Introduction. liii

containing flour for export after they had been sampled and passed, were to
be branded "Baltimore", and the degree of fineness was also to be branded on
the casks as "Superfine", "Fine," "Middling", or "Ship-stuff"; all unmerchant-
able flour was to be branded with a "Broad Arrow," and its export by shipment
out of the Patapsco River was prohibited. The qualifications of inspectors, the
character of inspections, and the fees to be paid to inspectors were provided
(pp. 445-453). The use of the Broad Arrow as a mark of confiscation or of
public property goes back in Maryland to the year 1642 when the casks contain-
ing tobacco confiscated for debts due the Proprietary, or tobacco not fit for
export, were marked or branded with the familiar Broad Arrow symbol (Arch.
Md. LXIX, xxvi). No later use in Maryland of the Broad Arrow than is to be
found in this act is known to the writer. Its use in Great Britain as a symbol of
government ownership has continued into the twentieth century.

Three local laws relating to parishes and churches were passed at the 1768
session. These parishes were Chester, Kent County, Stepney, Somerset County,
and St. John's, Queen Anne's' County. Legislation was secured authorizing
the purchase of church land, the erection of new churches or chapels of ease,
and the repair of old churches and chapels. These parochial acts are discussed
fully in the section on Parishes, Churches, Chapels, Clergymen, and Religion
(pp. lxix-lxxvi).

Two local acts for the adjournment and continuance of county courts, to
prevent the lapsing of suits then pending in them, which would have occurred
had not these acts authorized continuance of suits until a later date, were
passed, as was an act made necessary by the loss by fire of certain of the records
of the St. Mary's County court. These acts provided: (I) for the "adjourn-
ment and continuance" of Talbot, Baltimore and Cecil County courts (p. 421);
(2) for the adjournment and continuance of the Frederick County court (pp.
453-454); (3) "to remedy the inconveniences arising from the loss of some
proceedings in St. Mary's County court." As regards the last act, it appears
that fire had destroyed the house of Owen Allen, Deputy Clerk of the St. Mary's
County court, in March, 1768, and that, together with, the house, the original
papers in several cases pending in the court, were destroyed. The act provided
that the Chief Justice of the county court, the Sheriff, and the several attorneys
there practicing be required to deliver to Benjamin Young, Clerk of the Court,
"their several and respective dockets ... the dockets of which shall appear to
have been burned and lost", to the end that the causes may be continued (pp.
423-425).

Two local laws relating to county public schools in Frederick and Kent
counties were enacted. One of these appointed seven new visitors of the
public school in Frederick Town, and authorized the purchase of half an acre
for the erection of a school, as the old visitors had not been able to purchase
the one acre site authorized by the previous act of 1763, and "it is apprehended
this will be attended with too much Expense" (pp. 428-429). The other school
act, supplementary to a previous law relating to the visitors of the Kent County
School, authorized the visitors to lay out ten acres of school land, including the
school house and the Free School Spring for the use of the master, and to