Introduction. xxxi

the open and the various items in dispute were discussed in detail in heated
messages between the two houses. This dispute will be gone into fully else-
where in this introduction (pp. ixiv-lxv). The Committee on Accounts, which
was charged by the Lower House with the preparation of the Journal of
Accounts, was also ordered by this house to investigate and report upon the
accounts of the treasurers of the Eastern and Western Shores. A summary
of this report will be discussed later (p. ixiv).

A committee headed by Thomas Ringgold of Chpsterrnwn, ordered to
enquire into and report to the house what acts were about to expire by time
limitation, reported that there were eighteen such laws (pp. 297, 299-300).
Most of these laws were reenacted in their old form, but in the case of the
Tobacco Inspection act, upon which the trade of the Province centered, an
entirely new act was finally passed, following six weeks of heated discussion
between the two houses. This so-called Tobacco Inspection act was the most
important legislation passed at this session. The inspection law, as its fuller
title shows, covers a much wider scope than the mere regulation of the tobacco
trade. It covered not only the inspection, grading, storing, and shipping of
tobacco, but also limited the fees in terms of tobacco that might be charged
by all public officers, civil, judicial, and clerical, and fixed the equivalent value
in Maryland tobacco of various English and foreign gold and silver coins
which circulated in the colonies. The ratio of value of the foreign coins
which the Lower House wished to appreciate above that established by the laws
of Great Britain was the cause of a sharp dispute between this house and the
Governor, who declared that he would be acting contrary to the orders of the
Crown were he to approve any bill at other than the ratio established by English
law. This matter will be more fully discussed elsewhere in the introduc-
tion (pp. Iviii-lx).

Nearly every question which had been the subject of controversy between
the two houses in previous years, came up again at the 1763 session, with
(.he exception of the Supply or Assessment bill, now finally dead. The principal
legislative bones of contention were: the disposition of licenses from ordinaries,
the maintenance of a Provincial Agent in London, the adoption of the Journal
of Accounts, the establishment of a college at Annapolis, an appropriation for
the defense of the frontier against the Indians who were then harrying the
settlements near the Cove, and back pay for the militia sent by Gov-
ernor Sharpe in 1757 and 1758 for the defense of the Western frontier.
The Upper House felt that the legislation as drawn up in the Lower House
in all these cases involved premeditated attacks upon the prerogative of the
Proprietary, either by an attempt to lessen his authority and dignity, or by
the appropriation of revenues claimed by him personally. These questions are
all discussed elsewhere under their several headings in this introduction. Of
somewhat lesser importance but traceable to the same causes was the Upper
House opposition to various other bills, which while recognized by both houses
as meritorious in general purpose, were opposed by the Upper House because
they contained provisions that the fines and penalties for breaking them were
to be applied to public purposes, instead of going into the pockets of the