xxii Introduction.

committee on instructions on the day following, September 25, made its report,
which was promptly adopted, and "fairly engrossed and signed by the Speaker"
(pp. 23, 26); and the report with the accompanying papers transmitted to the
Upper House (pp. 6-10). These important instructions will be considered at
greater length later (pp. xli-xliii). The same day a message was received
from the Upper House approving "of the measures in sending Commis-
sioners from this Province to meet such as has been appointed in the other
Colonies in order to consult together on the present circumstance". In this
message the Upper House declared that it would give its cheerful concurrence
to an ordinance for the payment of £500 for the expenses of the commissioners,
if certain changes were made in the wording of the ordinance which had been
sent to it by the Lower House, upon which both houses, after the exchange of
a number of messages, finally agreed (pp. 10-12, 24, 25, 27-29).

On September 25 a committee of twelve headed by William Murdock, a
committee to which the next day two more delegates were added, was appointed
to "draw up resolves declarative of the constitutional rights and priveleges of
the freemen of this Province", as a protest against the Stamp Act, these
resolves to be brought before the house for its approbation (pp. 23, 28). Of
the fourteen members of this committee at least three, Wilson, Key, and
Wolstenholme, were prominent members of the Proprietary party. The
resolves or resolutions upon the constitutional rights of the people of Mary-
land were presented to the Lower House two days later, and on the last day of
the session were adopted by a unanimous vote. These resolves, eight in num-
ber, asserted that as subjects of the Crown, the people of Maryland could only
be taxed by a body in which they were represented; that under the charter of
Maryland this and other rights, such as trial by Jury, had been confirmed to
them by the King; and that it was these inherited rights of which Parliament
now sought to deprive them (pp. 30-32). These resolves are discussed at
length in the section on the Stamp Act (pp. xli-xlvi).

What may be called an omnibus bill was introduced in the Lower House
on the last day of this short session, passed, and promptly concurred in by the
Upper House, continuing in force, until the end of the next session, all the
laws about to expire by time limitation with the close of this session (pp. 34,
12, 13, 35). The laws which were about to expire are not severally named in
this general continuance act. Separate messages, although somewhat different
in wording, were sent by the Governor to the upper and lower houses asking
the advice of each as to how he should proceed when the stamped paper, which
was on its way and expected daily, should arrive in the Province, as the person
appointed to receive the paper had already left the Province (pp. 13, 35).
This, of course, refers to the rough treatment which the mob, a few weeks
before, had accorded Zachariah Hood, appointed by the British Government
as stamp distributor for Maryland, when Hood had been burned in effigy, his
house destroyed, and he had fled precipitously to New York for safety. In
reply to the Governor's message the Upper House advised, that in view of
recent events, and as there was no place of security where the paper could be
lodged, it was advisable, in order to prevent further indignities, that the com-