1776.] OF THE PROVINCE OF MARYLAND. 75

same in the same manner that goods may be distrained and gold
fey law for county levies. And every collector shall, on or before
the first day of July next, pay the money by him collected, after de-
ducting seven and an half per cent, for his commission, to the trea-
surer of his shore, and leave with the same treasurer an account
containing the names of those from whom he hath received the
same, and the sums from them respectively collected.

That every person who shall refuse and delay to enroll as aforesaid,
shall on or before the tenth day of March next, deliver to the com-
mittee of observation for his county, all his fire arms, if he hath
any, except pistols; and if any such person shall refuse or delay
to do the same, then such committee shall empower some person
or persons, by warrant under their hands, to seize the said fire-
arms, and deliver the same to the said committee; and the said
committees shall cause all the arms which shall come to their hands
to be valued, by indifferent and honest men on oath, and shall
keep a list of such arms, to whom they belong, and their respective
values, and may deliver out such arms at their discretion, to the
captains of militia in their county, taking the captain's receipt there-
for, and the captains being liable for the redelivery thereof, may de-
liver the same to the unarmed men of their companies; and every
committee of observation shall transmit an account of all assess-
ments by them made, as well as of all arms by them received as
aforesaid, and how they have disposed of the same, to every con-
vention : but because some persons who do not enroll in the militia
may be so poor that they cannot pay the said assessment of forty
shillings, and their omitting to enroll may not proceed from disaf-
fection to the cause of America, or perverseness, it, is provided,
that where the real and personal estate of any effective freeman,
who shall refuse or neglect to enroll himself in the militia as afore-
said, shall not, in the judgment and estimation of the committee
of his county, be of the value of thirty pounds, the same commit-
tee may in their discretion omit to assess any sum of money on
such person, the same committee certifying to the convention or
council of safety the name of the person, and the reasons where-
fore they do not assess him.

That all fines which have been already set and adjudged, according
to the resolutions of the last convention, on militia officers or men,
and have not been paid, or which shall hereafter be so set and ad-
judged, shall, if the same be on a field officer, be paid into the hands
of the quarter-master of the battalion to which he belongs, and if
any officer of inferior rank to a field officer, or on a non-commis-
sioned officer or private, be paid into the hands of such person as