xxii Introduction.

to Lieutenant James Riley acting for Dagworthy (p. 134). It has been said
that the Cherokees could so divide a single scalp as to make it appear to be
three or four scalps, but this is a case where the same scalp was actually twice
paid for!

As was the custom, the two houses appointed a joint committee to inspect
the accounts of the Loan Office, or the Office of the Commissioners for Emitting
Bills of Credit, or the Paper Currency Office, as it was variously called, but
the session was prorogued before this committee reported to their respective
houses (pp. 19, 21, 44, 47, 76). The failure of the Assembly to agree upon
a Journal of Accounts is discussed elsewhere in this introduction (pp. ixviii-
ixix).

The erection of a lighthouse at Cape Henry on the Virginia capes came up
at this session. The Governor on December 19, 1758, in an address to both
houses, declared that he had been commanded by the Lord Proprietary, as the
result of an intimation from the Lords of Trade and Plantations, to recom-
mend to the Assembly that it impose a duty of twopence sterling per ton on
all vessels coming into Maryland and Virginia through the capes at Virginia,
this imposition to become effective when the legislatures of both provinces im-
posed a similar duty, towards building a lighthouse at Cape Henry, the funds
to be expended in equal proportion by both provinces. The Lower House, on
the last day of the session, December 23, in an address to the Governor in reply,
declared they thought it proper to defer consideration of the matter until the
next session (pp. 54, 111, 112, 125, 126), but it was not brought up again dur-
ing the life of this Assembly.

The Governor recommended in an address to both houses on December 19,
that a sum of money be granted for the support of certain French prisoners,
doubtless sailors, that had lately been brought into the Province, and of others
who might thereafter be brought in, until they could be shipped to Great
Britain or sent to some French port to be exchanged for an equal number of
British sailors (p. 112).

A bill for "the relief of certain languishing prisoners" for debt in the several
county gaols of the Province was passed by the Lower House (pp. 123, 62).
When it reached the Upper House, December 22, it was amended in such a
way that the Lower House refused to acquiesce in the amendments and it
was rejected. These amendments seem to have been devised to relieve not
only debtors to the Loan Office but their sureties as well, and to have denied
relief to those indebted to the Lord Proprietary and the Crown (pp. 62, 124).
It was doubtless the preferential position given to the Proprietary which caused
the Lower House to reject the amended bill. Nor was any act for the relief
of "languishing prisoners" passed during the life of this Assembly. There
have been preserved a number of petitions from several of these "languishing
prisoners"; some of these for this general period are printed in the Appendix
(pp. 509-514).

A petition from the visitors of the Free School in Saint Mary's County
was presented, praying that a bill be brought in to dispose of the present school
house and the land on which it stood, and empowering the purchase of another