Introduction. xix

Both houses promptly replied to the opening speech of the Governor. The
Upper House in its address, dated March 22, promised, as was to be expected,
its full cooperation in carrying out all the wishes of the King and of General
Amherst, and expressed its profound gratitude to the former for all the
measures he had taken to defend the colonies against their enemies, and closed
with an expression of loyalty. The Lower House in its address in reply to the
Governor threw down the gauntlet to him and to the upper chamber. After
opening with an equivocal promise to use its best endeavors to fulfill "the Royal
Expectation in a Manner the most suitable to the Circumstances of our Con-
stituents", the address referred to the serious reprehensions upon the house
contained in the Earl of Egremont's letter for its not having passed a Supply
bill, an unjust criticism which the house declared was due to the failure of
the Upper House to pass the Lower House Supply bill, and to provide for the
support of a Provincial Agent in London to represent the cause of the people
of Maryland before the Crown. An effort by the members of the Proprietary
party to strike out what was to them an obnoxious final sentence of the address
to the Governor, was lost by a vote of twenty-six to fifteen. This disputed
concluding sentence referring to the reflections upon the Lower House, reads
as follows: "And as that Reprehension is so general, we must conclude that
our most Gracious Sovereign and his Ministers have not been fully and truly
informed of the repeated generous Offers of the People, heretofore made by
their Representatives, to raise very large Supplies for his Majesty's Service, by
Bills passed for those Purposes, and constantly refused by the Upper House"
(pp. 76-77).

The Journal of Accounts, carrying appropriations for all the ordinary
expenses of the Province, made up by a committee of the Lower House,
was adopted by the house on April 23, and sent to the Upper House. Here
it was promptly rejected, as it had been at successive sessions for the past six
years, because it did not include the salary of the clerk of the Council, back
pay for the militia, and certain other disputed items, although there were no
messages exchanged between the houses at this session as to the reasons for
its rejection. The struggle between the houses over the Journal of Accounts
will be found dealt with at length in this introduction (Iviv-lvi). A joint
committee composed of members of both houses was appointed to examine
the accounts of the Loan Office, or Paper Currency Office, and to report upon
its condition. The reports of this committee are summarized in another section
of this introduction (pp. ix-lxiv).

The Supply bill, or Assessment bill, first came up in the Lower House on
March 20, 1762, when the house took under consideration the recommendations
contained in the Governor's speech made at the opening of the session, when
he transmitted the letters from the Earl of Egremont and Sir Jeffrey Amherst
directing that the Assembly be called together so as to provide Provincial
troops for His Majesty's Service (pp. 2.5). Votes were then taken in the
house as to what should be the scope of these military measures (pp. 81.83,
85-89, 99-101), which showed that the anti-Proprietary party still held the
whip hand, although by a slim majority. The house ordered that a Supply