within two years, from the respective dates
thereof.
Sec. 22. The credit of the State shall not, in
any manner be given or loaned to, or in aid of
any individual, association or corporation.
Sec. 23. This State shall never embark in
works of internal improvement, nor in pecuniary
adventures of any kind.
And then the Convention adjourned until to-
morrow at ten o'clock.
WEDNESDAY, Feburuary 26, 1851.
The Convention met at ten o'clock.
Prayer by the Her. Mr. GRIFFITH.
The roll was called, and the journal of yester-
day was read and approved.
ALLEGANY COUNTY..
Mr. SMITH, from the select committee on new
counties, submitted the following
REFORT:
When that part of Allegany, lying south and
west of a line beginning at the summit of Big
Back Bone, or Savage Mountain; where the
Mountain is crossed by Mason and Dixon's line,
and running thence by a straight line to the mid-
dle of Savage river, where it empties into the
Potomac river, thence by a straight line to the
nearest point or boundary of the State of Vir-
ginia; then with said boundary to the Fairfax
Stone, shall contain a population of ten thou-
sand, and the majority of electors thereof shall
desire to separate and form a new county, and
make known their desires by petition to the Le-
gislature, the Legislature shall direct at the next
succeeding election, that the judges shall open a
book at each election district in said part of Al-
legany county, and have recorded therein the
vote of each elector, "for or against," a new
county, in case the majority, (or two-thirds) are
in favor, the said part of Allegany county, to be
declared an independent county, and the inhabi-
tants whereof shall have and enjoy all such rights,
and privileges as are held and enjoyed by the in-
habitants of the other counties in this State.
Mr. SMITH said, he made the report, with the
concurrence of the committee, at this time, be-
cause it was connected with the report of the
committee on the Legislative Department now
under consideration,
The report was read, and ordered to be print-
ed. and laid on the table, to be called up here-
after.
INTOXICATING DRINKS.
Mr. HARBINE, presented a petition of sundry
citizens of Washington county, praying that pro-
vision may be made in the new Constitution, that
the privilege to sell intoxicating liquors shall not
be granted to any person in any part of the State,
except the same shall first be sanctioned, or ap-

proved of by a majority of the votes in the elec-
tion district where the same is to be sold.
Which was read, and
On motion of Mr. HARBINE,
Referred to committee No. 14.
THE LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT.
The Convention resumed the consideration of
the report of the committee on the Legislative
Department of the Government.
THE FINANCES.
Mr. JACOBS inquired of the Chair, whether it
was now in order to move an additional article ?
The PRESIDENT said, it was in order.
Mr. JACOBS moved to amend said report by in-
serting as the twenty-second section, the follow-
ing :
'The present financial system of this State,
shall remain inviolate until the State debt and in-
terest thereon are fully paid; or the sinking fund
be sufficient for the payment thereof, after which
the Legislature shall provide by law for the an-
nual distribution amongst the counties and city of
Baltimore of this State, of the nett revenues of
the several works of Internal Improvements, in
the proportion which by taxation they shall have
contributed to the same."
The amendment having been read—
Mr. JACOBS said that his motive in offering it
was to show to the people the sincerity of the
purposes or this Convention, that they intended
to adhere to the present financial system until the
debt was paid—and that it was intended, after
the debt should have been paid to secure to them
something in return for the taxes they had con-
tributed. The people whom he represented
looked to the adoption of some such provision
with great solicitude; and good faith to the peo-
ple, generally, required, he thought, that some-
thing of this soil should he inserted in the Con-
stitution.
Mr. DONALDSON called for a division of the ques-
tion.
The PRESIDENT said, in the judgment of the
Chair the amendment was susceptible of two di-
visions.
Mr. BROWN suggested that the amendment, in
his opinion, went further than the gentleman
from Worcester, (Mr. Jacobs,) designed that it
should go. If the gentleman designed that there
should be no reduction of taxes until the entire
debt was paid, then it would follow that there
must be a large surplus in the Treasury. The
system, it seemed to him, (Mr. B.,) would not
work well. He should be compelled to vote
against it.
Mr. JACOBS I do not propose that the present
system shall continue in force beyond the time
when the sinking fund shall be swelled to an
amount sufficient to meet the payment of the
State bonds, as they may, from time to time, be-
come due. Immediately after the debt shall have
been paid off, the distribution, proposed by my
article, will commence. Hence, after the debt
is paid, there can never be any surplus in the