oath, and to incur fewer penalties for offending against this act; and to counterfeit any of these bills, or
to forge any bills of exchange directed to be drawn by this act, or knowingly to offer or cause to be offered
in payment, &c. is made a capital offence.
    When the printing shall have been finished, the commissioners are to sign and number bills to the
amount of 300,000 dollars, and then to number counterparts.  The signed bills are to be deposited in
one of the iron chests in the paper currency office, having two locks of different constructions, and each
commissioner us to keep one key, to the intent that neither may have access to the money unless in the
presence of the other.  The chest is to be kept in the repository.  All their business is to be transacted in
that office, and they are to keep a fair account thereof, to be submitted, at each session, to the inspection of
a committee of both houses, which is to report upon their conduct, and upon the state of their office.
    This emission is for the purpose of making loans to the inhabitants of Maryland only.  The commissioners
are to give notice four weeks successively in Mr. Green's paper, of the day when they shall commence
loaning; and they are to give preference to those who shall first make personal application to them at
their office; but no person, within the first six months, shall borrow more than 1000, or less than 100
dollars, or after the first six months, less than 100.  Wherever the sum lent shall not exceed 3000, the
borrower must enter into bond with one security at least.  No bond shall be taken for more than that
sum, and no person shall be taken for more than that sum lent to one person, or for more than 4000 dollars
lent to different persons.  All obligors, as securities, must have fee-simple estates, lying within the
province, free from incumbrance, and of double the value of the sum or sums for which they shall be
bound.  And that the commissioners may not be deceived, they are entitled to search all records, and
thence make transcripts without paying any fee.
    The penalty of every bond taken by them must be double the sum sent, which is to bear an interest of
four per cent. and the whole real estate of the obligors, into whatever hands it may fall, by descent or
purchase from them, is to be bound by their obligations.  And if it shall prove necessary to sue for the
money lent, the commissioners are to direct the clerk of the provincial court to record the bond, and to
issue process for all the obligors, or the heirs, executors, administrators or devisees, to shew cause why
execution should not issue; and if the process be served twenty days before court, and no appearance be
entered at court, or if, after appearance, no cause be shewn, then execution shall issue, at the direction of
the commissioners, according to the nature of the case.
    If any obligor shall have aliened his land or any part thereof, the commissioners, to obtain execution on
the land, shall proceed in the same manner against the alienee.  And where process shall be duly served,
the court shall oblige all defendants to plead the first term, and proceed to trial, unless affidavit be made
respecting absent witnesses, in which case the court may, at discretion, grant an imparlance.
    Goods or lands, taken by execution, shall be sold by the officer to whom it shall be directed, upon giving
ten days notice by advertisement, in the most public places of the county, of the sale of goods, and
thirty days like notice, and three weeks publication thereof in the Maryland gazette, of the sale of lands.
    If any surety shall, when called upon, discharge a bond, it shall be assigned to him under the hands and
seals of the commissioners, and he shall be entitled in his own name to such process and execution as is
given to them; and they are directed, without fee, to inform any inquirer, whether any person named to
them be a debtor under this act, and, if he be, of the amount of his debt
    The bonds may at any time be discharged by any obligor with the bills emitted under this act, or the
act of November, 1766, ch. 26, or in Spanish dollars at 4f6 per dollar, in English coined silver at its
sterling value, English guineas at 21f, half-joes, weighing 9dwts. at 36f, moidores, weighing 6dwts.
18gr. at 27f, Spanish pistoles, weighing 4dwts. 6gr. at 16fb, and any other gold coin of the fineness of
Spanish or Portugal coin, at 77fb per oz.  The specie and the bills of this emission, paid in before the
period of redemption, are to be let out again on the same terms.  The bills under the act of 1766, however,
are to be kept separate and to be subject to inspection as directed in that act; but these commissioners
are to have the custody of the keys mentioned in that act, the charge of the repository, the iron chest, and
the bills, and they, instead of a committee, are to exchange torn and defaced bills, discharge public claims,
and correspond with the trustees in London.  They are likewise to perform the duties of the one commissioner
mentioned in that act.
    They are to bring suit against all who shall fail to pay interest within three months after the same shall
be due; and if they do not bring suit within six months, their own bonds are to answer for the principal,
and compound interest, until the actual payment of the principal and interest due from the defaulting debtor.
    Whenever exchange shall be above par, they are not to let out bills of credit, but they are to draw
bills, at 30 days sight, for any part of the £. 10,000 hereafter mentioned, and sell them, but not below
par, for specie or bills of credit.  They may likewise draw on the executors of Thomas Hunt, who was
the executor of William Hunt, for £, 476 0 10 sterling, belonging to the province, and receive from
Jonathan Smith, a public debtor, the sum of £. 185 5 0 currency.  All lists and payments returned and
made heretofore to the treasurers, under the act of licensing ordinary keepers, &c. shall be returned and
made to them; the money which may arise from fines and forfeitures under this act is to be paid to them;
and the whole is to be loaned by them in the manner herein before directed.
    They are to exchange torn or defaced bills to be emitted under this act, to number and keep counterparts
of the new bills, and to keep the old ones for the inspection of the committee.
    This paper money is not to circulate longer than twelve years from the 10th of April next.  Within
the first six months of the last year, the commissioners are to call in all debts; and within the last six
months, any person shall be entitled to receive at the office, in exchange for these bills, a bill or bills of
exchange drawn on the trustees in London, at 40 days sight, or specie, as rated in this act.  During the
last year, no loans shall be made; but good bills of exchange, drawn on London, may be received
from debtors under this act, to be immediately remitted, and, if protested, to be immediately returned,
that the money and damages due thereon may be recovered and applied to the redemption of the bills of
credit.  Bonds, however, are not to be given up until the bills so paid by the obligors shall have been discharged
in London, or until the money and damages, due upon a protest, shall have been received.
    Osgood Hanbury, Sylvanus Grove, and James Russell, merchants in London, are appointed trustees to
transact business relative to our bank stock; and is that stock amounts to £. 34,000, and as the sum
of £. 24,000, with its accumulation, will be sufficient to sink the bills of the late emission, these gentlemen
are directed to sell out £. 10,000 in such parcels as they shall think best, at not less than 150 per
cent.  The money they are to retain for the purpose of discharging the bills that may be drawn on them
by the commissioners, and they are, immediately after such sales, to advise the commissioners thereof.

CHAP.
  XIV.