Introduction. xlvii

nually by the Provincial Court. A bill with these provisions was brought into
the Lower House (p. 383), but Sharpe, writing to Hamersley, said that
as it "was of a new and extraordinary Nature it was agreed to refer it over to
the Consideration of the next Session" (Arch. Md. XV, 508).

Criminal laws. It will be recalled that in his opening speech to both houses
Sharpe had requested the Assembly to review the criminal laws so that all doubt
might be removed as to what laws were actually then in force, about which
there were at times differences of opinion, resulting, he said, in a "tenderness
towards convicted Persons they may not seem to deserve—[by which] En-
couragement is possibly given to the Commission of Crimes" (p. 282). Sharpe
presumably had reference not only to the Maryland statutes but also to the
laws of England which were operative in the Province, unless superseded by
Maryland statutes. Both houses promised to cooperate with the Governor to
this end. The Lower House towards the close of the session appointed a com-
mittee of eleven, headed by Thomas Johnson, to investigate and report upon
the subject (p. 369), but no report, however, was made at this session. There
is told in some detail in the journals of both houses the story of a blood-thirsty
attack upon two helpless women by burglars, one the wife of Joseph Calder,
a prominent landowner and deputy surveyor of Baltimore County. The
journals also tell of the escape of two negro slave convicts with incendiary
proclivities, for the apprehension of whom Sharpe felt rewards should be
offered. The Lower House approved the offering of a reward for the two
burglars, but for reasons which will be explained elsewhere did not feel it
desirable to offer one for the apprehension of the negro slaves. These two
outrages are discussed more fully later in the Introduction (pp. lxxxii-lxxxiii).

Townshend acts. Of great importance in relation to future events leading up
to the Revolution were the reactions of the Lower House to the passage by Par-
liament of the Townshend acts, taxing tea, paper, glass and painters' colors.
The significance of these acts was brought forcibly before the Lower House
just prior to the close of the session in the form of a circular letter from the
Massachusetts House of Representatives addressed to the Maryland Lower
House suggesting that there be consultations between the several colonies as to
the best method of meeting this threat to their liberty. The ill-advised com-
mands from the King to the several colonial governors, requiring them to dis-
solve immediately the Assembly of any colony which might take favorable notice
of this letter, only fanned the flames of resentment, and in the case of Maryland
resulted in the Lower House just before adjournment not only passing resolu-
tions of protest and sending a reply of hearty approval to Massachusetts, but in
the adoption of a petition of protest to George III (p. lxi). This episode,
an important prelude to the Revolution, is considered more fully under the
Townshend Acts (pp. lix-lxiii).

Clergy. The attention of the Lower House was called to the dissolute lives led
by certain of the established clergy of the Church of England in Maryland
by the report of its Committee on Aggrievances, telling of the reputed mur-
der of a negro slave by the Reverend Richard Brown, Rector of King
and Queen's Parish, St. Mary's County, and his flight from justice. Aroused