Introduction. xxv

with a petition, for the petition of sundry inhabitants of Baltimore Town,
though it is not at hand, may be presumed to have concerned the market
(p. 61). The building had already been erected, on land leased from Thomas
Harrison at the north-west corner of Baltimore and Gay Streets, and by
another act also passed this session (pp. 207-208), the lease had been con-
firmed to them as such commissioners. The provisions for the regulation of
the market are practically identical with those for the market in Frederick
Town, set up in 1770 and renewed now in 1773 (Archives, LXII, 438-441;
post, p. 218). The building was established as the market of Baltimore Town,
and with a few exceptions, no victuals or provisions could be offered for sale
except at the market and on market days. Fish and oysters, breadstuffs, large
amounts of butter, cheese and beef and pork, and live animals were specifically
excluded. The market was to be run by a bonded clerk appointed by the town
commissioners and given large, definite powers. He had to inspect the quality
of all goods, and the accuracy of the weights and measures used by the
merchants. He let out the stalls and the butcher shops and even the rooms over
the market.

There is in this market act, one incredible provision that does not appear in
the Frederick Town market act: "if any Butcher or other Person shall sell
or offer for Sale any Meat within the said Market which shall be blown in such
Case it shall and may be Lawful for the Clerk of the said Market to seize all
such Meat sold or offered for sale in the said Market and the same to Condemn
to and for the Use of the Prisoners confined in Balti^nre County Jail and the
Butcher or other Person for every such Offence shall forfeit and pay the Sum
of forty Shillings Current Money." The italics are the editor's: any other
comment is superfluous.

One of the subjects recommended to the attention of the Assembly in the
Governor's opening speech was the "State and condition of the Publick Roads
..... and the general Advantage which will result from opening a communica-
tion between our Merchants and distant settlers (pp. 4, 16). As long as the
attention of planters was so firmly fixed on tobacco that they grew corn only
because the law declared that they must, so long the lack of good roads was not
strongly felt. Tobacco went, not up to the towns over roads, but out to England
in vessels. But when people began to find the growing of wheat profitable,
and when the western part of the Province, which was better adapted to other
crops than to tobacco, began to be opened up, especially by the German settlers,
then the need of roads became evident. Men on horseback cannot carry much
produce over Indian trails. Baltimore County and Frederick County tried to
do something toward improving the few poor roads there were. The Governor
began to speak of road-building, and the Assembly gave thought to good roads.
Numerous petitions were offered, to have roads repaired or altered and new
ones laid out (pp. 283, 290, 312, 321, 338, 341). In response to the Governor's
speech, the Lower House voted to spend £3000 in repairing, extending and
keeping in good order a road from Wills Creek to the nearest point on the
Ohio River, and substantially what the Lower House wanted became law
(pp. 120-121, 252-253). More attention—and more money—was devoted