Introduction. xxvii

November 28, passed, and sent to the Upper House, and with it was also sent
a list of the debts of the Province due on account of the late war (pp. 189,
190, 191). The fat was now in the fire for the Journal did not include the
salary of the Clerk of the Council, which the Upper House insisted must be
paid for the ten year period since the last Journal had been passed in 1756,
otherwise the Journal would not receive its approval. The numerous creditors
of the Province were so incensed at this long delay in making provision for
their payment, that mob violence to enforce payment was threatened at this
time. A bitter controversy between the two houses now developed. The Lower
House insisted that the salary of the Clerk of the Council was not chargeable
to the public, but should be paid by the Lord Proprietary, whose creature the
Council was. There were other items relating to Council expenses to which
the Lower House also objected. There now followed an exchange of long and
bitter messages between the two houses filled with political dynamite for popu-
lar consumption. The interested reader is referred to a later section of this
introduction where some of the arguments advanced by both parties to the
controversy are considered in detail (pp. xlix-lvi).

Again the question was brought forward of providing a support for a Pro-
vincial Agent in Great Britain to be appointed by the Lower House, a sub-
ject of acrimonious dispute between the two houses for several decades. This
was opposed by the Proprietary as an attempt by the people to discredit his
government of the Province before the Throne. As usual the bill providing
for the appointment of such an Agent was passed by the Lower House and as
promptly rejected in the upper chamber. On the last day of the session, how-
ever, the Upper House, because of the anger its rejection of the Journal of
Accounts had aroused, suggested a compromise, offering to approve the
appointment of a single agent to represent both houses, or to the appointment
of two agents, one to represent the lower and one the upper chamber. This
compromise offer was ignored by the Lower House. The dispute about a Pro-
vincial Agent will be found discussed in some detail later in this introduction
(pp. lvi-lvii).

Six acts involving parishes, churches, and chapels were passed at this session.
These provided for the erection or repair of churches, chapels, and vestry
houses, alteration of parish lines, and the creation of a new parish. The
parishes involved were St. James', Anne Arundel County; All Faiths and
St. Andrew's, St. Mary's County; St. Paul's, Shrewsbury, I. U., and Chester,
Kent County; St. Luke's, Christ Church, and St. John's, Queen Anne's
County; and St. Paul's, lying in both Queen Anne's and Talbot counties.
These acts relating to parish and church affairs are discussed in a later section
of the introduction (pp. lvii-lix).

Owing to disputes between the houses, no act for the relief of "languish-
ing prisoners" confined for debt in county jails had been passed for eight
years. This was largely because the Upper House was disposed in general to
treat debtors more harshly than was the Lower House, and to be especially
severe on debtors to the Lord Proprietary and to the Loan Office. Finally the
houses came to an agreement and an act for the relief of prisoners for debt