THE NINTH SEAL.

The seal of 1817 remained the seal of the State until
1854, when the apparatus called "the Great Seal" had
become so worn that a new one had to be made. Governor
Enoch Louis Lowe called attention to the inappropriateness
of the State seal, and he suggested that the new seal bear
the arms of the State. The Legislature of that year
ordered a new seal. There was no longer a Governor's
Council in existence to make and unmake seals. The Leg-
islature intended to return to the old seal of the Province.
In the preparation of the Seal it bad evidently recourse to
a rough wood-cut, printed on the title page of Bacon's Laws
of Maryland, 1765, and some errors contained in it were
reproduced. One of the officers of State, for political
reasons, still further mutilated the seal byputting an Amer-
ican eagle on the device in place of the ancient crest.

THE TENTH AND PRESENT SEAL.

The attention of the Legislature of 1874 having been
attracted to the errors in the Great Seal, a joint resolution
was adopted looking to their correction. Reference having
been made to Bacon's wood-cut as the model of the new
seal, Governor James Black Groome determined not to
take any action, and thereby prevent the perpetuation of
the errors sought to be corrected. He brought the matter
to the notice of the Legislature of 1876. A carefully pre-
pared resolution was then adopted restoring the seal to the
exact description given of it in Lord Baltimore's Commis-
sion to Governor Stone, on August 12,1648, and this is the
Great Seal of Maryland today.

The Great Seal is in the custody of the Secretary of
State but the Governor has the control and use of it when-
ever necessary for any purpose provided for by the Consti-
tution and laws, or when needed to authenticate communi-
cations between this State and the United States, the State
and territories thereof, and foreign States; in all which
cases the Great Seal shall be used; and the Secretary of the
Senate and Chief Clerk of the House of Delegates, respect-
ively, shall have unrestricted access to and use of the Great
Seal, for the purpose of affixing the same to bills which
shall have passed the General Assembly preparatory to
presenting the same to the Governor for his approval.