xx Introduction.

what they considered a competent provision for the support of the clergy in
the Province. Later on the same day they resolved that "a Tax of Thirty-two
Pounds of Tobacco per Poll be assessed ... on each Taxable ..... payable
in Tobacco at Thirty, or if in Money at Four Shillings Common Currency at
the Option of" the taxable, and they set up a committee to prepare and bring
in such a bill. Chase and Paca, who had argued against the constitutionality
of the Act of 1702, were on the committee (p. 132). The bill was introduced
the following day, and the day after that, December 16, it was passed and sent
to the Upper House. Here it was passed as quickly as the rules permitted
(p. 77) and was sealed by the Governor December 23, the last day of the
session. The act, that thus, for a time, settled the old controversy, is short
(pp. 254-256). By it, each taxable paid yearly thirty pounds of inspected
tobacco in inspector's notes or the gold or silver value of thirty-two pounds of
tobacco. The tax was collected by the sheriff of the county, and the proceeds
were paid over by him to the incumbents. It was formally provided that the
act should not in any way influence the question of the validity of the Act of
1702.

One of the signers of the address presented by the Maryland clergymen was
the Rev. Mr. Robert Read, then of St. Paul's Parish, Kent County, who had
once been at Coventry and All Hallows, Somerset (Alien: Clergy in Mary-
land, MHS copy, p. xviii). Immediately upon the passage of the act "For
the Support of the Clergy," Read inserted into the Maryland Gazette an ad-
vertisement that ran for several months.

"Kent county, Jan. 5, 1774.

"The subscriber's salary being lessened in value almost one half by an act
passed the last session, for the support of the clergy of the church of England
in this province; he finds it necessary for the support of his family and other
purposes, to join to his ministerial office some other business. He has therefore
opened a grammar school at his house in Kent county, about five miles from
Rock-Hall, where gentlemen may have their sons boarded, and taught the latin
and greek tongues, and other parts of literature in the best manner, at thirty
pounds per annum, and the greatest care taken of them. ROBERT READ."

One more old controversy was settled in this November session: the matter
of the salary for the clerk of the Council. For ten years, 1756-1766, the journal
of accounts had not been passed and the public creditors had not been paid
because of the complete disagreement on the inclusion of the clerk's salary.
The Upper House and the Proprietary wanted him paid out of the public
treasury, the Lower House as vigorously insisted that, since the Council was
the creature of the Proprietary, its clerk should ,be paid by him. In 1766 a
temporizing solution was reached, and bills of credit to the amount of the
salary of the Council clerk were to be lodged with the treasurers until the King
in Council should decide who should pay it. No decision was given, and in
1773 the matter was still unsettled. When the journal of accounts came up
to the Upper House on December 22, it contained no salary for the clerk of
the council as such, although the same person, as clerk of the Upper House,
was paid therein. The Upper House suggested to the Lower House that there