xxvi Introduction.

taxes on real and personal property, should be appointed by the Governor or
by the commissioners or agents named in the bill by the Lower House to admin-
ister it, was voted 33 to 20 to vest this power in the commissioners (pp. 270-
271). This provision was absolutely opposed by the Upper House. The
Lower House resolved by a vote of 38 to 13 that the oath to be taken by
Papists should be that prescribed under the statute of I William and Mary,
and not the milder oath provided under the Maryland law (pp. 271-273).
By votes of 28 to 24, and 27 to 20, it was decided not to amend the provisions
of the bill taxing lawyers on their incomes (pp. 273-274, 280-281). The bill was
passed by the Lower House and sent to the Upper House where it was exten-
sively amended and returned to the Lower House on December I (pp. 177,
290). No effort was made to revive it here, although the Lower House
ordered that it be printed and distributed " for the perusal of the Inhabitants
of each County" (p. 290). It will be found printed in full in the Appendix
(pp. 707-750). On December 14, the Lower House directed its clerk to make
a copy of the bill and send it to the Governor, and the same day sent an address
to him requesting that he forward a copy of it to the Earl of Loudoun (pp. 354,
357). In an address to the Governor the Lower House declared that the garri-
soning of Fort Cumberland by Provincial troops, as insisted upon by the
Upper House, was in itself sufficient to justify its opposition to the bill as
amended in the Upper House (pp. 357-360).

On the last day of the session, December 16, the Upper House addressed the
Governor on the subject of the bill. It declared that had there not been other
and even more serious objections in it, the failure of the bill to comply with the
requests of the Earl of Loudoun in his letter of November 7, 1757, to the
Governor, would in itself have been sufficient reason for rejection (pp. 277-
278). It further declared that the bill was "prolix, intangled and imprac-
ticable—derogatory to the Powers of his Lordship's Commission" to the
Governor, and invasive of the prerogative of the Crown. It also deplored
the unwillingness of this and some of the other colonies to adopt any policy of
defence which had " the least Tendency towards Union ", notwithstanding
the common danger resulting from a failure to cooperate with the commander-
in-chief appointed by the King (pp. 195-196).

At the abortive meeting of the " convention of the Assembly " held in
February-March, 1758, a Supply bill was introduced in the Lower House on
February 27, by Edward Dorsey on behalf of the committee, with the follow-
ing title: "An Act for granting a Supply of £30,000: for his Majesty's
Service and the more immediate Defence and Security of the Frontier Inhabi-
tants of this Province, and emitting £20,000: thereof in Bills of Credit, and
raising a Fund for sinking and replacing the whole by an equal Assessment
on all Estates real, and personal, and lucrative Offices, and Employments "
(pp. 422, 445). This was doubtless substantially the same supply bill that had
been passed by the Lower House at the previous sessions, but had been
rejected by the Upper House. The Lower House next proceeded in committee
of the whole to consider for amendment several provisions of the bill as intro-
duced by its committee. By a vote of 27 to 13, it was decided to require the