already paid for, and was to have gone by the pilot-boat Chatham. We are, &c.

To Messrs. Lux & Bowley.

MARYLAND COUNCIL OF SAFETY TO CUMBERLAND DUGAN.

SIR: Since writing the enclosed letter, we have some expectation of loading another vessel of about six hundred and fifty barrels, and should be glad to know when the bread will be baked; we shall probably want it next week; as also all the flour the Three Sisters cannot take.

We are, &c.

To Mr. Cumberland Dugan.

MARYLAND COUNCIL OF SAFETY TO JOHN LEYPOLD.

SIR: The Council of Safety request you would go to Baltimore town, and examine the flour now in the warehouse of Mr. Cumberland Dugan; also examine some of the flour now on board the brigs Fortune and Rogers, and let us know, on your return, what state the same is in.

We are, &c.

To Mr. John Leypold.

TO THE PEOPLE.

In times like the present, it is necessary that the chain of political occurrences should be continued among the people without any material interruptions; because, in order to be unanimous in our conduct, our knowledge of men and things must lead the way; for people cannot be expected to act alike who are not alike informed. For this reason, therefore, the following concise clue or chain of circumstances which have happened in the politicks of this city since the meeting at the State-House on the 20th of May, is given to the publick:

The purpose of that meeting was to agree upon a Protest to be presented to the House of Assembly against their having anything to do with the resolve of Congress of the 15th of May, for establishing a new Government; and the reasons assigned were, the embarrassments the House were under by oaths of allegiance to our enemy; their acting in conjunction with the King’s representative; their insufficiency for business in general; and the influence which many of the Members appeared to be under by Crown and Proprietary connections and dependancies: to which we may now add, that the conduct of those men since has shown that the suspicions of the publick were well-grounded.

The Protest was delivered in to the Assembly soon after the dissolution of the meeting;—on the part of which it should be observed that its objections against the authority of the House were limited to the single instance of their framing a new Government, and left it at large in all other cases. “We mean not, ” say the protestors, “to object against the House exercising the proper powers it has hitherto been accustomed to use, for the safety and convenience of the Province, until such time as a new Constitution, originating from, and founded on the authority of, the people, can be finally settled by a Provincial Convention to be called for that purpose.” This being the case, it follows that neither the House nor any separate Members thereof can lay hold on anything said or insinuated in the Protest as an excuse or subterfuge for their own neglect of the publick safety.

Let us now take a review of the conduct of the House on this occasion. The Protest being read, was ordered to lie on the table: some proposed to have it laid under the table. It signified but little which was done, as the protestors had taken a decided part, and intended to go through with, the matter.

In this sitting, the Assembly got into a double way of doing business. Part of their resolves were only passed and circulated among the people, but are not to be found upon their printed votes; and in one case their printed votes contradict their verbal resolves: for it was given out that the House had resolved to do business without the Governour—consequently, they no longer acknowledged him in that character; yet their votes are titled as before, “John Perm, Esquire, Governour.” It was given out that they had absolved, or dissolved, or some how or other got over and thrown aside the oaths of allegiance; but nothing of this appears upon their printed votes, neither have we any authority for believing it, unless Mr. James Rankin’s letter to the inhabitants of York County be admitted as evidence. In that he says: “The Committee of York might have known that the House has dispensed with the oaths.”

No “ayes” or “nays” are to be found this sitting; for when any objecting Members found they could not carry their point, they withdrew their objection, to avoid being known to the publick.

It is impossible that confidence can be placed in any House, let its name be what it may, that acts one thing within doors, and in its printed votes holds forth a different one to the world.

The case respecting the oaths is as follows: The new Members were admitted to take their seats without them. A Member then moved that the German inhabitants of this Province be hereafter considered as legal voters without taking the oaths of allegiance. This was certainly a just and reasonable motion; for if allegiance was no longer a necessary qualification for a Representative, it was no longer a necessary qualification in an elector. On this, one of the Proprietary gentlemen, who had taken his seat without oaths, moved to have the matter respecting the admission of the Germans put off. He was seconded by another of the same cast; but, finding that such a glaring partiality would not be supported by the House, they withdrew their motion, to avoid appearing among the nays. A Committee was afterwards nominated to draw up “resolutions for rendering naturalization and the oaths or affirmations of allegiance unnecessary in all cases;” but the matter dropped here, and never passed the House.

It is peculiarly remarkable that the persons who objected against admitting the Germans were put on the Committee for taking off their disqualifications; by which artful scheme, the objectors to their enfranchisement were represented in the votes as their friends. Nor was there a Committee of any consequence throughout the last sitting in which the names of the Proprietary party are not to be found. This could not but be considered as a constant insult upon the protestors, as one of their principal causes of objection against the House was the weight of that influence in it.

If the votes of the House be examined, it will appear that they have gone through nothing—spent their time to no purpose; and the cause of this neglect is clearly evident. They were got into parties, and though they sometimes joined in general matters, yet the greater part of their time was taken up in watching each other’s motions. The Proprietary party, still pinning its dependance upon the Crown, had the ruinous delusions of reconciliation in view. The popular party, believing that nothing but a final separation from Britain and a well-confederated union of all the Colonies could secure our happiness, were very suspicious of the designs of the Proprietary party; and between these two, a certain gentleman, the framer of the first instructions to the Delegates, steered an indefinite course, sometimes agreeing with one side, sometimes with the other, sometimes with neither; seeming, upon the whole, to have no other fixed object in view than himself.

The first business which appears upon the printed votes is the appointment of a Committee for drawing up a memorial to be presented to Congress, praying to be informed “whether the Assemblies and Conventions now subsisting in the several Colonies are, or are not, the bodies to whom the consideration of continuing the old or adopting new Governments is referred?” This memorial contains an insult both upon the people and the Congress, because it solicits a qualification from the Congress, which the Congress, in the preamble to their resolves, say ought to come from the people. Neither does the resolve of Congress say anything about continuing the old Government, but of totally suppressing it. Wherefore the memorialists request an explanation on a case which is not within the meaning of the resolve. But this, like whatever else the Assembly took in hand in their late and last sitting, came to nothing, being never presented.

The affair of the row-galleys came next on hand. Men in office are naturally jealous of their honour, especially when they conceive that they have done their duty. The