316 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONVENTION [1776.

to be granted, or security for the peace awarded; and Quakers,
Bunkers, or Menonists, aught also on their solemn affirmation as
aforesaid to be admitted as witnesses in all criminal cases not capital.

37. That the city of Annapolis ought to have all its rights, privi-
liges and benefits, agreeable to its charter and the acts of assembly
confirming and regulating the same; subject nevertheless to such al-
terations as may be made by this convention or any future legislature.

38. That the liberty of the press ought to be inviolably preserved.

39. That monopolies are odious, contrary to the spirit of a free
government, and the principles of commerce, and ought not to be
suffered.

40. That no title of nobility or hereditary honours ought to be
granted in this state.

41. That the subsisting resolves of this and the several conven-
tions held for this colony ought to be in force as laws, unless altered
by this convention or the legislature of this state.

42. That this declaration of rights, or the form of government to
be established by this convention, or any part of either of them,
ought not to be altered, changed or abolished, by the legislature of
this state, but in such manner as this convention shall prescribe
and direct.

Agreeable to the order of the day the convention resolved itself
into a committee of the whole, to consider further of the form of
government for this state; Mr. T. Wright in the chair. After some
time spent therein, Mr. President resumed the chair, and Mr. Wright
reported, that the committee had according to order taken into con-
sideration the form of government for this state, and had come to
several resolutions thereon, which they had directed him to report,
which he read in his place, and afterwards delivered them in at the
table where they were again read, and are as follow:

THE CONSTITUTION AND FORM OF GOVERNMENT.

1. "That the legislature consist of two distinct branches, a sen-
ate, and a house of delegates, which shall be styled the General As-
sembly of Maryland.

2. "That the house of delegates shall be chosen in the follow-
ing manner: All freemen, residents of this state, above twenty-one
years of age, having a freehold of fifty acres of land in the county
in which they offer to vote, or having property in this state above
the value of thirty pounds current money, and having resided in the
county in which they offer to vote one whole year next preceding
the election, shall have a right of suffrage in the election of dele-
gates for such county; and ail freemen so qualified shall, on the
first Monday of October, seventeen hundred and seventy-seven, and