xxxviii Introduction.

continued at the November, 1766, session (Hanson's Laws of Maryland made
since MDCCLXIII; 1787; acts of December 1766, chapter iii); (7) to aid
defective common recoveries; passed by the Lower House; an act of the same
title was passed at the November, 1766, session (Hanson's Laws of Maryland
made since MDCCLXIII; 1787; acts of November 1766, chapter xxi) (pp.
150, 153. 179, 185, 50. 61, 77, 79); (8) "to prevent Lands and Stock appro-
priated to the Use of Iron Works being divided into Dower and Thirds, and to
enable Women under Age to preclude themselves from Dower and Thirds by
Agreement before Marriage with their intended Husbands" (pp. 172, 176);
the purport of this act, other than what is indicated by the title, is not dis-
closed, but one may assume that the dower rights of the widow of some joint
owner of one of the several important iron companies of the Province, by her
claims for dower, had, on some recent occassion, entailed upon the other joint
owners considerable legal difficulties. The bill was laid on the table where it
apparently slept.

Summary of legislation. Little new legislation of importance was enacted
at this session. In all twenty-five new acts, of which two were private laws,
were passed; and fourteen old laws about to expire were continued. Many of
these new acts have already been discussed, or are referred to elsewhere in
this introduction. Six laws relating to churches and parishes were enacted.
Authority was given to the visitors of the Kent County School to lease school
land (pp. 296-297). There were acts: for the further enlargement of Balti-
more Town (Howard's Addition) (p. 263); to encourage the growing of
flax and hemp for the manufacture of linen (pp. 267-269); to validate a lease
of land in Baltimore Town for a market and to authorize regulations for its
management (pp. 305-309); for the relief of sundry prisoners languishing
in county jails for debt (pp. 278-282); for licensing dogs (pp. 274-278). Acts
of a purely local nature were also passed: one authorizing the construction of
a road from Hunting Creek, Dorchester County to Dover, Talbot County, to
connect with the ferry kept at Dover by Henry Troth (pp. 285-286); another
relating to the killing of crows, squirrels, and red foxes in certain counties
(pp. 309-311). Two acts were passed relating to the courts: one increased
the pay of jurors attending the provincial and county courts (pp. 303-305);
the other revived cases pending in the Cecil County court which had been ter-
minated when commissions for a new bench in that county were issued (pp.
270-271). Two acts relating to legal procedure were passed: one of these
acts provided that local and foreign protested bills of exchange rank alike as
debts (p. 264); the other supplemented an act for limitation of certain actions
for voiding suits at law by depriving those persons absent from the Province
of any advantage because of their absence (p. 283). The usual act for the
publication of the new laws passed at recent sessions and of the Votes and
Proceedings of the Lower House, styled an act "for the encouragement of
Jonas Green, the public printer," was passed (pp. 311-314). A law was passed
authorizing the trustees of the Loan Office to purchase for the use of both
houses of Assembly from some London merchant, at a cost of not over £25
sterling, a record book, parchment paper, ink powder, and quills (p. 323).