Introduction. xxiii

Although the Governor had in his address to the Delegates on October 2
requested the establishment of a fund for this purpose, it was not until the
session of the Assembly which met in November and December, 1773, that
money was finally appropriated for building and maintaining a lighthouse at
Cape Henry (pp. 4, 77; Arch. Md. LXII, xxvi-xxvii).

As has been pointed out in a previous volume of the Archives one of the
most important and controversial laws ever enacted by the General Assembly
of Maryland was entitled "An Act for amending the Staple of Tobacco, for
preventing Frauds in his Majestys Customs, and for the Regulation of Officers
Fees." This act, passed in 1763, was important because tobacco was still part
of the currency of the province. To prevent changes in its value tobacco was
given a fixed specie value in shillings and pence. In some cases money could
be paid instead of tobacco at the fixed rate (Arch. Md. LXII, xxvii). This act
was much discussed during the two sessions of the General Assembly held in
1770. As no agreement could be reached between the upper and lower chambers
before the second of these sessions ended on November 21, 1770, the Act of
1763 failed of reenactment (ibid. pp. xxix-xxxi).

This left the colony without any fixed system of currency. In order to
remedy this situation Governor Eden issued a proclamation directing that no
officer or officers, except Judges and the Registers of the Land Office, who were
subject to other regulations, should ask or receive any greater fees than that
provided for in the Act of 1763 regarding the staple of tobacco and officers' fees
which the recent Assembly had failed to continue as a law. This proclamation
was issued on November 26 five days after the last session of the Assembly
ended. Two days before this, or on November 24, an order had been issued in
the Lord Proprietary's name regarding the fees that could be charged by Judges
and the Registers of the Land Office (Arch. Md. LXII, xxix).

Such was the situation when the General Assembly met again on October 2,
1771. On October 11 the Committee of Aggrievances and Courts of Justice
reported to the Lower House that the fees charged by several of the officers
of the province were excessive and under "no Regulation of any Law of this
Province." The fees, it was claimed, were levied by virtue of Governor Eden's
proclamation of November 26 (p. 97). When the Clerk of the Council was
asked to furnish the Committee of Aggrievances and Courts of Justice with a
copy of the records, or minutes, of the Council since the last session of the
Assembly relative to the fees of any officers of the colony, Upton Scott, the
Clerk, replied that his compliance with such a request would be "repugnant of
the Nature and Duty" of his office (pp. 97-98). As the members of the Council
during the intervals between the meetings of the General Assembly were acting
as an advisory body to the Governor, this was the reason for the stand taken
by Scott.

After hearing this report of the Committee of Aggrievances and Courts of
Justice, the Lower House decided to take the matter up for consideration on
October 17 (p. 98). On that day the first thing the Delegates did was to have
a copy of Governor Eden's proclamation of November 26, 1770, laid before
them (pp. 108-110). They also ordered that William Steuart, Clerk of the