LAWS OF MARYLAND— 1785.

saw

been made to the westward of Fort Cumberland under warrant
granted before the sixth of October, seventeen hundred and
seventy-four, the quantity expressed in which has been exceed-
ed above one-fourth, and the whole caution money due on the
certificates thereof hath been paid to the treasurer, under the

* act allowing a longer time to compound on old certificates, and
making further regulations respecting the sale of vacant lands,
on or before the first of November, seventeen hundred and

*April 1782
ch. 38.

eighty- two, or under the t act allowing a longer time to com-
pound on old certificates, on or before the first of July, seven-
teen hundred and eighty-three, and the proprietors of the said
certificates cannot in such cases obtain patents, to the great
injury of the said proprietors, and the injury of the state in
delaying the settlement and improvement of the lands mentioned
in the certificates aforesaid.

t Nov. 1782,
ch. 5.

SEC. 2. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland,
That in all cases where it shall appear to the chancellor, by an
examination in the manner prescribed by the first aforesaid act,
that the certificate of any survey which hath exceeded the
quantity expressed in the warrant more than one-fourth, and
which hath been compounded for as aforesaid, was bona fide
the property of some citizen of this state, or of some one of the

Proprietors
entitled to
a grant, &c.

United States, at the time of passing the act, entitled, *an act
to appropriate certain lands to the use of the officers and soldiers
of this state, and for the sale of vacant lands, and that the pro-
prietor of such certificate is, in equity and justice, and agreea-
bly to the rules and practice of the examiner-general under the
old government in passing certificates in which the quantity of
land expressed in the warrant is exceeded, and of issuing grants
on such certificates, entitled to a grant for the same, then and in
such case the chancellor may order a grant to issue for the same ;
but if it shall appear to the chancellor, by an examination in
the manner as aforesaid, that any such certificate, at the time of
passing the said last aforesaid act, was not bona fide the pro-
perty of some citizen of this state, or some one of the United
States, or that the proprietor of such certificate is not justly and
equitably entitled to a grant for the same, in such case he shall
endorse on the said certificate his order or decree that the said
certificate is void and of no effect; and the intendant, or any
other person who shall be authorized to draw on the treasury,
shall give the proprietor of such a certificate an order on the
treasury of the western shore for the caution or composition
money which hath been paid for such certificate, which order
shall be discharged out of any money not specially appropriated,
and the treasurer shall thereupon retain the said certificate as a
voucher.

*Nov. 1781,
ch. 20.