William Bladen Publisher and his Printer Thomas Reading

might easily have them in their houses without being troubled to goe to the County Court
house to have recourse thereto—That the house made (sic) an Order for the printeing thereof
and that every County be Obliged to take one faire Coppy endorsed and Titled to be bound up
handsomly and that for the encouragement of the undertaker each County pay him therefore
2000 lbs of Tobo upon delivery the said booke of Laws."¹

In the same document Bladen proposed to build a prison for the Prov-
ince, and in conclusion added piously, "All which will be readily undertaken
and with the blessing of God Carefully accomplished by yor most humble
Servant to command W. Bladen." Planter, clerk, architect and publisher—
this W. Bladen was a valuable citizen in a community such as Maryland
was at this time.

Bladen's proposal to print the body of laws was timely. In the year 1699
the Assembly had passed an "Act Ascertaining the Laws of this Province,"
by the terms of which were repealed all laws which had been made there-
tofore except those of that session, and selected ones of other sessions men-
tioned in an annexed schedule. This Act had been disallowed by the King
for specific reasons, and because in general the advisers of his Majesty had
disapproved of legislation whereby, as it was explained later, "the vallidity
of all the Laws of the Province, are ... made to depend upon this one Single
act, whereas Each of them ought to have been Enacted Separately."² Ac-
cordingly, in the following year, the Assembly changed a specifically named
law in the schedule to which his Majesty had objected, that is, the Act for
Religion, but in framing a new ascertaining act, disregarded the general
ground of his veto, and proceeded on May 9, 1700, to pass an "Act for Re-
pealing certaine Laws in this Province and Confirmeing others,"³ a piece
of legislation which differed only in small details from its predecessor of
1699, to which, as a matter of legislative method, his Majesty had taken
exception. It was on the day that this law was sent to the Governor for sig-
nature that Bladen had proposed to the House that he be given permission
to print the body of law of the Province, and the delegates believing that
body of law to have been determined finally by their recent enactment,
granted his petition and ordered that

"Mr. Bladen according to his proposall have liberty to printe the body of the Law of
this Province if so his Excy shall seem meet And it is likewise unanimously resolved by this
house that upon Mr. Bladen's delivery of one Printed body of the said Laws to each re-
spective County Court within this province for his encouragement Shall have allowd him
Two Thousand pounds of tobo in each respective County as aforesaid."⁴

¹L. H. J., May 9, 1700, Archives of Maryland, 24: 83.
² L. H. J., April 27, 1704, Archives of Maryland, 24:371.

³L. H. J., May 9, 1700, also "Acts" of 1700, Archives of Maryland, 24:78 and 104.

⁴L. H. J., May 9, 1700, Archives of Maryland, 24: 84, where the phrase "his encouragement" reads "this en-
couragement."

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