1 Introduction.

of the Lower House were: due to members 2,992,480 pounds of tobacco;
to its late and present clerks 122,464 pounds of tobacco; to the sergeant-at-arms
and the door-keeper 66,002 pounds of tobacco; to the minister and deputy
clerks attending the several sessions 144,896 pounds of tobacco; and for the
[hire of] rooms for the Lower House to sit in and the different committee
rooms £259:0:0. The total costs, all of which remained unpaid, for both
houses of the Assembly for this nine-year period amounted to 3,950,482
pounds of tobacco and £305:7:0 (pp. 217-218). It will be noted that the
chaplain of the Lower House is called minister, not chaplain.

On November 28 the Journal of Accounts was brought before the house by
the Committee on Accounts (p. 185). The next day the Journal was assented to,
and a vote was taken as to whether it should be sent to the Upper House alone,
or with it a list of the debts due on account of the last war, together with a
message urging the assent of the upper chamber to it. By a vote of 33 to 10,
the Popular leaders Hammond, Murdock, Ringgold, and Tilghman voting in
the negative, the house approved the latter course (pp. 189, 190-191). The
Journal is not printed in full in the proceedings of either house, but the numer-
ous messages between the two houses and the changes insisted upon by the
Upper House, disclose the items in controversy.

Anticipating trouble about the inclusion in the Journal of the salary of the
Clerk of the Council, a stumbling block which since 1756 had prevented the
adoption of any Journal of Accounts by the Lower House, at the opening of
the session the Upper House had directed its former clerk, John Ross, to file
his accounts against the Province for his services as Clerk of the Council,
which he promptly did; and a committee consisting of Colonel Robert Jenckins
Henry and Colonel Henry Hooper were appointed to examine them (pp. 41,
44). On November 15 this committee reported that it had compared the Clerk's
accounts with the proceedings of the Council from 1756 to 1765 and that the
charges, at the reasonable rate of nine pounds of tobacco a sheet ("per side of
105 words") for the period, amounted to more than was shown by the Clerk's
own accounts for recording the proceedings of the Council and other matters
of a public nature, exclusive of any charges which he might well have made, but
had not included, such as for summoning members, keeping officers' bonds,
county levies, etc., and that the total of these amounted to more than the back
salary of 9,600 pounds of tobacco a year, which the Upper House insisted was
the least that should be allowed him, since the last salary, which had been
paid him for 1756, and previous salaries, had been that amount.

On December 5 the Upper House returned the Journal with the statement,
that if the salary were included and certain stipulated payments were added,
it would receive its approval. These included a payment of 81,600 pounds of
tobacco to the late Clerk of the Council John Ross as his salary for eight years
and six months, and one to Dr. Upton Scott, the present Clerk of the Council,
of 8,800 pounds for eleven months; as well as a payment of 6,400 pounds to
them, when acting as clerks of the Upper House, for copying its proceedings
for the years 1761, '62, '63, and '64 (pp. 74-75). Other items were small
payments due to members of the Council for attending a meeting of the Court