Introduction. xxv

were Samuel Chamberlaine and Benedict Calvert; those appointed by the Lower
House were Dulany, Worthington, Bealle, Hanson, Grahame, Lloyd, and Wil-
son (p. 137). The report of this joint committee on the Loan Office, brought
in on November 29, 1765, is discussed at length in another section of this
introduction (pp. Ix-lxii). Henry Wilkins was selected as a clerk to the
several committees of the Lower House and sworn in (p. 143), in addition to
John Duckett and Turbutt Wright appointed clerks at the September session

(p. 132).

The Committee on Elections and Priveleges reported that it had inspected
all the writs of election and sheriffs' returns, and that these showed all the dele-
gates to be duly elected, except that one of the two delegates from Annapolis,
Walter Dulany, was "only returned by the aldermen of the city"; but that
Samuel Chase, the other delegate, had been duly elected and returned. A peti-
tion was presented to the Lower House on November 2 from "a number of
inhabitants, freeholders, and free voters of the city of Annapolis", protesting
against irregularities, alleged to have occurred at a special election held on
October 5, at which Walter Dulany, Mayor of Annapolis, had been returned
as a delegate from that city (pp. 135-136). It will be recalled that at the
September session Dulany, perhaps the most conspicuous member of the Pro-
prietary party in the Lower House, had been unseated because he had disquali-
fied himself by accepting, since his election in the autumn of 1764, an office
under the Proprietary government—that of Naval Officer of the Patuxent
District. On account of Dulany's great prominence and the interesting picture
of a seventeenth century Annapolis election as disclosed by the evidence, a
special section will be devoted to the episode, which resulted in his unseating
for the second time (pp. Ixiii-lxv).

On November 8 the Governor in a message to the Upper House called its
attention to an appeal from Governor James Murray of Canada, dated Quebec,
June 29, 1765, for a contribution for the relief of the people of Montreal,
rendered destitute by a devastating fire which had occurred a few weeks
before; and the Governor enclosed a letter from Murray giving an account
of the losses then sustained and the misery of the inhabitants. In this letter
Murray said that the financial losses of the inhabitants amounted to £87,580:
8: 10 1/2, and that these, added to the losses due to the ravages of war and the
non-payment of the paper money, completed their wretchedness. He concluded
by saying that he applauded the behavior of these new Canadian subjects of
His Majesty, and that "a Seasonable Relief at this Time must rivet their
Affections to the British Government, and Silence those among them who
would insinuate that the professors of Our Religion do not possess the Chris-
tian Virtues to an eminent Degree" (pp. 148-149). The Governor's message
and Murray's letter were sent to the Lower House with a message from the
upper chamber that it would be very glad to join in a contribution for relief.
The Lower House did not, however, allow itself to be too much influenced by
humanitarian considerations, for it took no notice of the appeal until the clos-
ing day of the session six weeks later, when after first approving a motion, by
a vote of 15 to 14, to make a contribution, on the afternoon of the same day it