preferred charges of incompetency against Mr. Stewart.[1] The directors replied to the charges in the order they were made, finding Mr. Stewart guilty of only one, namely of "causing another servant to burn Michael Barnet with a hot iron without reason;" the directors declared, without fear or favor, "that in this Mr. Stewart acted with an impropriety the Board disapproves of"![2] A difficulty had arisen, early in the work, in securing workmen and in keeping them in submission to law and order when once obtained. In the fall of 1785 half the laborers were dismissed from the company's service. The secretary of the company now, and at numerous times thereafter, was in correspondence with parties in Baltimore (Messrs. Stewart and Plunket) and in Philadelphia (Mr. John Maxwell Nesbit) who might secure workmen for the Potomac improvements.[3] Furnishing the workmen with liquors also seems to have been a troublesome item. In November, 1785, a contract was made
