1874.] OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES. 733

The Speaker laid before the House the following communi-
cation from Hon. A. K. Syester, Attorney-General of the
State, in response to an order of the House:

OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL,

Hagerstown, March 10th, 1874.
To the Honorable the House of Delegates:

GENTLEMEN:—I am in receipt of the order of the House of
Delegates, of the 6th, which I am asked to furnish "the Select
Committee of the House, appointed to consider the matter,
with the information as to whether or not it is competent to
the Legislature to amend the charter of the Baltimore and
Fredericktown Turnpike Company, so as to procure the paving
of that portion of the Company's Road lying within the City
of Baltimore."

The charter of this Company was granted many years be-
fore the adoption of the Constitution of 1851. The Legisla-
ture, in that Act of Incorporation, did not reserve the right to
alter or amend the charter, and it is not competent to so
amend the charter as to impose on the Company any duty or
obligation not mentioned in the charter. There have been
amendments to the charter of the Company, but none since
1851, and in none of these amendments is the power to alter
or amend reserved.

If by the expression in the order before me, "procuring the
paving," &c.,is meant so to change the charter of that Com-
pany as to require it to pave that part of its Road, it is quite
plain to my mind that it cannot be done.

No amendment of the charter of this Company, not accept-
ed by the Company, could be effectual to alter or change that
instrument. Certainly not effectual in imposing duties and
obligations on the Company, not mentioned in the original
Act or some one of its amendments.

I am, very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

A. K. SYESTER.

Which was read and referred the Select Committee on that
subject.

Mr. Mackey presented the petition of Jos. R. Brown and
sixty-two other citizens, asking for a change in the law re-
lating to the present system of serving summons in Cecil
county.

Which was read and referred to the Cecil delegation.