xx Introduction.

other without explanation, or without even a brief statement that they were
open to the same objections as when they had been previously thrown out.
Occasionally amendments were added without explanation entirely changing
the tenor of the bill.

The disputed Steuart-Woodward election and the disciplining of Samuel
Wilson for his attack upon Philip Hammond, occupied much of the time of
the Lower House at this session. Both of these episodes are fully discussed
elsewhere in this introduction (pp. lii-lv). Of course the most important
bill to come before the Assembly was the £36,000 Supply bill for his
Majesty's Service and Defense of the Frontier Inhabitants, or the Assess-
ment bill as it had now generally come to be known. This bill, prepared by a
committee of the Lower House of which Philip Hammond was chairman,
was introduced on December 9 (p. 92). It was based on the resolves which
the house had previously adopted (pp. 76-78). No copy of the Assessment
bill passed by the Lower House at this session is known to be in existence, but
from its title and the Sharpe Correspondence, there is no reason to believe
that it differed in any important respect, except the amount to be raised was
now fixed at f36,000, from that passed by the Lower House at the March-
May 1758 session in which the figure was £45,000, which has been discussed
in the introduction to the previous volume of the Archives (Arch. Md. LV,
xxviii-xxxii). This was virtually an income tax measure imposing a five per
cent tax annually on incomes from salaries and emoluments, and on the assessed
value of real and personal property. Passed by the Lower House, it was for
the fourth time rejected in the Upper House. Its course in both houses is fully
discussed elsewhere in this introduction (pp. xliv-xlv). Another matter of
acrimonious dispute between the two houses also again came up at this ses-
sion. This was a bill to reduce the allowances of members of the Assembly
and of justices. Action upon it was referred to the next session (pp. xxvii, 116-
117). This bill has been discussed in the preceding volume of the Archives
(Arch. Md. LV, xlvii-xlviii).

Edmund Key, the aristocratic and prominent delegate from St. Mary's
County with strong Proprietary leanings, in a debate in the Lower House on
November 30 upon the appointment of a committee to draft a Supply or As-
sessment bill, a subject productive of much political ill temper, referred to some
of the members of that committee as "indolent". Composed as this committee
was of the leaders of the popular party in the house, Edward Tilghman,
Edward Dorsey, Philip Hammond, Robert Lloyd, Charles Carroll the Bar-
rister, Thomas Harris, and Alexander Williamson, such disrespectful words
stirred up a tempest in a tea pot. Key, by a resolution of the house
adopted the following day, was "called upon to explain himself with Relation
to the Word reflecting upon the Gentlemen appointed, confessed that the Word
dropped from him thro' Inadvertency, without any Design to reflect upon
the House, or any Member thereof. Which submission the House consented
to accept, and waived all further Proceeding thereon". Unfortunately, however,
we are left in uncertainty as to the probable truth of Mr. Key's charge of
indolence against the members of the committee (pp. 82-83). Soon after