ber, for disrespectful or disorderly behavior in its presence,
or for obstructing any of its proceedings, or any of its officers
in the execution of their duties; provided, such imprisonment
shall not at any time exceed ten days.

SEC. 24. The House of Delegates may inquire, on the oath
of witness, into the complaints, grievances and offences) as
the grand inquest of the State, and may commit any person.
for any crime to the public jail, there to remain until dis-
charged by due course of law. They may examine and pass
all accounts of the State, relating either to the collection or
expenditure of the revenue, and appoint auditors to state and
adjust the same. They may call for all public or official pa-
pers and records, and send for persons whom they may judge
necessary, in the course of their inquiries, concerning affairs
relating to the public interest, and may direct all office bonds
which shall be made payable to the State to be sued for any
breach thereof; and with the view to the more certain pre-
vention or correction of the abuses in the expenditures of the
money of the State, the General Assembly shall create, at
every session thereof, a joint standing committee of the Sen-
ate and House of Delegates, who shall have power to send for
persons and examine them on oath and call for public or offi-
cial papers and records; and whose duty it shall be to ex-
amine and report upon all contracts made for printing, sta-
tionery, and purchases for the public offices and the library,.
and all expenditures therein, and upon all matters of alleged
abuse in expenditures, to which their attention may be called
by resolution of either House of the General Assembly.
Marshall vs. Harwood, 7 Md., 466. Cochran vs. State, 119 Md.

SEC. 25. Neither House shall, without the consent of the
other, adjourn for more than three days at any one time, nor
adjourn to any other place than that in which the House shall
be sitting, without the concurrent vote of two-thirds of the
members present.

SEC. 26. The House of Delegates shall have the sole power
of impeachment in all cases; but a majority of all the mem-
bers elected must concur in the impeachment. All impeach-
ments shall be tried by the Senate, and when sitting for that
purpose the Senators shall be on oath or affirmation to do jus-
tice according to the law and the evidence; but no person shall
be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of all the
Senators elected.

SEC. 27. Any bill may originate in either House of the
General Assembly and be altered, amended or rejected by the-
other, but no bill shall originate in either House during the
last ten days of the session, unless two-thirds of the members
elected thereto shall so determine by yeas and nays; nor shall
any bill become a law until it be read on three different days