592 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Mar. 3,

OFFICE OF THE

CHIEF CLERK OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES,

March 3rd, 1874.

The following Act of Assembly was this day presented to
bis Excellency the Governor for his approval:

No. 61. An Act to provide for the defence of Officers of
Eegistration and Judges of Election who are or may be in~
dieted in the United States Court for acts done in the per-
formance of duties imposed by the Constitution and Laws of
this State, which acts are alleged to be in violation of the Act
of Congress approved May the 31st,1870,entitled "An Act to
enforce the rights of citizens of the United States to vote in
the several States of this Union, and for other purposes."

MILTON Y. KIDD,

Chief Clerk.

Charles J. Pennington Esq., Assistant Secretary of State,
delivered the following message from His Excellency, the
Governor:

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,

Annapolis, March 3rd, 1874.
To the House of Delegates ;

I return, without my signature, House Bill No. 52, entitled
" An Act to incorporate the town of Deer Park, in Garrett
county."

There are so many objectionable features in this bill, that
I am quite sure a careful reading of it will suggest to your
Honorable Body, that it must have passed under the impres-
sion that it was a "little local bill," which is too often the
specious cover for improvident legislation. The second sec-
tion not only gives jurisdiction to the Mayor and Common
Council over the territory included within the limits of the
town of Deer Park, but for half a mile in every direction
around it.

The third section provides that at the election for Mayor
and Common Council, residents without property, and non-
residents who hold five hundred dollars worth of real estate
in the town, shall vote, which, in regard to municipal cor-
porations, is certainly in opposition to the spirit of the Con-
stitution.

Section 12 gives the Town Bailiff the authority of a Con-
stable, as a conservator of the public peace.

Section 16 gives the Mayor and a Justice of the Peace
power to impose fines for a breach of the peace, and in case
of conviction, authority to imprison the, party convicted, in
Garrett county jail, or in some other place of confinement in
Deer Park, and if insolvent, the party, after forty-eight