day in an address to
the Governor declared that it is unable to explain what Loudoun meant in
referring in his letter to certain " Instructions " relative to the forming of
bills laid before it, and asked Sharpe if anything in the nature of an agree-
ment had been made between himself and Loudoun (p. 431). To this Sharpe
replied he had never used the word " Instructions ", and suggested that per-
haps Loudoun might refer to his own letter of December to Sharpe as " In-
structions ", or to the letter from Henry Fox, one of the King's principal
secretaries, dated White Hall, March 15,1756, or possibly to the instructions
that were sent by the Ministry to the governors of the northern colonies when
some attempt was made to restrain the service of their troops. " Several letters
from His Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, relative to His Majesty's
Instructions to the several Governors in America " were also read, but the
journal of the Lower House does not show what these were (pp. 430-431).

The Lower House, sitting as a committee of the whole, took under consid-
eration a Supply bill for His Majesty's Service, but was prorogued before
debate upon it was well under way. The terms of this bill both as to the sources
from which the necessary taxes were to be derived and the restrictions thrown
around the Governor's use of the troops when raised, are discussed later
(pp. xxvi-xxvii). The House had also stirred itself up to a high pitch of indig-
nation because Sharpe had made use of the old act of 1715, under which he was
empowered to call out the county militia, thus thwarting that body in its
efforts to restrict his authority in military matters. Doubtless because he
thought that a breathing spell might tend to relieve tension and open the door
for compromise, Sharpe suddenly on March 9 prorogued this meeting or con-
vention of the Assembly until March 23 (p. 463), although it did not actually
meet until March 28. But if this was his hope he was to be disappointed. No
legislation of any kind was passed.

SESSION OF MARCH 28-MAY 1758

Three weeks after the previous " convention "of the Assembly had adjourned
it met in regular session at Annapolis on March 28, 1758, its meeting called
for March 23 having been postponed by the Governor until March 28 (Arch.
Md. xxxi, 266). The rules in use in the Lower House at the last session were
adopted and the Rev. Clement Brooke was again appointed to read prayers
twice daily (p. 548). That many members were disgusted with the futility of
the preceding meeting is indicated by the fact that on the opening day of the