300 MARYLAND MANUAL.
SEC. 23. Each House may punish by imprisonment during
the session of the General Assembly, any person not a mem-
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
Senate and House of Delegates, who shall have power to send
for persons and examine them on oath and call for public or
official 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.
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
justice according to the law and the evidence; but no person
shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of
all the Senators elected.
Sac. 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
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