Introduction. ixix

rangers, and that no license money would be required to make up a deficiency.
It dared the Upper House to tell the public that the true reason for its un-
willingness to use the licenses for defense was to guard the pretended preroga-
tive of the Proprietary, and to confess that it was willing to sacrifice the frontier
inhabitants to do so (pp. 407-408, 410, 411.412). On the last day of the
session, Nov. 26, 1763, the Lower House directed a committee to draw up
a bill for the regulation of ordinaries, the terms of which the journals do not
disclose. This bill was promptly passed by special order and sent to the Upper
House where no notice whatever was taken of it (pp. 410, 413, 286). It was
not until the year 1766 that the Proprietary was finally forced to give up his
claims to the license money from ordinaries.

ARMS AND AMMUNITION

The committee appointed by the Lower House in 1762 "to inspect into the
state and Condition of the Arms and Ammunition" of the Province, reported
under date of April 13. It is of interest that the report was brought in by
William Smallwood, a delegate from Charles County, whose rear guard tactics
when in command of the Maryland troops fourteen years later at the Battle
of Long Island appears to have saved Washington and the Continental Army
from capture by the British under General Howe. To students of eighteenth
century armament, ammunition, and equipment, the itemized inventory of what
was in the hands of the Provincial Armourer in the year 1762 will prove of
considerable value. Those interested in the Annapolis of that day will learn
that in the Council Chamber were stored muskets, carbines, pistols, swords,
halberds, pikes, daggers, bayonets, and drums; that under the Conference
Chamber were musket balls, bar lead, and gun flints; and that fine glazed
powder, cannon powder, and carbine ball were stored in the powder house.
The committee also reported that the fifteen cannon fixed on wood at the

Half-Moon Battery needed new aprons, tompliins, and that all were sadly in

need of painting (pp. 122.124).

At the 1763 session a committee of five headed by Benjamin Mackall was
appointed by the Lower House to inspect and report upon the condition of the
arms and ammunition belonging to the Province. This report, dated October 24,
1763, follows the same general line as that presented at the previous session.
The report shows that the fifteen cannon on the Half-Moon Battery seemed
to need paint even more than they did the year before, and would be "even
dangerous to fire". Other old cannon noted in former reports as lying on the
point had by this time disappeared. The several hundred muskets, guns, car-
bines and bayonets that had been recently brought back from Fort Frederick
were much eaten by rust and were further deteriorating, as they were stored
in the very damp cellar under the Conference Chamber. A comparison between
the quantity of arms and ammunition for the years 1762 and 1763 was given,
and showed a marked deficiency for the latter year. The report concluded
with the statement that it "appears to your committee that the present Armourer
is and we imagine from his Infirmity will continue incapable of taking due