xxviii Letter of Transmittal.

bill further declared that although some through obstinancy, refused to support
themselves, others were not sufficiently able-bodied to subsist. The county jus-
tices were authorized to care for those whom they might deem objects of charity,
as they cared for the poor; if it were found that any county had received more
than its quota, the Nova Scotians were to be sent to counties in which the quota
had not been filled. Children of parents unable to support them were to be
suitably apprenticed, constables were directed to file with the county court com-
plete lists of all these French neutrals, and none were to be permitted by them to
travel more than ten miles from their homes. It is to be noted that many of
these French Acadians settled in Baltimore Town in the neighborhood of what
is now Charles and Lombard Streets and this section until long afterwards was
known as French Town.

Eighteen acts in all were passed at this Assembly. The more important ones,
the Supply Bill for His Majesty's service, and the laws relating to the Indians
and the Acadians have already been referred to. The act passed at the last session
to prevent the export of military stores and provisions was amended and re-
enacted. Four separate acts making legal the continuance of various judicial
processes in as many different counties, which had lapsed because the several
county courts had not met on the day to which they had been adjourned, were
passed. One of these, that for Cecil County, further provided the legal machinery
by which the necessity in future for such special acts was avoided. In the pre-
amble to the acts relating to Frederick County it was declared that the defence-
less condition of the back country had prevented many of the litigants from
coming to the hearings. In other cases, the severe weather had prevented the
meeting of the courts.

Acts for providing funds for the completion of the church at Snow Hill in
All Hallows Parish, Worcester County, for building a causeway through
Vienna Marsh opposite the town of Vienna in Dorchester County, and for re-
quiring the owners of mill-dams to build bridges or causeways to prevent the
flooding of public roads were passed. The usual act for the relief of a large
number of individuals languishing in prison for debt was passed; and that con-
tinuing the law providing for the punishment before one justice of fornicators
and adulterers, enacted. The customary act providing for the printing of the
Session Laws and Votes and Proceedings by Jonas Green, the public printer,
was passed. Following the approval by both houses of the Journal of Accounts,
showing the amount due by the Province to its various creditors, an act was
passed calling for a levy and assessment upon the taxable inhabitants, payable
in two annual installments, sufficient to raise £1538-12-8 current money and the
4.605,996 pounds of tobacco required for this purpose.