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198 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
On June 18, 1742, the Earl of Egmont received a letter from him,
possibly written in consequence of the above incidents. In this letter
he said that Colonel Stephens and every one in the magistracy in Geor
gia ought not to act without his directions since they plunged everything
into a strange confusion.*
It is probable that he tried to exercise again some authority in the
southern part of the province at least; for on May 10, 1.743, the trustees
wrote to Bailiff Hawkins, of Frederica, on the subject. They expressed
astonishment that any one should think that General Oglethorpe, be
cause a trustee, was vested with power superior to that of a magistrate.
They asserted that no single trustee had any power at all, and they
further said that no single person had any power at all except what had
been given by the collective body of trustees. No single individual had
power at all. The opposite doctrine would cause endless confusion. Gen
eral Oglethorpe himself would set him straight in that matter.! The
Earl of Egmont explained that this letter was sent because Oglethorpe
was interposing without authority and was looked upon by some as hav
ing a power superior to that of a magistrate. J
After General Oglethorpe reached England, though fresh from a
victorious campaign that had saved Georgia from invasion, he was not
received and thanked as on the former visits he had made to England.
There was certainly less cordiality between him and the general body of
the trustees, to whatever cause the lack of harmony may be attributed.
He attended the meetings of the board and of the common council with
much less regularity, going to thirty-four of the 103 meetings of the
former, and to nine of the 26 council meetings, held after his return to
England. His attendance before he left for Georgia the first time was,
as we have seen, about 90 per cent of the possible meetings; and it was
63 per cent on his last trip • while now his attendance had fallen to 34
per cent. In the beginning, he had been on almost every important com
mittee, while after his final retiirn to England he was not appointed on
any committee of the common council and on only two of the general
board of trustees.**
His lack of harmony with his associates is shown even more strikingly
perhaps in the dissent which he several times entered to matters passed
in the meeting. It was one of the two general by-laws adopted by the
trustees that any member who dissented from a resolution should have
the privilege in the same meeting of entering the simple words, "I, A.
B., do dissent from the foregoing resolution." ft "With the exception of
a single instance, Oglethorpe was the only trustee who availed himself
of the privilege of thus putting his opposition on record; and it may be
worth while to note the matters on which he thus differed from his col
leagues. On January 19, 1745, steps were taken to abolish the town
court of Frederica, the action being partly due to the fact that two of
the three bailiffs had come to England on military business. At the
same time, a motion was made to prohibit any one in military employ-
*O.E. V: 637.
I B. T., Ga., X: Martyn to Hawkins, May 10, 1743.
* C.B. V: 689.
**C.B. I: 501, 510.
ft Ibid., 31.