PREFACE.

        This volume completes the correspondence of Governor Sharpe.

      All his letters that could be found, either in his letter-books or else

      where, have been printed, and all communications to him, except such

      as properly belong to Council business.

        The period covered by this volume is one of great interest in Mary

      land's history. It includes the settlement of the boundary-dispute with

      Pennsylvania and the establishment of Mason and Dixon's line, the

      stamp-act, the violent resistance to it and its repeal, and various matters

      of importance in the internal policy of the Province.

        It was the good fortune of Maryland that during this critical time

      the executive power was lodged in the hands of a man so wise, just,

      energetic and moderate as Horatio Sharpe. These volumes of his

      correspondence are at once a revelation of his character, and record of

      his actions; and it would be hard to find in one of them any just

      ground for censure. As a colonial governor, responsible to the British

      government, he was the conservator of the rights of the crown, and

      bound to carry out the instructions of the ministry; as the sworn repre

      sentative and executive officer of the Proprietary he was the custodian

      of the Proprietary rights, which the people were always ready to invade,

      curtail, or impede—not always without reason; and as a citizen and

      well-wisher of the Province his wish as well as his duty was to admin

      ister justice and promote prosperity and good-feeling. While the

      clashing of these interests often rendered his action difficult, he seems

      to have weighed in an impartial balance his duties to the crown, the

      Proprietary and the people.

        During the period covered by this volume, the old Secretary Cecilius

      Calvert, Lord Baltimore's uncle, died, and was replaced by Hugh

      Hamersley. Calvert seems to have been a well-meaning man of a

      rather chaotic mind, and his letters, though intelligible, are extraordi

      nary examples of confusion in expression. Doubtless this was partly

      owing to age and long sickness. Hamersley, on the other hand, was

      an able, clear-headed man, and his letters are full, intelligent, and lucid.

      It has seemed worth while to reproduce the protests by the minority in

      the Lords against the repeal of the Stamp Act (inclosed in Hamersley's

      letter of March 22, 1766) because of the great importance to American

      history of all the proceedings of that critical time.

        On the same grou.nd of general interest some papers connected with

      the relief sent by Maryland to the sufferers by the great Boston fire of

      March 20, 1760, have been printed in an appendix.