1776.] OF THE PROVINCE OF MARYLAND. 145

couraging the making of marine salt, which was read a first and
second time, and thereupon the convention taking the same into
consideration, Resolved, That a public salt work be erected on or
near the bay near the mouth of Potowmac, and another on the sea-
board of this province; and that the said works be carried on on
the public account, under the management, and direction of such
persons as shall be appointed by the council of safety for the time
being; and that any sum of public money, not exceeding the sum
of five hundred pounds, may, by order of the said council of safety,
be expended in erecting and carrying on each of the said works.
And that for encouraging private people to set up and carry on salt
works, the council of safety for the time being may, on proper se-
curity, and such terms as they approve of, advance of the public
money any sum or sums not exceeding five hundred pounds, for
erecting and carrying on each of two or more salt works in this
province; so that such advances for the encouragement of private
salt works exceed not in the whole fifteen hundred pounds com-
mon money; and that no public money be advanced for erecting
and carrying on salt works under the resolution of convention held
at Annapolis the 26th day of July last.

On reading a second time the report from the committee appoint-
ed to consider the proposals of Henry Hollingsworth, the conven-
tion took the same into consideration, and thereupon, Resolved,
That the sum of five hundred pounds be advanced to the said Hen-
ry Hollingsworth, out of the public treasury, he giving bond in dou-
ble that sum, conditioned for the payment of the sum so advanced
in good substantial gun-barrels, that will stand the usual proof, well
bored and ground, f of an inch in the bore, and 3 1/2 feet in the barrel,
at twenty shillings per barrel, and good substantial well manufactured
and finished steel bayonets, at eight shillings per bayonet, in four
months after the date thereof; and upon the completing the said
or any subsequent contract for the like purpose, a sum not exceed-
ing five hundred pounds on the like condition be advanced by the
convention or council of safety, so long and as often as they shall
think the public exigency will require it.

Resolved, That as a laudable desire to attain a competent know-
ledge in the art of making salt-petre, and to diffuse this knowledge
as extensively as possible, appears to this convention to have been
the motive that induced the said Henry Hollingsworth to incur the
expense of thirty pounds, in employing a certain John Mingle, a
man of reputed skill in the said business, and he being further en-
couraged thereto by the advice and concurrence of some of the
members of this house, that the said expense be allowed in his gen-
eral account as supervisor of the salt-petre work in Cecil county.
19