xii Letter of Transmittal.

received and gave rise to violent repercussions. This was a circular letter,
addressed to the lower branches of the assemblies of all the American colonies
suggesting that concerted action be taken against the Townshend Acts. Even
this letter did not stir up the Maryland delegates when it was first read at the
opening of the 1768 session, for we find no attention was paid to it until just
at the close of the session, when a message from Governor Sharpe in regard
to the Massachusetts letter produced rather dramatic results. Sharpe stated1
that he had just received a command from the King to order the Lower House
to pay no attention to the seditious Massachusetts letter and to make no reply
to it. Resolutions indignantly protesting against these commands were at once
passed and a petition of protest to the King was adopted. The Speaker was
directed to reply favorably to the suggestion of the Massachusetts House.
Sharpe then addressed the Assembly, telling the Lower House that the King
had further commanded him to dissolve the Assembly, if the house were dis-
posed to take favorable action upon the seditious letter, and he thereupon pro-
rogued it. But prorogation came a little late, as the resolution and the petition
to the King had already been adopted, and an order passed directing the Speaker
to reply sympathetically to the communication from Massachusetts.

A number of matters of great importance to the Province were considered
and acted upon by the Assembly at the sessions held during the 1766-1768
period. Perhaps the most important of these was the passage in 1766 of an
act providing for the payment of the public debt, accumulated over a ten-
year period, which had reached in amount 8,800,000 pounds of tobacco, equiva-
lent to £55,000 Maryland current money or £41,250 sterling. Too large to
be paid by public levy, provision was made for its payment by the issue of
ten-year Bills of Credit in the form of paper currency. These were more than
amply secured by Bank of England Stock and uninvested funds owned by the
Province in the hands of trustees in London, the stock alone having a market
value of over £41,000 sterling; to this as a sinking fund there were to be added
the annual dividends on the stock. While the credit of some of the colonies
had become so bad that Parliament had recently passed an act prohibiting the
issuance in the colonies of paper money for use as legal tender, the credit of
Maryland, amply secured as it was, had, and continued to have, high standing
until the Revolution demoralized all American currencies. It is of interest that
previous issues of Bills of Credit had been in terms of pounds and shillings,
Provincial currency. This new issue of paper money, to run for ten years, was
issued in terms of dollars, at the rate of four shillings six pence sterling to
the dollar.

A number of bills relating to parishes and churches were passed, most of
these providing for the erection of new churches and chapels of ease. It was