xxx Introduction.

the bill the Lower House sought to appropriate public money without the
approval and supervision of the upper chamber (pp. 127, 128, 209-210). This
is discussed later in this introduction (pp. lviii-lix).

Early in the session, on November 8, 1766, the Lower House addressed
the Governor, asking him to inform the house the amount which had been
collected during the past seven years from fines, amerciaments, and the twelve-
pence export duty on tobacco (p. 148). On the same day the Governor sent a
message in reply and with it a statement showing the total amount collected
from fines and from the tobacco duty for eleven years, and promised to send
an account showing the Provincial Court amerciaments, as soon as the figures
could be obtained (p. 149). These accounts giving the figures are not entered,
however, in the j'ournal of the Lower House. On November 15th, the com-
mittee of the Lower House, headed by Edward Tilghman, appointed to inquire
by what law or custom these fines, amerciaments and duties were appropriated
for his own use by the Lord Proprietary and not turned over to the public,
rendered a very lengthy report. This traced in detail the history of the dis-
pute, which dated from the year 1715, when political control of the Province
had been restored by the Crown to the Calvert family. The right of the people
to the fines and duties was claimed under the British Constitution and the
Maryland charter, as well as under subsequent legislation, and was declared
by the committee to be unquestionable. With the report, to support these
claims, were filed extracts from the journals of the two houses for the years
1715 and 1716 (pp. 159-167).

On November 15th, Sharpe sent a message to the Lower House that he was
giving it notice in advance so as to prevent delay in the public business, that
it was necessary for him to go across the Bay on the 21st or 22nd of November,
and that he did not think he would be able to return until the end of the month
(p. 169). In an address in reply, the Lower House declared "we expect that
the Public Business will be concluded by the latter End of next week and
assure your Excellency that we will exert our Endeavors for that Purpose"
(pp. 169, 170). As a matter of fact, the Assembly did not adjourn until
December 6th. We learn from a letter from Sharpe to Hamersley, dated
November 2Oth, that he, together with Daniel Dulany and John Morton Jordan,
the Proprietary's revenue agent, were about to cross the Bay to attend the sale
of the Manor of Kent, a large Proprietary manor on the Eastern Shore, be-
longing to Frederick, Lord Baltimore, who at this time was disposing of his
Proprietary manorial holdings in Maryland (Arch. Md. XIV, 348).

Sharpe, on November 17th, 1766, in a message to the Lower House, declared
that during the late war he had expended £70 currency for hiring expresses
sent to the frontier "on account of the Public Services", for which he felt
he should be reimbursed (p. 170). It would appear that additions were made
to the Journal of Accounts to carry this item (pp. 191-192).

Echoes of the Stamp Act. Again on December 18, 1766, Sharpe sent a
message to the Lower House stating that he had received a letter from one
of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, together with copies of two
acts of Parliament passed at the last session, and several votes and resolves