LAWS OF MARYLAND.— 1785.

203

may be of an equal or superior nature to the plaintiff's claim,
and judgment shall be given as aforesaid.

SEC. 8. And be it enacted, That the act of assembly passed
at a session of assembly begun and held at the city of Annapo-
lis on the tenth day of July, in the year one thousand seven

Part of an
act repealed

&c.

hundred and twenty nine, entitled, *an act providing what shall
be good evidence to prove foreign and other debts, and to pre-
vent vexatious and unnecessary suits at law, pleading discounts
in bar, and for repealing an act of assembly therein mentioned,
and every part and clause thereof, except the clause repealing
the act therein mentioned, be and hereby is repealed; provided
nevertheless, that all debts and accounts heretofore proved
agreeably to the said act, or which may hereafter be proved
agreeably to the rules prescribed by the said act on or before the
first day of November next, shall be good and sufficient in law
to all such intents and purposes as if the said law had not been
repealed ; and provided also, that all accounts for any sum not
exceeding thirty pounds current money in the course of any
whole year, and proved agreeably to the said act, may be evi-
dence as before the passing this act until the first day of Janu-
ary, seventeen hundred and eighty-nine, and after that time any
account not exceeding ten pounds current money in the course
of any whole year may be proved and received in evidence as
aforesaid.

CHAPTER 47.

* Chap. 20.

A SUPPLEMENT to the act, entitled, *An act directing the proceedings
against persons guilty of fornication.
See 1796, ch. 34, by which a justice may pass an order on the father for
the payment of an annual sum to the mother.

*1781, ch.
13.

WHEREAS by the above recited act no direction is given to
any justice of the peace, by whom a recognizance may be taken
as security to indemnify a county from any charge that may
accrue by means of an illegitimate child, to return such recog-
nizance to the county court of his county, or to any county
clerk to record such recognizance if so returned, by reason
whereof the good citizens of the several counties of this state
are liable, notwithstanding the said act, to become oftentimes
burthened with the maintenance of such illegitimate children ;

Preamble.

SEC. 2. Be it enacted, by the General Assembly of Maryland,
That every justice of the peace within this state, by whom any
recognizance as aforesaid may be taken, shall return the same
to the next county court to be held for his county, and that the
clerk of the same court shall, within a reasonable time after such
return, record the said recognizance among the proceedings of
the said court; and the several county courts shall, when
necessary, issue such process thereon as may be requisite to

Justices to
return re-
cognizances
&c.