Introduction. xlv

it was resolved in committee of the whole that this sum be raised by an assess-
ment on all incomes derived from occupations, professions and lucrative offices
and by a tax on real and personal property. A committee headed by Edward
Tilghman was ordered to draw up a bill on these lines (p. 82). A motion to
include in the bill a provision for the payment of the militia, that at the Gov-
ernor's "request" marched to the defense of the frontier, and to pay those
who provided for them, was defeated by successive votes of 38 to 8, and 34 to
12 (pp. 86-87). The Lower House on December 6 requested the Governor
to furnish a statement showing in detail the amounts which had been advanced
by Forbes for the support of the Maryland troops formerly in the pay of
the Province (p. 90). The Governor reported that £2,400 had been advanced
to pay Maryland officers, most of which had been spent at Fort Frederick
for clothing and other necessaries, and that Dr. Ross had spent £2,700 for
provisions before the troops had joined Forbes, and for the support near the
forts of the friendly Indians (p. 91).

After the bill had been introduced in the Lower House, a vote in committee
of the whole was taken upon the double tax imposed by it on Roman Catholics,
and this feature was approved, 31 to 7 (p. 101). The Lower House appointed
a committee to estimate the cost of clearing a new road from Fort Frederick
to Fort Cumberland, which it was felt would not only facilitate the carriage
of warlike stores and provisions, but would also tend to open up the back
country for trade and settlement (p. 103). This committee, through Colonel
Thomas Cresap, reported on December 15 that the distance between these
forts by the existing wagon road was at least eighty miles, that the present road
crossed the Potomac twice and for four months of the year this river could
only be crossed in boats, and that a good wagon road without river crossings
could be constructed at a cost of not over £250, which would be altogether on
the north side of the Potomac and of a length of not over sixty miles. Itemized
estimates were submitted as to the cost of each section of the road between the
several local points named in the report (pp. 104-105). The house then ordered
that a sum of £250 be included in the Supply bill for this purpose (p. 106).
The bill itself was passed on December 16 by a vote of 30 to 19, those voting
against it representing the full strength of the Proprietary party present (pp.
106-107). It was received by the Upper House the same day and rejected
two days later without explanation (pp. 52, 53, 54). There is no reason to
believe that the Lower House brought forward in good faith this Supply or
Assessment bill, now rejected for the fourth time by the Upper House, as
the proposed method of taxation would have weighed heavily upon certain
well-to-do members of the Popular party, who so stubbornly advocated and
voted for it as an attack upon the Proprietary's prerogative, but passed it, know-
ing that it was a perfectly safe gesture and that the Upper House would reject it.

At the third, April-May 1750 session, the Lower House, sitting as a com-
mittee of the whole, on April 6 again took under consideration, for the fifth time,
the preparation of a Supply bill, in response to the Governor's opening speech and
the accompanying letters, and also the purposes for which the money should be
spent. By a vote of 27 to 7 it decided to make provision for levying, clothing,