The Lower House. 277

D^r Carroll from the Committee of Laws delivers M^r Speaker a
Bill entituled, An Act for the easier and better securing the Estates
of Debtors absconding, and of Persons Bankrupt, for the Use of
their Creditors, and equal Distribution of the same; which was read
the first Time, and ordered to lie on the Table.
The House adjourns 'til To-morrow Morning 9 of the Clock.

L. H. J.
Liber No. 46

Friday Morning, March 28. 1746.

The House met according to Adjournment, and the Proceedings
of Yesterday were read.

Resolved, That this House will not proceed to any new Business
after Monday next.
The House adjourns 'til 2 of the Clock

Post Meridiem

The House met according to Adjournment
The Petition of the Rector, Vestrymen, and Church Wardens, of
St. Anne's Parish in Anne Arundel County read and granted.
M^r Smith delivers M^r Speaker the following Report viz.
By the Committee appointed to inquire into the State of the pub-
lick and County Goal in the City of Annapolis upon the Petition
of William Thornton, Sheriff of Anne Arundel County.
March 28. 1746.
Your Committee having viewed and inspected the State of the
publick Goal, do find the Front and back Doors thereof are single,
and not well secured, and the Frames rotten, which occasions a
Breach in the Walls. We also find the Floors want repairing; and
that the Safety of the Prison, which we conceive ought to consist of
a strong Cieling, appears to us to have been insufficient at the first
Building, and so impaired since, that renders it now of no Service
for the Security thereof. We likewise find that the Partition Walls
not being carried up to each Floor, hath made it easy for the Prison-
ers to pass from one Room to another. That the loists are weak-
ened, by great Part of them being cut away by the Prisoners for Fire
wood, as your Committee are inform'd.

That the Sink from the Prison is stopped, and the Condemn'd
Hold has now Water in it, and no Passage to carry it off; and there
being no Shutters to the Windows the Prisoners, we conceive, have

March 28

not only an Opportunity of being furnished with Tools for the mak-
ing their escape, but likewise has occasioned the Damage that is done
to the Goal.

p. 569