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418 Correspondence of Governor Sharpe.
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Letter Bk. IV
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sometime ago Thoughts of Writing or at least of Collecting
Materials for a History of the Province from its first Settle-
ment: He says that when he had occasion to turn over &
examine the old Records Council Books &c. at the time that
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p. 100
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he drew up that State or Historical Account of the Revenue
Laws which I some time ago sent you & for which you desired
me to return him His Ldp's Thanks, he found the Records
down so low as 1703 so very deficient (many having been
destroyed by Fire & some lost as he supposes during the
Confusion that was in the Province about the time of the
Revolution & Accounts of many Transactions being imper-
fectly entered in those that remain) that he imagines it would
be impossible to Compile a History from the Records that
are in the Province; but whether the Defects of those Books
can be supplied from the Books & Papers relative to the
Province which are in His Ldp's Possession I do not know.
Since I am on this Subject I cannot help intimating to you
that to Mr Ridout's having perused & examined the Records
the Gentlemen of the Upper House were indebted for their
Knowledge about the Act of 1650 exempting the Ld Proprie-
tary from contributing thenceforward to the Support of any
War for the Defence of the Province. But tho a History of
Maryland from its first Settlement cannot be compiled in a
short time & without much Difficulty yet as you intimate that
if Mr Franklin or any other Person of the same Principles was
to publish any thing in order to asperse & calumniate His
Ldp or His Lieutn Governor on Account of the Administration
of the Governl during the present War'you should be at a Loss
for Materials to frame an Answer, I will as soon as possible
transmit you a continued Narrative of the Assembly's Proceed-
ings since that Period, which I think will be sufficient to con-
vince impartial Judges that whatever were their Professions &
Pretences their Study from the Beginning hath been by all
means to avoid granting Supplies for His Majesty's Service
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p. 101
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& to encrease their own Power. Would it be amiss in such a
Narrative to take Notice of their Endeavours to impose on the
People of Great Britain by those scandalous queries that were
sometime ago published in the London Chronicle ? & if you
approve of such their Endeavours being noticed, what think
you of Subjoining to the Queries the inclosed Answers which
it may be observed could have been likewise inserted in the
Chronicle had His Ldp or any of his Friends thought it
becoming him or expedient to defend or justify his own Con-
ductor the Administration of his Lieutn Goverr in that manner,
because an Anonymous Calumniator had been pleased to call
on His Ldp or his Friends to do so. I am sorry Messrs Penn's
Lieutt Governor or their Secretary in Pensilvania should have
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