Introduction. iv

and therefore hope the House will excuse me from asking his Pardon". Again
called before the house to apologize, he desired time to reflect upon the matter,
and on his reappearance repeated his statement about Hammond. He was
thereupon committed to the custody of the Sergeant-at-arms until he should
comply with the order to apologize, which he continued to refuse to do (pp.
95-100). On December 18 a motion to remit that part of the censure relating
to Hammond was defeated in the house by a vote of 30 to 12 (p. 108). He
doubtless remained in the custody of the Sergeant-at-arms until the Assembly
was prorogued on December 23, as the house ceased to have jurisdiction over
a member when it was not actually in session.

Wilson was obviously not in the custody of the sergeant-at-arms when at
the next session he was asked on April 6, 1759, to withdraw from the house,
and the members by a vote of 21 to 12 resolved that unless he complied with
its former order, that this order be renewed. He was then recalled and, as
no apology was offered, he was informed by the Speaker that he was to remain
in custody until he apologized to both the house and Mr. Hammond, and the
sergeant-at-arms was warned to take notice of this order. On April 16, follow-
ing the rejection of a motion, by a vote of 19 to 16, that this house will admit
Wilson to make his submission, the house resolved by a vote of 20 to 15, the
Proprietary members voting in the negative, "That it is beneath the Dignity
of this House to call upon any Member, committed for a Breach of an Order
of the House, to comply with the Order, till he had previously signified his
Inclination to the House to comply with and obey the same; and that Mr.
Samuel Wilson had not [so] signified". The house then by a vote of 20 to 15
refused to adopt a motion apparently offered by Wilson's friends: "That as this
House will not admit of the Submission of Mr. Samuel Wilson, that he be
Expelled this House, that the County may have the Benefit of being Represented
by a due Number of Members" (pp. 164-165, 186-187). All of which seems
to imply that Wilson was further punished by remaining in custody until the
close of the session.

When the Assembly next met in March 1760, Wilson was an absentee, nor
did he appear at any time during that session. In the interval between this meet-
ing and the September 1760 session, fate was kind to him and an event oc-
curred which entirely changed the picture, for on May 3, Philip Hammond died.
A few days after the Assembly again met on September 26, Wilson appeared
in the Lower House, and thereafter took part in its proceedings as a member in
good standing. No further mention of the recent unpleasant episode is re-
corded in the journal of the house. There was no Mr. Philip Hammond to
apologize to, and his former expressed willingness to ask pardon of the
house was apparently considered sufficient.

THE DARNALL DEFALCATION.

The joint committee of the two houses appointed to examine the accounts
of the Loan Office made a report on April 24, 1761. This called attention to
the confused condition of the accounts of that- office, due to the long illness
and'death of its clerk Richard Dorsey. It also criticized the London trustees