1024 OFFICERS—DEFAULTERS. [ART. 69.

comptroller; and any notary public who shall violate this pro-
vision shall, for every such offence, be liable to a fine of five
hundred dollars, to be recovered by indictment in the circuit
court for the county or in the criminal court of Baitimore, as the
case may be, one-half for the use of the State and one-half for
the informer; but in no action or other proceedings in law or
equity shall any protests be rejected as evidence, if otherwise
admissible, on account of the absence of the stamp of the comp-
troller therefrom.

ARTICLE LXIX.

OFFICERS.

1. Ineligibility for failure to account 2. How far removed by accounting. 3. Governor to inquire before issuing commission 4. Quo warranto if commission has been inadvertently issued. 5. State's attorney's duty to inquire and institute proceedings 6. Advertisement of defaulting offi- cers before elections.

7. Inquiry by committee on elections, of two houses of assembly. 8 Quo warranto to be deemed suffi- cient 9. Acts while commission unan- nulled to be valid. 10. Poatmastetand deputies, U. S. marshal and deputies, not to hold State office: penalty 11. Sheriff, constable or collector of taxes, not to purchase debt; penalty,

F. G. L., (1860,) art. 69, sec. 1. 1856, ch. 16, sec. 1.

I. Every person who, since the adoption of the constitution of
1851, has become a collector, receiver or holder of public moneys,
and who has failed to fairly account with the treasury, and to
whom is charged on the books thereof any sum as due to the
State, shall be taken and deemed, to all intents and purposes, as
ineligible as senator or delegate, or to any office of profit or trust
under this State, until he shall have accounted for and paid into
the treasury all sums on the books thereof charged to and due by

him.