Introduction. xvii

Immediately upon returning to Mr. Frazier's house, the Lower House
appointed a committee to draft a bill for the regulation of tobacco and for
preventing frauds in his Majesty's Customs. The title of the act which finally
passed is the same as that of the bill rejected a little earlier, most of the mem-
bers of the committee were the same, and, though the text of the abortive bill
is not at hand, it was probably the same as that of the act as passed. The
committee reported the desired bill the next morning, it was read the first and
second time by special order that afternoon and was passed unanimously with-
out a record vote. A resolution of the House directed that it be carried to the
Upper House by the Speaker and the whole house, and on the morning of
November 18, a scant two days after the opening of the session, "Mr. Speaker
attended by all the Members of the Lower House" took it up as directed
(pp. 42-43, 86).

This matter of sending the bill up by the Speaker and the House shows the
importance the House attached to the bill, and their solidity behind it. The
regular practice was to send a communication by two members of the Lower
House: if the matter concerned one county, the two chosen were usually from
that county's delegates. Sending several members meant that the House was
emphasizing the importance of what they had to say; five members, for ex-
ample, brought up the bill for the regulation of officers' fees (p. 56). Once
in a while a bill that touched all parts of the Province was entrusted to a com-
mittee of one member from each county. Now the House formally resolved
that the Inspection bill be presented by the Speaker and the entire Lower House.

On the morning of November 19, the bill was read the first time in the Upper
House, and was laid on the table (p. 43). It occupies thirty-eight pages in the
manuscript liber of laws, and forty-two pages here in this volume (pp. 151-
192) ; and it would be interesting to know whether poor Dr. Upton Scott, the
clerk of the Upper House, really read the bill entire, or by title only. But at
any rate, the Upper House did almost nothing for the next three days except
to adjourn and meet again according to adjournment (pp. 42-46). When it
did get to work on the huge bill, on November 25, it too, like the Lower House,
acted quickly. Unanimously it amended it by removing one warehouse in
St. Mary's County, and by limiting the life of the bill to three years instead of
the Lower House's fourteen years. The Lower House accepted the amend-
ments (pp. 95-96), the bill was engrossed (p. 97) and sent again to the Upper
House with the paper bill thereof by Mr. Wooton and Mr. Veazy (p. 105).
On November 30, the Governor passed it into a law in the usual form (p. 107).
Although the Upper House had specifically limited the life of the act to three
years instead uf llic fuuilccii ycais piupuscd by llic Lower Ilouac, and the
Lower House had accepted the change, even before the formalities of passage
were complete, a bill was introduced and passed easily for the further con-
tinuance of the act for regulating the staple of tobacco for a term of twelve
years (pp. 77, 81, 150, 269).

The speed with which the Inspection Act of 1773 ^was passed showed how
important the subject was, but it is also true that the real points of difficulty
had already been settled before it was introduced. Save for a few details, the