xxxvi Introduction.

submit them before the seventeenth day of April. Any one who wished "to
overlook the Execution of the Plan" should apply at the same time (Maryland
Gazette, Jan. 4, 1770).

Another general act passed at the session of the Assembly which met during
November and December, 1769, dealt not with a financial matter, but with the
administration of justice. The law was entitled "An Act for preventing the
Evil occasioned by Continuance of Suits at Law on Suggestion of want of
Evidence from beyond the Sea." In order to prevent long drawn out lawsuits
this act required a party to a suit to make an affidavit that a material witness,
whom he had tried to procure, was absent. Otherwise the case must come up for
trial (pp. 167-168).

Two new supplementary acts were passed at the November-December session
which also were connected with the administration of justice. One was en-
titled "A Supplementary Act to the Act entitled an Act for the Direction of
Sheriffs in their Offices and restraining their ill Practices within this Province."
This act required sheriffs, who took any mortgage, promissory note, or bill of
exchange, to endorse on it an account of the consideration for which it was
passed (pp. 151-153). This supplemented the original act of 1715 (Arch. Md.
XXX, 264-270).

The other supplementary act was entitled "An Additional Supplementary
Act to the Act entitled an Act to prevent the abuses of concealing convicted
Felons and other Offenders imported into this Province and for the better
Discovery of Them." As the preamble recited, this act sought to prevent felons
from passing as reputable persons or being accepted as witnesses (pp. 165-167).
The original act was enacted in 1728 (Arch. Md. XXXVI, 298-302) and the
first supplementary act in 1729 (ibid. 492-493).

The General Assembly which met from September 25 to November 2, 1770,
passed three new general laws regarding the judicial system. One of these
laws was entitled "An Act for Abolishing June County Courts and for other
Purposes therein mentioned." As it was found that holding the court during
June interfered with "the necessary Business of the People," August instead
of June was selected for holding the county courts (pp. 313-314). Because
so many of its members were sick or at the meeting of the General Assembly
was the reason for the passage of "An Act for the Adjournment and Continu-
ance of the High Court of Appeals and for the Adjournment of the Provincial
Court and other Purposes therein mentioned" (pp. 314-315). In order to break
up the practice of some of the County Clerks who took home with them County
Court records was the object of "An Act to oblige the several County Clerks
to have with them on their Office Days the four last Court Dockets and papers"

(p.321).

No general acts were passed by the General Assembly which met from
November 5 to November 21, 1770.

GENERAL ACTS EXPIRING, MODIFIED OR CONTINUED, 1769-1770

During each of the three sessions held during 1769-1770 the Lower House
appointed a committee to enquire what laws would expire unless continued