ART. III] LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT. 55

within fifteen years from the time of contracting the same; and the
taxes laid for this purpose shall not be repealed or applied to any other
object until the said debt and interest thereon shall be fully discharged.
The credit of the State shall not in any manner be given, or loaned to,
or in aid of any individual association or corporation; nor shall the
General Assembly have the power in any mode to involve the State in
the construction of Works of Internal Improvement, nor in granting
any aid thereto, which shall involve the faith or credit of the State;
nor make any appropriation therefor, except in aid of the construction
of Works of Internal Improvement in the counties of St. Mary's,.
Charles and Calvert, which have had no direct advantage from such
works as have been heretofore aided by the State; and provided that
such aid, advances or appropriations shall not exceed in the aggregate
the sum of five hundred thousand dollars. And they shall not use or
appropriate the proceeds of the Internal Improvement Companies, or
of the State tax, now levied, or which may hereafter be levied, to pay
off the public debt [or] to any other purpose until the interest and debt
are fully paid or the sinking fund shall be equal to the amount of the
outstanding debt; but the General Assembly may, without laying a tax

borrow an amount never to exceed fifty thousand dollars to meet tem-
porary deficiencies in the Treasury, and may contract debts to any
amount that may be necessary for the defence of the State.

The act of 1004, chapter 225, appropriating certain money from the
state treasurer to aid the different counties of the state In the construction
and repair of public roads, held not to be in conflict with this section, as
the term "works of internal improvements" as used in this section does not
apply to such public highways of the state as are constructed by the
counties and contemplated by the act of 1904. History of this section.
How the constitution should be construed. Bonsal v. Tellott, 100 Md. 497.
This section (as it stood in the constitution of 1851) did not deny to the
legislature the power to compromise and release claims of the state; hence
an act releasing sureties upon bonds of a collector of taxes, was held valid.
State v. Hendrickson, 15 Md. 207.

See notes to article 1, section 1, and article 14, section 1.

Sec. 35. No extra compensation shall be granted or allowed by the
General Assembly to any public Officer, Agent, Servant or Contractor,
after the service shall have been rendered, or the contract entered into;
nor shall the salary or compensation of any public officer be increased
or diminished during his term of office.

Where the fee table of justices of the peace is not affected by an act so
far as the costs to litigants is concerned, but is repealed by said act in so
far as it relates to the ultimate disposition of those fees, the act is valid.
See notes to article 4, section 42. Levin v. Hewes, 118 Md. 642.

Sec. 36. No Lottery grant shall ever hereafter be authorized by the
General Assembly.

In the adoption of this section, there was no design to interfere with
existing private lottery grants or to impair the existing power of the legis-
lature to regulate the same, or modify the means by which such grants
might be more effectually or speedily accomplished. Object and construc-
tion of this section. Lucas v. McBlair, 12 G. & J. 17.

For a case dealing with the provisions of the constitution of 1851 relative
to lotteries, see Broadbent v. State, 7 Md. 429.