Introduction. xxxv

(pp. 356, 364-365). Another law was passed at this session in order to provide
"Parchment, Paper, Ink Powder and Quills" for the use of the members of the
Assembly. It was entitled "An Act to enable the Commissioners of Emitting
Bills of Credit to provide Stationary for the use of the Upper and Lower Houses
of Assembly." The Commissioners were authorized to expend thirty pounds
sterling for this purpose (pp. 399-400). As this law, as well as the one dealing
with the Treasurers are rather limited in their application, it might also have
been possible to treat them as local acts.

A number of bills having the characteristics of general acts received the
approval of the Lower House during the fall session of 1771, but failed of
passage in the upper chamber. One dealt with the "Trial of all Matters of Fact
in the several Counties ....." (pp. 70, 135-136), another with the issuance of
"Writs of Replevin out of the County Courts ....." (pp. 70, 116), while a third
related to "Defective common Recoveries" (pp. 70, 123). A bill providing for
a tax on tobacco exported out of the colony for the support of "an Agent at
London for the Service of this Province" also failed to pass the Upper House
(pp. 70, 146-147). Bills seeking to prevent "the Buying and Selling of Offices"
failed to secure the approval of the upper chamber at either the session held in
1771 or at the one which met in June and July of 1773 (pp. 70, 124, 330, 368).

During the summer session of 1773 three other bills, general in their nature,
failed to win the approval of the Upper House. Two of these dealt with judicial
matters, one with the "Provincial Grand Jurors" (pp. 325, 368), and the other
with "the Independency of the Justices, the Enlargement of the County Court
Jurisdiction in Cases of Equity, and the Authority of the Deputy Commissaries"
(pp. 326, 370). The third bill was an act for the sale of "the Capital Bank
Stock belonging to this Province" (pp. 331, 386).

Two bills failed of passage because the Lower House would not agree to the
amendments proposed by the upper chamber. One was entitled "An Act for the
Security of Purchasers and others being Protestants claiming by or from
Aliens" (p. 170); the other was "An Act to ease the People of this Province
from Trivial Suits in the County Courts" (pp. 381-382).

During the session which met during October-November, 1771, two bills
came up which were referred by the Lower House to the next session of the
General Assembly. One was "An Act to redress the Evil arising from the
Variation of the Compass in surveying Lands" (p. 105; Arch. Md. LXII,
xxxii), and the other was "An Act to regulate the Criminal Business of Balti-
more County" (p. 187). Neither bill, however, appear to have come up for
consideration when the General Assembly reconvened during the summer of

1773.

There were two other bills, which came up during the fall session of 1771,
which were also referred to the next session of the General Assembly, which
occurred in June-July, 1773. At this meeting these two bills were again post-
poned for consideration until the next meeting of the Assembly. One of the two
bills in question dealt with "the more effectual securing of Orphans Estates"
(pp. 217-218, 373), and the other bill was entitled "An Act directing the Man-
ner of punishing Fornication and Adultery before a single Justice of the Peace
out of Court" (pp. 213, 374).