Introduction. xix

Greatest Part of which I must send to the Inhabited part of the Country to
Recruit and fit themselves out for the ensuing Campaign". He then named
some twelve posts on the frontiers of Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania
which should be garrisoned by the troops of these colonies, including Fort
Frederick and Fort Cumberland in Maryland, and asked that this Province
furnish and maintain at least five hundred men for this purpose. To make
the men comfortable they should each be furnished with a second blanket in
lieu of a bed, a flannel jacket, a new pair of breeches, two pairs of stockings,
and a pair of shoes. He added that he expected by this time the new Assembly
had appropriated the money to reimburse him for the funds he had advanced
to pay the Maryland troops the large arrears due them by this Province when
he took them into the service of the Crown (pp. 39-41). The reader is re-
minded that Brigadier-General John Forbes died of dysentery on March n,
1759, not long after the expedition, which he had so well planned, reached
the Ohio and occupied Fort Duquesne. It was on December 13 that Sharpe
in messages directed to the two houses announced that Lieutenant-Colonel
Dagworthy had just arrived from Fort Duquesne with news that General
Forbes had taken possession of it on November 25, the French garrison hav-
ing abandoned it two days previously, some going down the Mississippi, others
up the Ohio towards Canada (pp. 51-52, 101, 104).

In its address in reply to the Governor's speech, the Upper House promised
to further in every way General Forbes' wishes. The Lower House in its
reply, drawn up by a committee of which William Murdock was chairman,
while promising to embrace every opportunity to advance the security of the
Province and his Majesty's service in general, reminded the Governor that
at its last meeting it had resolved to reimburse General Forbes out of the first
money voted for the advances he had made to the Maryland troops, and that
a bill to this end might by this time have been passed had he not prevented
this by prorogation. It promised full "Consideration of the General's Letter
and with Dispatch (which we hope will not be embarrassed by any unneces-
sary obstruction)". A vote to eliminate this last phrase, enclosed in the house
journal in parentheses and obviously aimed at the Upper House, was lost 20
to 13 (pp. 68-70).

The Lower House adopted the same rules of order in use in preceding
sessions, and again selected the Rev. Clement Brooke of St. Anne's to read
prayers twice daily. Major Benjamin Handy, a delegate from Worcester
County chosen at the recent election, having accepted the office of sheriff, the
house ordered the Speaker to issue a warrant for the election of a new member
to fill his place (p. 68).

This November-December 1758 session which lasted a month was produc-
tive of little legislation of importance. While the undercurrent of hostility
between the two houses was as strong as in recent sessions, there were fewer
interchanges of messages and addresses, between the Governor and the Upper
House on one hand and the Lower House on the other, in which the issues di-
viding them were discussed on their merits as each side chose to view them.
Bills which had passed one house were now often immediately rejected by the