Introduction. xxxix

time, although they knew it would again be rejected in the Upper House. It
first came before the lower chamber on March 20, 1762, when the house took
under consideration the matters brought before the Assembly by the Governor
in his opening speech, at which time he had transmitted letters from the Earl
of Egremont and Sir Jeffrey Amherst, declaring that the King required of
the Province that it furnish an adequate force of men for defense (p. 81).
On a motion as to whether three hundred or four hundred men be raised for
this purpose, the house voted twenty-two to twenty for the larger number,
the entire Proprietary vote, with the exception of Gantt, whose vote was
always uncertain, being recorded for the smaller number (p. 82). A motion
that out of the first money granted under the Supply bill there be repaid the
money advanced by General Forbes in 1758 for the pay, clothing, and victual-
ling of the Provincial troops before they were taken into His Majesty's
Service, was passed by a vote of twenty-two to twenty, the Proprietary mem-
bers voting in the negative, because they knew the Assessment bill would never
become a law and wanted these advances paid in some more definite way
(pp. 82.83). Gantt and Sullivan, both frequently voting with the Proprietary
party, then switched their votes. It was further resolved that eight pounds
bounty money and twenty shillings enlisting money be paid for each man
recruited (pp. 81.83). Two votes on the details of payment for the men
taken into His Majesty's Service by Forbes, stood twenty-seven to twenty-one,
and twenty-six to twenty-two, both Gantt and Sullivan voting with the Popular
party in these instances. Resolutions were also passed to pay the men, really
county militia, who at "the Governor's request marched .... to the Defence
of the Frontier" in 1757 and 1758, and for reimbursing those who quartered
His Majesty's [regular] troops in Cecil, Kent, and Anne Arundel counties
at about the same time. A committee consisting of John Hanson, Thomas
Ringgold, and Edward Tilghman was then appointed to determine what sums
of money were needed for these purposes. It reported so promptly and in
such detail on the same day that there can be little question that their report
had been previously prepared. The itemized preliminary estimate showed that
£34,746 would be required (pp. 85-88).

The same day the Lower House resolved itself into a committee of the whole
house, or "Grand Committee" as it was also styled, with Robert Lloyd as
chairman, and resolved by a vote of twenty-nine to twenty-one that the money
be raised "by an equal Assessment on all Estates, real and personal .... and
lucrative offices and Employments", in other words by the same method of
taxation which had already caused the rejection of the Supply bill eight times
in the Upper House. All the members of the Proprietary party, with the
exception of Gantt, voted in the negative. It was then resolved that a Supply
bill to raise £45,000 be brought in, and on March 23 a committee of seven,
headed by Edward Tilghman, was appointed to prepare it (pp. 88-89).

Before the bill was introduced, however, a message from the Governor,
dated March 30, was received by the Lower House with which he transmitted
other letters from the Earl of Egremont and one from General Amherst,
requesting that the Assembly would also provide for recruiting and enlisting