Introduction. xxxi

this message was a request from the Lower House to the Governor that he
promptly put an end to the session. The latter on May 9, in reply expressed the
greatest concern over the failure of the Assembly to provide funds for the sup-
port of the men now on the frontier, and declared that he would be under the
necessity of calling out the county militia for the protection of the frontier
unless a Supply bill was passed (pp. 679-680), a threat which raised the ire of
the house. The reply of the Lower House to this message was merely an
attempt to throw the onus of the situation on the Governor and the other house
(pp. 681-683). The Upper House as a last resort then suggested a " general
and free conference between the two houses" (pp. 539, 683), to which the
Lower House replied that it would agree to a conference only upon certain
sections of the bill (p. 684). Messages and counter-messages passed between
the two houses on the scope of the proposed conference, and conferees were
appointed on May 13 (pp. 541, 542-543, 685, 686-687). The conferees from
the Lower House were both the Tilghmans, Lloyd, Murdock, and Carroll, and
those from the Upper House were Benjamin Tasker, Jr., Robert Jenckins
Henry, and Daniel Dulany. Tasker was made chairman (p. 542). The appoint-
ment of agents to assess the taxes were first considered. As the Lower House
absolutely refused to agree to a suggested compromise that half the agents be
appointed by the Lower House and half by the county courts, an impasse was
reached and the conference came to a sudden end (pp. 542-543). The Upper
House then addressed the Governor regretting the failure of the conference,
and declaring that although it had in " the pressing Exigency of Affairs "
agreed to waive its objection to income taxes and taxes upon all estates, real
and personal, imposed in the extraordinary way proposed by the Lower House,
the latter had merely used the occasion to attempt to extort concessions which
would have vested in it unlimited power (pp. 543-545). The Governor then
prorogued the Assembly to meet again June 26, although the meeting was
not to take place until much later in the year after a new Lower House had been
elected.

Before the conference between the two houses was held and the final break
came, there had been introduced in the Lower House on May 5, 1758, another
Supply bill, apparently backed by certain members of the Proprietary party,
similar to the bill introduced in the last session just before adjournment
(p. 461). Under this belated bill it was proposed to raise £45,000 either by
new or by increased taxes on ferries, pilots, taxable persons, lands, lucrative
offices, benefices, professions, and upon the Proprietary's manors, reserves, and
leased lands. Six Proprietary votes were cast for it and 33 votes against it
(p. 663). The details of the bill are unknown.

Just before the conclusion of the session the Lower House passed a series of
resolves, asserting sundry constitutional rights comparable to those possessed
by the House of Commons, justifying the imposition of a double tax on Papists,
the right of prior consideration by the Lower House of all claims against the
public, the right to tax the Proprietary's estates including quit rents, the pro-
priety of imposing what amounted to an income tax on the salaries and other
incomes from public offices and professions, the right to tax the income of