THOMAS SWANN, ENQUIRE, GOVERNOR. 175

CHAPTER 1116. AN ACT to amend the thirty-seventh Article of the Public General Laws, by repealing the se- cond section of said Article, relating to the com- petency of witnesses, and the examination of parties, as amended by the Act of eighteen hun- dred and sixty-four, Chapter one hundred and nine, and inserting in said Article in lieu of the section so repealed the following section relating to the competency of witnesses and the examina- tion of parties.
SECTION 1 . Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland, That the second section of the thirty- seventh Article of the Public General Laws be and the same is hereby repealed, and that the follow-	Repealed.
ing section be inserted in said Article as a substi- tute for and in lieu of the said section so repealed.	Substituted.
When an original party to a contract or caqse of action is dead, or shown to be lunatic or insane, or when an executor or administrator is a party to the suit, action or other proceeding, either party may be called as a witness by his opponent, but shall not be admitted to testify on his own offer or upon the call of his co-plaintiff or co-defendant otherwise than now by law allowed, unless a	Witness.
nominal party merely ; provided, that when an executor or administrator, guardian or committee of a lunatic or insane person is a party to. the suit, action or other proceeding when the cause of ac- tion has arisen on a contract made with such ex- ecutor, administrator, guardian or committee, or out of transactions between such executor, admin- istrator, guardian or committee and the other party, or when the executor, administrator, guar- dian or committee testifies as to any conversation had with the other porty, either party may be ex- amined as a witness, as provided for in the other sections of this Article. Approved March 6, 1868.	Proviso.