Introduction. xxix

self the fines and forfeitures arising under the common law, and whether these
ought not to be applied to the support of the Provincial government and an
account as to them rendered the public. This committee was also to enquire as
to the amount of all duties, imposts, and other sums collected by the Proprie-
tary and his officers, now claimed by him for his own use, and whether a pub-
lic accounting of these should not be rendered (p. 157). This committee, did
not make a formal report at this session, but much of the data asked for by
the house will be found in the acrimonious messages exchanged between the
two houses. A committee of eight headed by Brice Thomas Beale Worthing-
ton was also appointed and directed to report to the Assembly as to the various
lucrative offices of the Province and the annual profit from each office
(p. 157). No report seems to have been made at this session.
The committee appointed early in the session to report upon "the State of

the several Public Offices" made 110 report until the day before adjournment,

when it reported that at this "advanced Season of the Year the Dampness of
those Offices and the close Attendance of your Comrhee" in the house, have
prevented a thorough examination, but it was noted in comparing several orgi-
nal wills with the records in the Commissary's Office, that not one of them
was found in which the original agreed with the record (pp. 139, 256).

Petitions. The usual way of bringing to the attention of the Assembly
requests for local legislation and for private acts, was by petition. Petitions
were generally first presented in the Upper House, and if in the opinion of this
body they were worthy of consideration, they were sent to the Lower House.
Occasionally petitions were presented first in the Lower House but this was
unusual. At this November-December, 1765, session there were presented a
number of petitions relating to parochial or church matters asking authority
to levy assessments or poll taxes for the erection of new, or the repair of old,
churches, chapels of ease, and vestry houses, for the division of parishes, and
for the alteration of parish lines. There were the usual number of petitions
from languishing prisoners confined in county jails for debt. There were also
a number of petitions relating to the establishment, or discontinuance, of tobacco
warehouses, and requests for the appointment of inspectors of tobacco. Balti-
more Town petitioned for legislation relating to a town market and also for
the enlargement of the town. There were a number of petitions asking for
back pay from officers and privates in the late war. There were two petitions
praying special legislation to enable executors or administrators to sell lands
or settle estates. In a few cases the journal of one or both the houses simply
records the petition by an individual without indicating what the petitioner
sought. By petition the attention of the Lower House was called to a dis-
puted election, the result of which was the unseating of Walter Dulany as one
of the delegates from Annapolis (pp. lxiii-lxv).

The nature of the petitions presented to the Assembly at the November-
December session by Thomas Schley and John Jeremiah Myar, administrators
of Daniel Davis of Frederick County and by John Jeremiah Myar, a merchant
of Frederick County, are not disclosed by the record. They were referred
by the Upper House to the lower chamber which appointed a committee of