or authenticated copies, to be lodged in the land office, the said persons being liable to the payment of no purchase or caution money, or any charge or demand whatsoever, except the common fees of office.     The 13th section of the act of November 1788, ch. 44, takes off all reserves whatever, with exception of the appropriations made or confirmed by that act, and subjects all vacant land, as well westward of Fort Cumberland as elsewhere in the state, not affected by warrants already out, to be taken up in the usual manner by warrant, at the rate of three shillings and nine pence per acre, payable in the proportions before established; and this has continued to be the price of vacant land, except in Allegany county, in which, by the act of 1791, ch. 85, it is reduced to two shilling and six pence, payable one half at the time of obtaining the warrant, and the other on the return of the certificate.     The act of 1797, ch. 114, contains, in the three last sections, several important provisions relative to caveats, which although they will require to be noticed again, are proper to be mentioned among that class of regulations which we have at present under consideration. By these it is ordained, that where composition money remains due on a certificate, caveat shall not be entered against it without the party desiring such entry first swears or affirms that he conceives he has, on the ground of right or pretension to the land, or some part thereof, a good cause for entering the same, and that it is not done for the purpose of favouring the owner of the certificate, by prolonging the time allowed for compounding, or by his or any other person's request, but for the purpose only of prosecuting by claim: 2d, That no caveat shall remain in force longer than 12 months, unless, under special circumstances, the chancellor (or, on the eastern shore) the judge of the land office, (concerning whose appointment and authorities we shall presently have occasion to speak) shall otherwise direct. 3d, That all caveats already entered shall be brought to issue on or before the first of January 1800, unless, on special circumstances as aforesaid, it shall be otherwise directed; and that, after that time, no particular order intervening, they shall be " wholly discontinued, and the ordinary proceedings " had as if no such caveat existed." The first of these three provisions was intended to strengthen a former one of 1789, ch. 35, sect. 5, by which it was declared that in case of a caveat against a certificate on which caution money remained unpaid, the time during which the said caveat might remain undetermined should not be considered as a part of the time limited for payment, provided the owner would make oath or affirmation that he had not procured such caveat to be entered for the sake of delay, nor in any manner whatever contrived or