Maryland Imprints of the Colonial Period, 1689-1776

the Lower House of Assembly of Maryland, 1762....... By a Friend to Maryland. Printed
in the Year 1764.

8vo. pp. (2), 160.

Evans, No. 9582, prefixes Annapolis, in square brackets, to the title as given above in short entry, but there
are reasons for questioning this attribution. Its typographical features are not those of Green's work, and its
author, if one may assume his opening sentences to have been written without attempt at deception, was resident
in England at the time of its composition. He writes as follows: "The Pamphlet you were pleased to send me
some time ago, entituled, 'Remarks upon a Message sent by the Upper to the Lower House of Assembly of Mary-
land, 1762, by a friend to Maryland', I have not only perused with attention, but by my avocation lately from
London to the country, have had leisure and time enough to draw up the following remarks upon it. The Letter
you refer me to, printed in the Public Ledger here, November lyth, 1763,1 have also read ..."

There exists further negative evidence that the work was printed elsewhere than in Maryland. From the first
appearance of the "Queries" in the Public Ledger, throughout the discussion which arose when the "Remarks
upon a Message" (see below) was published, Governor Sharpe had been opposed to having anyone "enter the
Lists & combat about it with an Anonymous Scribler who being unknown may throw Dirt in the Dark without
any Risk of losing his Reputation." (See Archives of Maryland, 14: 150 and 159.) Then writing on 10 July 1765,
obviously some months after the publication of "An Answer to the Queries" in 1764, Sharpe implied that noth-
ing had been published in reply to the "Remarks upon a Message" in Maryland, and he is surprised that Secre-
tary Calvert is still harping on it. He writes, (Archives of Maryland, 14: 201) "From the Pamphlets being taken
no Notice of here by the Upper House or any one on their behalf It soon fell into Oblivion, nor did the Author
think it would be for his honour or Reputation to acknowledge his Offspring (for he is not yet known;) & in my
Opinion the Publishing an Answer to it here would answer no other end but to revive useless Disputes & to
furnish some Lover of Mischief among us with an Occasion & Pretence for throwing Dirt on those who are con-
cerned in the Government or who might be suspected of writing such answer,....." These words were written
after the "Answer" had been published, but Sharpe seems not yet to have learned of its appearance, although
his last letter from Calvert had been April 2, 1765. If the work had been of American publication, he would
surely have known of it when writing his letter of July 10, 1765. At one time, however, the Governor seems to
have been considering the advisability of sending a champion into the lists against the 'anonymous dirt thrower',
for six months after his first contemptuous reference to the publication, Daniel Dulany, Jr. wrote to Lord Bal-
timore:

"It was said that an Answer was preparing to the Remarks with the Assistance of Mr. Bacon, He is an ingen-
ious Man, & well acquainted with the springs of our political Disputes,..." (Calvert Papers, No. 1288, Sept. 10,
1764). Sharpe's disclaimer of July 10, 1765, quoted above, and his refusal to employ Bacon on a similar task in
1760 (See foregoing narrative, Chapter Eight) seem sufficient evidence that this intention was not carried out
to the point of publishing a reply. In the Maryland Historical Society Portfolios there is a draft of an "Answer"
in Ms. which indicates that some person, an official probably, had made an attempt at preparing a reply to the
animadversions in the Public Ledger article.

The work referred to here in reply to which the "Answer" had been in part composed, was entitled:

"Remarks upon a Message, sent by the Upper to the Lower House of Assembly of Maryland. 1762..... By
a Friend to Maryland. Printed in the year MDCCLXIV."

There are reasons for believing that this work was printed by Franklin & Hall of Philadelphia, and that
Franklin himself had something to do with its authorship. A letter in the Calvert Papers, No. 1288, from Daniel
Dulany, Jr. to Lord Baltimore, dated Sept. 10,1764, makes the following statement in regard to the pamphlet:
"From whose Quiver this shaft came, is not at present known. Something of the kind was long expected, &, I
suspect was sent, when I was in England, to Mr. Anderson under a direction to Mr. Franklin, who, I believe,
from many Circumstances hath been concerned in the Composition—the Diction or Style of it is very much
like his—it was printed of his Press. [Italics not in original]. In a late Publication, wch He is known to be the
Author of, there appears a great Resemblance of The Remarks."

Some months before this on May 8,1764, Gov. Sharpe (Archives of Maryland, 14: 160) had written to Secre-
tary Calvert, asserting that most people were of the belief that the "Remarks" had been written by Mr. James
Tilghman, formerly a burgess from Talbot County, Md. but at that time a resident of Philadelphia. Sharpe
further intimated that Daniel Dulany, Jr. had lent a hand to the revision of the pamphlet, but a perusal of the
whole of the Dulany letter above mentioned convinces one that this suggestion on the part of the Governor had
its origin in the state of dislike which existed between these two. The question of the authorship of this pamph-
let and the reply to it present an interesting literary problem. The Dulany letter here cited should be read in
connection with letters from Secretary Calvert to Sharpe, (Archives of Maryland, 31: 540.); Sharpe to Calvert
(Archives of Maryland, 14: 149, 150, 157-160, 201.)

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