Introduction. ixv

that the previous report showed that the Province owed as of 1762 a total of
£8,672: 12: 7|- and 4,009,951! pounds of tobacco, to which there should be
now added as due £4,374: 3: 12 and 23,622 pounds of tobacco, making a total
debt due to the public by the Province in 1763 of £13,046: 16: i and 4,033,573!
pounds of tobacco, which figures, however, did not include all the pay due to
the members of both houses of the Assembly for their attendance at this and
the last sessions, and certain disputed back pay due to the militia for 1757 and
1758 (pp. 311.312). The Journal of Accounts was then ordered by the Lower
House to be closed on November i (p. 340). The item in the Journal for the
expenses of the militia sent by the Governor for the defense of the frontiers
in 1757 and 1758, about which for several years there had been a dispute, was,
by a Lower House vote of twenty-two to eighteen, ordered out of the Journal
of Accounts, and a committee was instructed to bring in a separate bill for its
payment (pp. 335, 356). Such a bill was introduced and passed by the Lower
House, but was promptly rejected by the Upper House on the grounds that
the militia should not be given preferential treatment over other creditors,
and that under the Militia Act now in force it was provided that the militia
be paid out of the public levy (pp. 335, 356, 392). The Journal of Accounts
(without the militia item) was passed by the Lower House on November 21,
and sent to the upper chamber (pp. 389, 390). The Upper House on No-
vember 23 returned it with a message that it would not pass the Journal unless
it included pay for the militia and for the salary of the Clerk of the Council,
and such other items that a further examination might disclose should be
included; and that all vouchers must be exhibited (p. 394). The Lower House
on November 25 replied in a long message, devoted in great part to the reasons
why it would not consent to pay the Council Clerk, John Ross, out of public
funds. It was willing to pay him for his duties as Clerk of the Upper House
but not as Clerk of the Council, which, it said, should be paid by the Proprietary.
The Lower House also rejected the Governor's suggestion that the public
creditors be paid by a poll tax, when there were balances in the various sinking
funds sufficient for the purpose (pp. 352.353, 408-409). On the last day of
the session an even longer message from the Upper House, dated November 26,
went into a lengthy history of the dispute between the two houses, especially
in the matter of the salary of the Clerk of the Council, to which the interested
reader is referred; and denied that it was the peculiar privilege of the Lower
House to determine who were the public creditors (pp. 283.286). But the
Upper House was not to have the last say, for just as the session was expiring,
the Lower House sent a message reasserting its pretensions on this and various
other points in dispute (pp. 413.415). Again the public creditors were dis-
appointed, and were to wait until 1766 for the payment of debts due them.

ROMAN CATHOLICS

The Roman Catholic question, while smouldering, did not come to the
surface in Assembly affairs during the March-April, 1762, session. It was
not mentioned in the journals of either house when the Supply or Assessment bill