Introduction. xxi

session twenty-six members of the Lower House out of a total membership
of fifty-eight were absent, and the Sergeant-at-arms had to be sent to summon
them (p. 549).

Sharpe in his opening speech referred to the recent disastrous military cam-
paigns against the enemy, and urged the Assembly to comply with the require-
ments of William Pitt, one of the King's principal Secretaries of State, that
the several colonies immediately raise as large forces as was in their power
for their defence (pp. 467-468). Letters from Pitt, dated White Hall, Decem-
ber 30, 1757, and from Gen. James Abercrombie, recently appointed by the
King to succeed Loudoun as commander-in-chief, were laid before the As-
sembly. Pitt wrote that Brig. Gen. John Forbes would have immediate com-
mand of an important expedition westward to the Ohio with which the forces
of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia would cooperate, and added that " all
Officers of the Provincial Forces as high as Colonels inclusive are to have Rank
according to their several respective Comm.^ns in like Manner as is already given
by His Majesty's Regulations to the Captains of Provincial Troops in Amer-
ica ". The Governor was also empowered by Pitt to commission such gentle-
men of the Province, who from their " Weight and Credit " will be most
effective in levying the greatest number of men, and Pitt added that the King
will ask Parliament to reimburse the colonies for the extraordinary expenses
that they will be put to this summer. Arms, ammunition, and tents were to
be provided by the King (pp. 469-470). Abercrombie in his letter to Sharpe,
dated New York, March 15, 1758, after referring to his appointment as com-
mander-in-chief, said that while he did not care to apportion a definite number
of troops for each colony to furnish, he had fixed at six thousand the troops
to be raised by Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. He also directed
Sharpe to lay a public and immediate embargo on all ships in the ports of the
Province, to be effective until he was notified to lift it (pp. 470-471). The
Lower House in a message to the Governor expressed its appreciation of the
letters from Pitt and Abercrombie, to which Sharpe made an appropriate reply
(pp. 551-552, 556).

The Lower House soon plunged into consideration of the Supply bill and
other contentious measures. Sitting as a committee of the whole, it then pro-
ceeded to frame a £40,000 Supply bill to raise the money required for military
purposes. The details of this bill with the new forms of taxation incorporated
in it, which followed in a general way the bill under consideration at the late
" convention of the Assembly ", are discussed in another section (pp. xxviii-
xxxii). It may be said here, however, that the new taxes proposed included a five
per cent tax on incomes in excess of £100 annually, taxes on the land and quit
rents of the Lord Proprietary, and double taxes on Roman Catholics. The bill
also sought to place the appointment of the tax assessors in the hands of the
Lower House, instead of in those of the Governor. These new methods of
taxation, as well as the proposal of the Lower House to appoint an agent to
represent it in Great Britain, were opposed in the Upper House, which also
opposed a Lower House bill reducing not only the pay of the members of
the Assembly but also that of other public officials. The Lower House showed