xlviii Introduction.

"An Act for reducing the Allowances of the Upper and Lower Houses of the
Assembly ", and sent to the Lower House. There it was loaded with amend-
ments enlarging its scope, and was returned to the Upper House where it was
promptly rejected (pp. 171, 195, 196). The provisions of this bill applied
to the members of both houses, although it is probable that neither really
wanted it passed, and that it was so framed as to insure its rejection by the
other body. The Upper House rarely felt itself called upon to resort to propa-
ganda, but in this case in the hope of putting the Lower House in the wrong
before the people, it resorted to the very unusual step of ordering printed its
original bill with the amendments which had been added to it in the lower
chamber. If actually printed, however, no copy is known to have been pre-
served, and one can only speculate from the Assembly proceedings and mes-
sages as to certain of its provisions.

The amendments added in the Lower House extended the provisions of the
original bill so that not only was the pay of members of the Assembly reduced,
but a reduction in pay was extended to justices of the Provincial and county
courts. The bill also provided that no one who had held any public office of
profit under the Proprietary government, might within six years be eligible to
sit in the Lower House, and contained a provision that members of the Upper
House living near Annapolis should receive only half the usual allowance of
75 pounds of tobacco a day. That it did not make a reduction in pay of the
members of the Lower House similarly situated seems to have been an unfor-
tunate political blunder (pp. 323-326, 387-388).

At the February-March 1758 session, bills of the same general character
were introduced independently in both houses. The Lower House bill, which
reduced the pay of members of both houses and of justices, extended the reduc-
tion to clerks and all other officers of both houses. The preparation of a bill
in the Upper House gave rise to a heated dispute, not only as to the provisions
of the bill itself, but on the ground of parliamentary privilege, the Lower
House now claiming the exclusive right to inaugurate all legislation " imposing
or altering tcuvcs ". The Upper House bill, which limited its operations to mem-
bers of the Assembly, was promptly passed in that house and sent to the Lower
House, which entirely ignored its existence, passed its own bill, and sent that
to the upper chamber. This the Upper House as promptly rejected and
returned with a message that this action was so " inconsistent with all Rules
of Proceeding ", that it had thrown out the Lower House bill merely upon a
view of its title. Nothing further was to be heard of the subject at this
session (pp. 491, 519-520, 557, 572, 576-577, 588-589, 607, 638, 678-679).

EMBARGO

Strenuous efforts were made by the British authorities by sundry restrictions
to prevent provisions and warlike stores shipped from the American colonies
from reaching the French, especially through neutral ports in the West Indies.
The Maryland Assembly at the June-July, 1755, session had passed an act to this
end which had expired by limitation January 1, 1756 (Arch. Md., I, 204-207).
At the September-October 1756 session Sharpe, acting under orders from