xii Preface.

Cecilius Calvert, the writer of nearly all these letters, was the young-
est son of Benedict Leonard, fourth Lord Baltimore, and therefore
uncle to Frederick, the Proprietary, whose secretary and general facto-
tum he became, and whose entire confidence he seems to have possessed.
He appears to have been a fair-minded and just man, having the best
interests of the Province, as v/ell as those of his nephew, sincerely at
heart. We have had previous occasion to notice the curious lack of
coordination between his reflective and expressive faculties, to an
extent that we should nol have expected in a man of university educa-
tion. His thoughts, when we get at them, are sensible enough, but in
a more or less chaotic state, with difficulty reducible to order. In
catachresis he anticipates Mrs. Malaprop; and whenever he ventures
beyond the simple sentence we find him distractedly groping in the
enchanted maze of anacoluthon.

But these letters are well worth preserving, as throwing an interest-
ing light on the affairs of the Province.

Cecilius died unmarried in 1766, leaving his nephew the only repre-
sentative, in the direct male line, of the family, and on the death of
Frederick in 1771, without legitimate issue, the title became extinct.