ix Introduction.

a popular measure with people of all classes, however, and when the bill
came up at the 1760 session, it passed the Lower House by a vote of 34 to I,
nearly every member of the Proprietary party now voting in favor of it, its
lone opponent being the die-hard Proprietary member, Dr. George Steuart
of Annapolis (pp. 183, 184, 191, 157, 192, 241-242, 214). As is discussed
elsewhere in this introduction, when the two houses attempted at the 1761
session to frame a joint letter of condolence to the new king George III upon
the death of his predecessor George II, they could come to no agreement be-
cause the Lower House insisted upon the insertion of a paragraph begging
the King that they "be permitted to raise a Support for an Agent, who may lay
all their Grievances, which they suffer under the Government of the Lord
Proprietary, properly before Your Majesty" (pp. 456-458). After the Upper
House refused to agree to the insertion in the address to the King of any ref-
erences to a provincial agent in Great Britain, the Lower House adopted a
separate address including this request, but there is reason to believe that it
was never presented to George III as is explained in another section (p. ixii).
A bill for the support of an agent in Great Britain was also introduced
in the Lower House at the 1761 session, but does not seem to have been
pressed for passage, probably because it was hoped to effect this end by the
inclusion in its address of condolence the request that the King might aid
them in their efforts to maintain a provincial agent in London through whom
their grievances might be laid before the Crown (pp. ixi, 473). An attempt
also seems to have been made to insert in the 1761 Supply bill, an appropriation
of £300 or £400 for the salary of an agent (Arch. Md. IX, 519).

MESSAGE OF CONDOLENCE TO THE KING.

The Governor on April 15, 1761, sent messages to each House asking them
to join with him in an address of condolence to the King expressing their great
loss in the death of the late sovereign and congratulations to the new King
upon his accession to the throne (p. 443). The Upper House in its reply to
the Governor, after extending its condolences to him and expressing its pleasure
upon the accession of the new King, injected in it a dig at the lower chamber
which was to stir the latter's ire, by declaring that we "shall most cheerfully
give our Concurrence to any equitable bill" that would "promote the Service of
our Sovereign" (pp. 406-407, 404).

An innocuous address of condolence and congratulation, apparently prepared
by Dulany and Bordley of the Upper House, was presented for adoption to a
joint committee of the two houses (p. 411), and was referred to the Lower
House itself by its representatives on the committee. On April 22 this house
voted 24 to 7, the Proprietary party voting solidly in the negative, to add a
paragraph to the address declaring that the people of Maryland "destitute
as we are of the proper Means of obtaining Access to the Throne", pray that
they be permitted to appropriate money to maintain an agent in London to
lay their grievances against the Proprietary before the King. The Lower House
expressed its confidence that a full inquiry would disclose the true cause why
this Province has "in so small a Degree exerted it's Force for the Service of