Bacon's Laws the Typographical'Monument of Colonial Maryland

appreciably narrowed the market in which Bacon had expected to find an
easy sale for his compilation. Bissett's "Abridgement," as it is known, left
the press in the year 1759.¹ It presents a mean appearance, and is a work
which is usually spoken of with contempt as having been hastily compiled
and poorly printed. In his Preface, Bacon did not dignify it by a mention
in the enumeration of existing collections of Maryland laws.

SHARPE SUGGESTS A PLAN FOR THE PUBLICATION OF "BACON'S LAWS"

Throughout the years that the two Houses of Assembly were disputing
the publication of Bacon's collection, other influences had been at work
which eventually were to cause that collection to be published when all
hope had been given up by its editor of receiving aid and encouragement
for it from the Provincial Legislature. It was while Bacon was still hoping
for favorable action on the proposals which he had submitted to the Lower
House in 1758 that Caecilius Calvert, secretary to Lord Baltimore, made a
suggestion to Governor Sharpe, the relation of which, although it is not en-
tirely germane to the subject of Bacon's book of laws, yet serves to advance
somewhat the story of its publication. Calvert and Baltimore seem to have
feared that Benjamin Franklin, now become a great leader in the colonies,
was contemplating the publication of aspersions on the conduct of Mary-
land during the last French and Indian War, and in order that there should
be at hand the material for a reply to any accusations that he might bring
against the Proprietary government, they had suggested to Sharpe that
Bacon be employed to write a historical summary of the Province. Their
idea in proposing this work was that such a narrative would show the diffi-
culties which the Lords Proprietary had contended with for many years in
the task of keeping their refractory people in line. To this suggestion Sharpe
replied with his unfailing good sense, that no scheme could have been so
well devised to discredit the Proprietary government as this which had been
proposed. After asserting that Bacon, already somewhat unfavorably known
to many in the Province, would be under the necessity of leaving his parish
in order to be near the records in Annapolis, he continued his protest in
these words:

"A Clergyman taken from the Parishioners by whom he is supported & who by Law are
obliged to support him to Vindicate an ill Administration! would be one of the Exclama-
tions I should expect to hear ecchoed thro the Province, & long would be the Catalogue of
Vices whereof His Ldp as well as His Lieutt Governor might expect to be accused."²

¹ On January 4, 1759, Bissett advertised in the Maryland Gazette his thanks for the many subscriptions made
to his work and announced its early publication. It was advertised on June 28, 1759, as "just published."
² Sharpe Correspondence, May 26, 1760, Archives of Maryland, 9: 417.

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