Introduction. xxv

as possible to cooperate with the Royal forces against the French. The Gov-
ernor transmitted two letters from Pitt, dated at Whitehall December 9 and
December 29 respectively, and two letters from the new Commander-in-Chief,
General Jeffrey Amherst, written from New York, December 13, 1758, and
March 18, 1759. The letters from Pitt to Sharpe were circular letters sent
to the colonial governors of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Caro-
lina, and South Carolina, and are so similar in tenor to those previously sent
by him and transmitted at the March-May 1758 session, as to require little
additional comment (Arch. Md. LV, xxi, 467-468). The several provinces
were directed to raise as large a number of men as they were able, those from
each province to be kept together to act under the Commander-in-Chief with
the King's regular forces. Pitt again declared that the provincial officers as
high as and including colonels, to be commissioned by the several governors
from among those gentlemen who from their weight and credit in their several
provinces will best aid recruiting, were to have their same rank under Amherst,
as had been promised under his Majesty's previous orders of December 30,
1757; and that arms, ammunition, tents, and provisions would be supplied by
the King, although the provinces were expected to levy and furnish clothing
and pay for the men, and added that Parliament would later be asked to reim-
burse the provinces for these latter expenditures (pp. 142, 144). In his second
letter dated December 29, he emphasized the necessity for great speed in raising
men so that they might be ready for service when required by Amherst at the
appointed rendezvous (p. 145). Amherst in his letter of December 13, 1758,
from New York notified Sharpe of his appointment as Commander-in-Chief in
North America, and suggested that the same number of men be furnished for
the 1759 campaign as had been levied by the several provinces during the
year just closing. He also requested that every assistance be given to the regu-
lar officers who were being sent into his Province to help them to recruit men
for the Royal American Regiment (p. 144). In his letter of March 18, 1759,
Amherst notified Sharpe that, on account of the recent death of General Forbes,
he had appointed Brigadier-General Stanwix to have charge of the expedition
to the west and asked that the Governor communicate directly with that officer
(pp. 145-146).

Both houses of the Assembly sent addresses to the Governor promising to
use their best endeavors to comply with the King's wishes, the Lower House
expressing the hope that "whoever may have occasioned a Failure last Year, will
be induced by the Contents of those Letters, to embrace the Opportunity which
now presents itself .... of making in some Sort Amends, by a ready Con-
currence with every equitable Proposal which may be made for promoting his
Majesty's Service" (pp. 162-163), a not gentle intimation that the fault lay
not with the Lower House but with the upper chamber.

A few days after the Assembly had been convened, other letters arrived for
Sharpe from Pitt and Amherst, and one from Stanwix, which were communi-
cated on April 9 to both houses. Pitt, under date of January 23, 1759, wrote
that the King, having heard of the success of his arms under Forbes on the
Ohio, had ordered that Fort Duquesne, now in ruins, be immediately restored