78 CONSTITUTION OF MARYLAND.

Sec. 23. The Secretary of State shall carefully keep and preserve a
record of all official acts and proceedings, which may at all times be
inspected hy a committee of either branch of the Legislature; and he shall
perform such other duties as may be prescribed by law, or as may properly
belong to his office, together with all clerical duty belonging to the Executive
Department.

The record kept by the secretary of state under this section is competent evidence
to prove that a bill was presented to the Governor for his approval on a day other
than the day endorsed thereon. Lankford v. Somerset County, 73 Md. 108.

ARTICLE III.

LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT.

Section 1. The Legislature shall consist of two distinct branches—a
Senate and a House of Delegates—and shall be styled the General Assem-
bly of Maryland.

Under the Constitution, the power to enact laws belongs to the general assembly,
composed of the senate and house of delegates; the power thus delegated cannot be
re-delegated to the people themselves; the legislature may, however, confer upon
municipal corporations the power to pass local laws. Bradshaw v. Lankford, 73 Md.
430.

The meaning of the term " general assembly " as used in this section, referred to
in determining that the Governor was not embraced in that term as used in art. 14,
sec. 1—see notes thereto. Warfield v. Vandiver, 101 Md. 111.

This section referred to in construing art. 3, sec. 29—see notes thereto. Postal
Tel. Co. v. State, 110 Md. 612.

See notes to sec. 30.

Sec. 2. The City of Baltimore shall be divided into six legislative
districts as near as may be of equal population and of contiguous territory,
and each of said legislative districts of Baltimore City, as they may from
time to time be laid out, in accordance with the provisions hereof, and
each county in the State, shall be entitled to one Senator, who shall be
elected by the qualified voters of the said legislative districts of Baltimore
City and of the counties of the State, respectively, and shall serve for four
years from the date of his election, subject to the classification of Senators
hereafter provided for.1

See arts. 11 and 17 of the Md. Constitution.

Sec. 3. Until the taking and publishing of the next National Census,
or until the enumeration of the population of this State, under the author-
ity thereof, the several counties and the City of Baltimore shall have a
representation in the House of Delegates, as follows: Allegany, five Dele-
gates ; Anne Arundel County, three Delegates; Baltimore County, six
Delegates; each of the three Legislative Districts of the City of Baltimore,
six Delegates; Calvert County, two Delegates; Caroline County, two Dele-
gates; Carroll County, four Delegates; Cecil County, four Delegates;
Charles County, two Delegates; Dorchester County, three Delegates; Fred-
erick County, six Delegates; Harford County, four Delegates; Howard

1 Thus amended by the act of 1922, ch. 7, ratified November, 1922.