xxviii Introduction.

ance with the address of both houses of the Assembly, dated December 14,

1757. made at a previous session (Arch. Md. LV, xlix, 1), he had presented
their addresses to the King and the Lords of Trade and Plantations, praying
that the embargo be lifted on the shipment of corn and provisions from
Maryland and other colonies in America to the Madeiras and other European
dominions of friendly states. He said that this petition had been referred to
a committee of the King's Privy Council, and added that, while the lifting of
the embargo was at present refused, he was hopeful that by his efforts he
would eventually be successful in securing its removal (p. 154). The corre-
spondence shows that the committee of the Privy Council referred the matter
to the Board of Trade, whose report signed by Dunk Halifax, Francis Oswald,
and W. S. Hamilton was also submitted. In this report it is declared that the
export of grain to friendly foreign countries had been stopped because of the
scarcity of corn in Great Britain and Ireland, in the fear that, unless rigid
restrictions were imposed, it would indirectly reach the enemy (pp. 154-156).
William Sharpe, clerk of the Privy Council and Governor Sharpe's brother, in
his letter to the Lord Proprietary dated, Whitehall Council Office, August 23,

1758. explained the steps that have been taken in the matter, and said that
the committee of the Privy Council also felt that the time was not now propi-
tious to permit the export of corn to other countries than Great Britain and
Ireland (pp. 156-157). This embargo question is discussed in the preceding
volume of the Archives (Arch. Md. LV, xlviii-xlix).

In proroguing the Assembly suddenly on April 17, the Governor declared
that, as the Lower House continued to refuse to pass a Supply bill other than
that which had been already five times rejected in the Upper House, and as a
continuance of the session would only increase the heavy expenses imposed on
the public, with the advice of his Council he had prorogued it until July 16 next
(pp. 157-158). No acts were passed at this convention of the Assembly.

SESSION OF MARCH-APRIL 1760.

The fourth session of the Assembly which had been elected in the fall of
1758 and met on March 22, 1760, was to prove almost as futile and unpro-
ductive of results as had been the three previous meetings. Measures of gen-
eral importance such as the Supply or Assessment bill for His Majesty's Service,
the bill for the support of a Provincial Agent in Great Britain, the Naturaliza-
tion bill, the bill to reduce interest rates on tobacco and money, the bill to re-
lieve landholders from certain unforeseen and oppressive land taxes about to be
imposed under the terms of the Supply act of 1756, and the adoption of the
Journal of Accounts, all failed of passage because of disagreement between the
two houses. On the one hand the good of the Province was ignored by the
Upper House because of the fear of the Lord Proprietary that his prerogative
might be encroached upon by these measures, and on the other hand, the de-
fense and welfare of the Province were entirely lost sight of by the popular
majority in the Lower House in its desire to thwart what it called the "pre-
tensions" of the Proprietary, and by its refusal to pass any measure to raise
money for the service except such as were drafted by it with a view to weaken-