12 The English Statutes in Maryland. [476

made for them,2 until a representative Assembly " broke out''
in 1619; and later, under the royal government, the laws of
Virginia were under the direct control of the crown. In
Maryland, the second Assembly, that of 1637, refused to
accept a body of laws sent over by the Proprietor and insisted
on their own right of initiation, even if the results were very
similar to those intended by the Proprietor."

At the first Assembly an act had been passed to establish for
felonies the same penalties as in England, but this was now
considered as no longer in force, and on the uncertainty, the
Assembly proceeded against Claiborne and Smith by bills of
attainder. For lesser matters Governor Calvert's commission
authorized him to proceed according to the laws of England 3°
During the first ten years of the colony's existence, in fact,
whenever there was a lack of specific colonial precedent or
law, and in cases which did not involve the loss of life, mem-
ber or freehold, there was a tendency to refer to the law of
England so far as applicable," Then ensued a period when
more discretion was given to the courts, and only specific
statutes or customs of England were introduced by the legis-
lature.'' But after the Restoration matters took a more defi-
nite shape. In 1662 an act was passed, which, waiving the
former distinctions as to crimes, provided that in all cases
when the laws of the Province were silent, justice should be
administered " according to the laws and statutes of England,
if pleaded and produced." To meet objections expressed by
the Upper House as to the inconvenience of the extension of
all English laws to Maryland, the decision as to the right
pleading and the consistency with the provincial welfare

5 Brown. A. The First Republic in America, passim. See index,
s. v. Laws.

3 Maryland Archives I Assembly Proceedings, pp. 9-24.

"Ibid, pp 16-24. Bacon, Law; of Maryland, p 6 and note.

'Maryland Archive5 I. Ass>. Pro. pp. 147. 183-4, McMahon p 113.
Mereness pp. 258-9. Reinsch p. 41. Bacon. Laws of Md.—Acts of
1642. summer, ch. 4: 1642: fall. ch. 2. 3.

5 Maryland Archives. I Ass. Pro. p. 210. Bacon's Laws of
Md.—Act of 1646, ch. 2.