408 CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS. [ART. 27

person shall enter any store, shop, dwelling-house, tobacco house or
warehouse, and shall feloniously sever or separate from the freehold
any pipe, water fixture or gas fixture, or any other article, or anything
attached or affixed thereto, with intent to feloniously steal, take and
carry away the same or any part thereof, he shall be deemed guilty of
felony, and shall be punished by imprisonment in the county or city
jail, or the penitentiary, at the discretion of the court for not less than
one year nor more than eight years; and it shall not be necessary to
charge in the indictment that the article or things were attached or
affixed to or a part of the freehold.

Larceny—Ships.

1904, art. 27, sec. 273. 1888. art. 27. sec. 168. 1860, art. 30, sec. 99. 1737, ch. 2.
see. 4. 1800, ch. 138. sec. 6.

297. Every person who shall be convicted of the crime of stealing
any ship, sloop or other vessel of seventeen feet keel or upwards, out
of any place within the body of any comity, or on the Chesapeake
hay, within the jurisdiction of the State of Maryland, and not within
the body of any county; or of the crime of counselling, hiring, aiding
or commanding any person to commit either of said offenses, or of the
crime of being accessory thereto, shall restore the vessel to the owner
thereof, or pay him the full value thereof, and also be sentenced to the
penitentiary for not more than twelve years nor less than eighteen
months.

Larceny—Tobacco Plants.

Ibid. sec. 274. 1888, art. 27, sec. 169. 1860, art. 30, sec. 104. 1819, ch. 88.

298. If any person shall secretly and feloniously steal, take and
carry away any tobacco plants, while growing -and belonging to any
inhabitant of this State, such person, upon conviction thereof, shall
suffer such punishment and undergo such confinement in the peniten-
tiary as if the said tobacco plants had been feloniously stolen, taken
and carried away after the same had been severed from the freehold.

Letters—Wrongfully Opening.

Ibid. sec. 275. 1888. art. 27. sec. 170. 1860, art. 30, sec. 105. 1713, ch. 2,
sec. 8. 1790. ch. 51, sec. 11.

299. If any person whatsoever shall presume to take and break
open any letter whatsoever, not being unto him directed, or not hav-
ing special license from the person to whom the same is directed, his
executors or administrators, so to do, he shall, upon conviction thereof,
suffer imprisonment for six days and be fined fifteen dollars, one-half
to the State and the other half to the informer.

Ibid. sec. 276. 1888. art. 27, sec. 171. 1860, art. 30, sec. 106. 1713, ch. 2,
sec. 9. 1790, ch. 51, sec. 11.

300. If any person shall wilfully break the seal of any letter or
package belonging to the public, he shall, on conviction thereof, be fined