xxxiv Introduction.

in 1768 with the same title, to be later referred to. Other bills with this same
title had met a similar fate at the 1762 and 1763 sessions. It is not clear just
what was the significance, in connection with the two bills just discussed, of
still another bill introduced in the Upper House by Daniel Dulany on Novem-
ber 22, 1765, and passed in that house the next day, entitled "An act to repeal
an act for the encouragement of such persons as will undertake to build water
mills" (pp. 55, 174), but it is certain that soon after it reached the Lower House
it was, without explanation, rejected, and returned to the Upper House
(pp. 61, 185). Its purpose may well have been to do away with, or prevent
the erection of, dams which interfered with movements of fish; it was almost
certainly rejected by the Lower House because of features objectionable to
that body, such as the disposition of fines imposed under it.

It was not until three years later when separate acts for "regulating naviga-
tion" on the Potomac and its tributaries, and "for the preservation of the
breed of fish" were enacted. At the May, 1768, session there was passed "an
act to prevent any obstruction to the navigation of the river Potomack", which
provided "that all fish dams or other devises for catching fish" be pulled down
and all new erections of this kind be prohibited (Hanson's Laws of Maryland
made since MDCCLXIII; acts of 1768, chapter V). At the same session there
was also passed "an act for the preservation of the breed of fish" which pro-
hibited "the erection of wears (wiers), dams, pots, and other devices" on the
Susquehanna and Patuxent rivers by which fish may be obstructed from going
up or down the river, and all such devices were declared illegal. The preamble
cites that the reason for the enactment of this law was that for many years
past large quantities of young fish unfit for use have been thus taken by which
the number of fish in the rivers of the Province have been much diminished
(Hanson's Laws of Maryland made since MDCCLXIII; acts of 1768,
chapter IV).

Dog licensing. What was virtually an act for licensing dogs, apparently the
first law of this character to come before a Maryland legislature, was passed
at the November—December, 1765, session. A bill imposing taxes upon "house-
keepers" who kept more than one dog was the cause of no little difference of
opinion, not only between the two houses but among the delegates them-
selves, as is shown by the number of divisions with recorded votes to be found
in the journal of the Lower House. The interest in this bill was of course due
to the fact that every household kept dogs, and because of the danger to sheep
and other stock from dogs running at large, as is indicated by its title, "An
Act to prevent the mischiefs arising from the multiplicity of useless dogs".
With the details of the act we need not concern ourselves here. As showing
the interest in the subject, when the bill, after its passage, was sent by the
Lower House to the Upper House, fourteen amendments were added there
(pp. 55-57), in most of which the Lower House finally acquiesced (p. 182).
The bill was then passed and became a law (pp. 274-278). The act imposed a
license fee dependent upon the size of the household, and provided how dam-
ages might be recovered by owners of sheep or hogs which had been injured
or killed by dogs. It also provided that convicts or negroes found "rambling
with dogs" should be whipped (p. 277).