xx Introduction.

bill be brought in, and its preparation was entrusted to a committee of which
Edward Tilghman was chairman. The bill was introduced on April 5. Under
it the sum of £45,000 was to be raised, principally by the imposition of a tax
based upon annual assessments upon incomes derived from fees and salaries
of public officers, upon incomes of professional men and those engaged in
trade, and incomes derived from land, and from taxes imposed upon the
assessed value of personal property and land (pp. 89, 104). The course of this
bill in the Assembly, its passage in the Lower House by a narrow majority,
its rejection in the Upper House, and the acrimonious messages which passed
between the two houses, are reviewed in detail in another section of this intro-
duction (pp. xxxviii-xlvi). Passed at nine sessions by the Lower House and as
often rejected by the upper chamber, the Assessment bill was not to be heard of
again.

The longstanding boundary dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania
is brought to our attention when, a day or two following the passage of the
Supply bill in the Lower House, the Governor sent a message, dated April
14, 1762, declaring that as it would be necessary for him iu be in New-
castle, Delaware, at the beginning of the following week to attend a meet-
ing of the commissioners appointed to execute the articles of agreement
between the two provinces for running the divisional line, it was his wish
that the session be brought to a conclusion not later than the end of the present,
or the beginning of the following week (p. 124). The Lower House on April
16 in reply requested him not to put such a speedy conclusion to the session,
but to allow sufficient time for the Assembly to complete the multiplicity of
business before it of such importance to the country, including the preparation
of an address to the King offering condolences on the death of the late sovereign
and congratulations upon his own accession and marriage (pp. 132.133).
From other sources it is learned that Sharpe wrote to Cecilius Calvert, Secre-
tary to the Lord Proprietary, under date of May n, 1762, that the Newcastle
meeting had been postponed as the result of this delay until April 29. (Arch.
Md. XIV 553.54).

It was not until near the close of the session, however, that the Lower House
found time to fire a broadside at Sharpe as the representative of Proprietary
pretensions (pp. 138-143). The Governor in his opening message to the
Lower House, dated March 20, 1762, had expressed the hope for a better
compliance with the King's commands as conveyed through Egremont and
Amherst, and that the Assembly would make prompt provision for a force
of provincial troops. In this message he also expressed the hope that the
Lower House would not impute to him its failure to secure funds to provide
for the support of a Provincial Agent in London to represent the Province
there. He declared that he had regularly transmitted to the King's ministers in
London and to the Commander-in-Chief in America the journals of the Lower
House, together with copies of the rejected supply bills, so that the home
government might be fully informed; and that he had also sent a copy of the
opinion of Attorney-General Pratt and the resolves of the Lower House