| 1783. |
LAWS of MARYLAND.
CHAP. XIV.
An ACT to open and establish a public road in Dorchester
county.
This act continues three commissioners
to lay out a public road, from the main road
that leads from New-market to Vienna, to the grist-mill
of Michael Hall Bonwill, and thence till it intersect
the main road from Cambridge to Vienna. THey shall
estimate the damages to be sustained
by individuals through whose ground the road shall be
opened, and these damages must be paid by
the said Bonwill on a day fixed by any two of the commissioners.
The said Michael Hall Bonwill is to
be at the whole expence of clearing the road, and of keeping it
in order, for three years after it shall be made.
After these three years the county court is to record it
as a public road, appoint for it an overseer, and apportion
the hands to work upon it, except that part
leading over the mildam, which shall be kept by the possessor
of the mill for this time being, under the
penalty to which the owner of a mill, where the road
passes on a dam, is subjected by the act for repairing
the public roads in this province. |
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CHAP. XV.
An ACT to empower Edward Downes to collect by distress and sale the
arrears
due for public and county assessments to the late
collector of Queen-Anne's
county. PR. |
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CHAP. XVI.
A Bill, entitled, An ACT to authorise and empower Robert Ballard, administrator
of the goods and chattels, rights and credits, of
Jonathan Plowman, late
of Baltimore county, deceased, unadministered by
Rebecca Plowman and David
Arnold, his executors at the time of their discease,
with the will of the said
Jonathan Plowman annexed. PR. |
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CHAP. XVII.
An ACT to raise the supplies for the ensuing year.
A tax of 15f is imposed on every
£. 100's worth of property, to be levied by distress and sale of
any
goods belonging to the party, or found on the land, if
not paid on or before the 1st of October next,
in current money, or bank notes. Tobacco, however,
instead of being assessed, is to pay 1f6 per hogshead;
and every free able-bodied single man, between twenty-one
and fifty years of age, whose property
shall not be valued to the amount of £. 100, shall
pay 15f, to be levied as aforesaid, or by execution
of the body. And every constable, on taking the
name of such a person, is required to exact security
for the said 15f, and in case of refusal or delay,
to carry him before a justice, who may commit him
until payment made or security given; and if such person
shall remove out of the county, it is made the
duty of constables, collectors and commissioners, acquainted
therewith, to give information to the collector,
or to some deputy collector, or to a commissioner of
the county where he may be, and any of them
may arrest him, and take him before a justice, who shall
commit him until the payment of 30f and costs.
The money arising from this tax is appropriated,
in the first place, to the payment of one year's interest
on specie certificates. A sum, not exceeding one
half of the whole assessment, is to be remitted to
congress. The residue is appropriated to the maintenance
of the civil list, and to the future orders of the
legislature.
N. B. IT is not only excusable,
but it is the duty, of every man, who regards the sacred constitution,
which he is sworn to support, to protest, on all occasions,
against every open breach, or artful evasion.
In this act is a plain and direct violation of the 13th
article of the declaration of rights; and to
justify it, there is not the plea of necessity, or even
of expediency; it appears too much like a combination
against a wretched class of men, entered into by every
other order in the community. To examine it
by the test of men's feelings, it may be proper to suppose
the matter reversed, and the legislature to enact,
that, inasmuch as wealthy men have a greater proportion
than others of superfluous property, every person
whose estate shall be assessed to £. 20,000, shall
pay 20 instead of 15f in the £. 100. |
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CHAP. XVIII.
An ACT for the relief of
the christian society of people called
Nicolites, or New Quakers. |
| Preamble. |
WHEREAS the society of people called Nicolites,
or New Quakers,
have, by their humble petition to this general assembly, set forth,
that
they labour under many great and grievous inconveniencies, owing to
their conscientious scruples relative to the taking oaths in the usual
form, and not
being admitted to declare the truth of their knowledge by solemn affirmation:
And whereas it is declared in the thirty-sixth section of the declaration
of rights,
that the manner of administering an oath to any person ought to be
such as those
of the religious persuasion, profession or denomination, of which such
person is
one, generally esteem the most effectual confirmation by the attestation
of the
Divine Being: Therefore, |
Nicolites to
enjoy rights,
&c. of quakers,
&c. |
II. Be it further
enacted, by the general assembly of Maryland, That
the society of
people called Nicolites, or New Quakers, shall be and they are hereby
entitled
to, and shall have and enjoy, all the rights, privileges, immunities
and franchises, |
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