PHILLIPS LEE GOLDSBOROUGH, ESQ., GOVERNOR. 841

37. The comptroller is authorized and empowered to adjust
and settle the claims of the State against all collectors, sheriffs,
clerks of courts, registers of wills and other collectors or receiv-
ers of public money and their sureties, and against corpora-
tions and individuals who may be indebted to the State in all
cases where said claims accrued prior to and including the year
1910, and whether said claims be in the form of judgment
or otherwise; and for the purpose of closing all such cases the
comptroller is fully authorized to compromise the same by
abating the interest that has accrued, or any portion thereof,
or any part of the principal debt, in his discretion, so as best
to subserve the interest of the State, and shall grant discharge
to said parties and their sureties upon the payment into the
treasury of the amount required by him to be paid in settle-
ment as aforesaid; the comptroller shall be satisfied after thor-
ough examination into the claims that the same could not be
collected by the State by legal process; and further, that the
Governor and treasurer for the time being shall each approve
in writing any such abatement before the same shall be effec-
tive; and provided, further, that no discharge or acquittance
under this section shall be effective unless the party or parties
to be benefited shall first pay the attorneys who shall have the
case in hand the legal fees and fees of clerks and sheriffs.

SEC. 2. And be it enacted, That anything contained in sec-
tion 1 of this act shall be deemed or construed to in any man-
ner release or waive any rights which the State of Maryland
may have against any persons mentioned in said section 1 or
shall be deemed to abate or suspend any pending prosecutions
or claims in connection with the matters contained therein.

SEC. 3. And be it enacted, That this act shall take effect
from the date of its passage.

Approved April 11, 1912.

CHAPTER 575.

AN ACT to appropriate a sum of money for a repair fund and
refurnishing fund for the Executive Mansion and grounds.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Mary-
land, That the Comptroller of the State is hereby directed to
issue his warrant upon the Treasurer of the State for the sum
of ten thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necesary
to defray the expense of repairing the Executive Mansion and
refurnishing the interior thereof, this to include new furniture,
wall papering, frescoing, as well as installing new plumbing;