34 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONVENTION [1775.

present upon the trial, and should declare the same viva voce; pro-
vided such witness or witnesses cannot be had at the trial of the
cause in which such depositions shall be taken.

Resolved, That no civil original writ, suit, or action shall be
commenced or renewed in any court of law, or any magistrate's
warrant of a civil nature issued, within this province, after publica-
tion and due notice of this resolve, unless in the following cases,
to wit; actions founded in wrong done to the person or property;
such as ejectment, trespass, trover, replevin, detinue; also all real
actions, actions for words, and for money or tobacco actually had
and received by one person for the use of another; attachments under
the late act of assembly, and against persons non-resident; actions or
process on loan office bonds; without the license or permission
of the committee of observation of the county where the debtors or
defendants reside, which shall or may be granted in the instances
and manner heroin after mentioned, and not otherwise; that the
said committees respectively do, upon application, give license for
bringing or prosecuting suits in the following cases, that is to say;
when debtors refuse to renew their obligations or other securities,
or to give reasonable security, or to liquidate and settle their ac-
counts and give promissory notes for the balances, or to refer their
disputes, if any, to one or more indifferent persons, or are justly sus-
pected of intention to leave the province, or to defraud their cre-
ditors; and that the said committees may in their discretion grant
licenses in the following cases, to wit, for the bringing actions by
and against executors and administrators, as such, and their secu-
rities, and for the bringing actions against guardians for the re-
covery of filial portions, or the rents and profits of orphans' estates.

Resolved, That no execution shall issue upon any judgment ob-
tained in the provincial court after April term last, or in the county
courts after the last March adjourned courts, without such license
as aforesaid, save only in the cases above specified, or where the
original actions shall be brought by license from the committee of
observation.

Resolved, That the committees of observation now in being in
each county, and the committees of Frederick county, in their re-
spective districts, meet as soon as they conveniently can, after pub-
lication and due notice of these resolves, and that committees here-
after to be chosen, meet as soon as they conveniently can, at the
court house, or some other place agreed upon by themselves, and
appoint by the ballot, seven of their number to be a committee for
licensing suits; which said committee shall meet on the first and