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8 The English Statutes in Maryland. [4:72 waged—that over the extension to Maryland of Acts of the English Parliament. This controversy, which was referred to very briefly before, constitutes, with its causes and results, the main subject-matter of the present essay. The bare nar- rative of the affair has been given by McMahon, and some- what less satisfactorily by Mereness; but in neither case has the treatment been very broad, and the course of events in Maryland has not been set in due relation to the general his- tory of Great Britain or the other colonies. It is the wider outlook attempted in this paper which must justify the repe- tition of some parts of the story that have been told before. It will conduce to clearness if the order of treatment be outlined at the start. First, the development of the question in Maryland is carried down from the earliest times to the end of the royal government. Here, as the colony grows, we see the development of a legal system, twisted out of natural progress by peculiarities of the Maryland palatinate govern- ment. Then, leaving the discussion of Maryland, we trace briefly the legal doctrine declared by English judges and law- yers, the value of which, for purposes of comparison, is equaled only by the information derived from' the experience of other colonies, parts of which receive some discussion. Next, the reader is brought back to the legislative history of the dispute, in the decade 1722-1732, and in the later phases to the present time. The narrative part of the work thus con- cluded, we turn to the more interesting consideration of the arguments in the debate, as exhibited in certain important documents. Lastly, inquiry as to the total effect of these arguments in their relation to English and American colonial history leads us to a resume and conclusion. While references to authorities are given in the notes, a brief bibliographical statement will be in order. The sources for these studies are found chiefly in the records of the Assembly of Maryland. For the greater part of the seven- teenth century these have been printed in the Maryland Archives, but for the eighteenth century they are entirely in manuscript form, except for a few printed " Votes and Pro- |
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Sioussat's The English Statutes in Maryland, 1903
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