68

LAWS OF MARYLAND.

Legalizing the

Proprietary Government, and which is still known as the Mary-

State flag.

land Flag, has never been formally adopted by Maryland as

a State, its use having been continued by common consent only;

and,

WHEREAS, It is not only desirable that the official Flag of

The flag of the
Province.

Maryland should be formally adopted and legalized, but it is

eminently fitted that, by reason of its historic interest and

meaning, as well as for its beauty and harmony of colors,

the flag adopted should be the one which, from the earliest

settlement of the Province to the present time, has been

known and distinguished as the Flag of Maryland; therefore,

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Mary-

Description
and colors of

land, That the flag heretofore and now in use, and known as

same.

the Maryland Flag, be and the same is hereby legalized and

adopted as the Flag of the State of Maryland, which said flag

is particularly described, as to coloring and arrangement, as

follows: Quartered — the first and fourth quarters being paly

of six pieces, or and sable, a bend dexter counterchanged; the

second and third, quarterly, argent and gules, a cross bottony

countersigned; that is to say, the first and fourth quarters con-

sist of six vertical bars alternately gold and black with a

diagonal band on which the colors are reversed, the second

and third consisting of a quartered field of red and white,

charged with a Greek Cross, its arms terminating in trefoils,

with the coloring transposed, red being on the white ground

and white on the red, and all being as represented upon the

escutcheon of the present Great Seal of Maryland.

SEC. 2. And be it enacted. That the Flag of Maryland shall

When to be
displayed.

be displayed from the State House at Annapolis, Maryland,

continuously during the session of the General Assembly, and

on such other public occasions as the Governor of the State

shall order and direct, the flag always to be so arranged upon

the flag-staff as to have the black stripe on the diagonal bands

of the first quartering at the top of the staff as represented in

the illustration of the Maryland Flag in "Chronicles of Colo-

nial Maryland. "

SEC. 3. And be it enacted, That this Act shall take effect

from the date of its passage.

Approved March 9, 1904.

CHAPTER 49.

AN ACT to repeal Sections 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 of Chapter

386 of the Acts of 1902, entitled "An Act to amend the Char-