xxvi Introduction.

voted down, 17 to 15, a contribution of £600, and immediately thereafter simi-
larly disposed of one of £500 by the same vote, but did by a vote of 21 to 9
refer the whole matter of relief to the consideration of the next Assembly.
Party lines do not seem to have been strictly drawn in these votes (pp. 256-257).

There was much resentment among the people because Governor Sharpe had
failed to call the Assembly together when the agitation about the Stamp Act
first became general, which at this session took the form of a belated "remon-
strance" directed to him (pp. 172, 230-231). Questions which arose as the re-
sult of the Stamp Act came before this body a day or two after it resumed its
sessions on November 1, but as all matters pertaining to this act are discussed in
considerable detail in a separate section of this introduction (pp. xl-xliv), they
need only be briefly referred to in passing in this general survey of the events
of the session. For the second time Sharpe requested the advice of the Lower
House as to what disposition he should make of the stamped paper consigned
to Maryland. Captain James Hawker had taken this for safe-keeping on board
His Majesty's ship Sardein, and when the Governor asked the Lower House
to offer advice as to its disposition, the house refused to do so, saying that any
advice on this subject "was not agreeable to the Sentiment of our Constituents"
(pp. 137-138, 140). Murdock, Tilghman, and Ringgold, the three Maryland
representatives to the Stamp Act Congress in New York, reported, November
27, to the Lower House on the proceedings of the Congress in New York in
which they had taken part, submitting copies of the addresses to the King
and to both branches of Parliament, the letter sent by them to Charles Garth,
whom they had appointed to represent the Province in England in Stamp Act
matters, and the accounts of their expenses. The house then voted unani-
mously its formal thanks to them for the way they had executed the great
trust reposed in them (p. 180). A formal letter of instructions to Garth was
then drawn up and approved by the house. This important and lengthy political
document embodying the remonstrances of the people of Maryland against the
Stamp Act, protested not only against the act as an infringement of the rights
of the people of all the colonies, but more particularly because it was in direct
conflict with the rights of Marylanders under their charter (pp. 206, 211).
This letter is discussed more fully elsewhere, but should be read to appreciate
the arguments advanced (pp. 206-211, xlvi-xliii). The house at the close of the
session delegated its authority in Stamp Act matters to a committee of five mem-
bers, who were to keep in touch with Garth as to the progress of events and
who were to report to the next Assembly (p. 257).

The bitterness which at recent assemblies had characterized the relations
between the two houses had been absent in a remarkable degree at the Novem-
ber-December session until consideration of the Journal of Accounts, which
carried the appropriations for the expenses of the government, now over
ten years in arrears, came before them. The Committee on Accounts, which
had charge of the preparation of the Journal and had been appointed by the
Lower House on the second day of the session, was also ordered to incorporate
in its report to the house a statement of the expenses attending sittings of the
Assembly since 1756 (p. 172). The Journal was introduced in the house on