ART. 31.] DEBT—PUBLIC. 611
P. G. L., (1860,) art. 34, sec 2. 1839, ch. 88, sec. 5.

2. The Messrs. Baring Brothers & Company, of London, are
hereby declared to be the agents of the State, for the payment of
the interest on its public debt there payable, with an allowance
of one per cent, commission for the service; and the treasurer
shall semi-annually, in April and October, transmit the amount of
finch interest, and all charges and duty, to the said Baring
Brothers & Company, for disbursement in payment of said
interest.

1888, ch. 201, sec. 1.

3. For the purposes of the conversion, extension, exchange
and redemption of the sterling indebtedness of this State, created
under the provisions of the act of eighteen hundred and thirty-
eight, chapter three hundred and eighty-six, amounting to nine
hundred thousand two hundred and fifty pounds sterling, a loan
is created, to be called " The exchange loan of eighteen hundred
and eighty-nine," to the amount of four millions three hundred
and eighty-one thousand and sixty-six dollars and sixty-three
cents, the same being the present value, in gold coin of the
United States, of the sterling indebtedness of this State, created
under said act, at the valuation of four dollars eighty-six cents
and six and a half tenths of a cent for each pound sterling, the
same being the exchangeable value of a pound sterling expressed
in the money of the United States, as declared by the secretary
of the treasury of the United States on the first day of Jan-
uary, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight; and said loan hereby
created, in all its parts, shall bear date of the first day of July
in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, and shall bear
interest at a rate to be fixed by the governor, comptroller of the
treasury, and the treasurer of this State, or a majority of them,
not exceeding three and sixty-five hundredths per centum per
annum, payable in gold coin of the United States on the first
days of January and July in each and every year; and it is de-
clared that said loan, and every part thereof, and the interest pay-
able thereon, shall be and remain exempted from all State, county
and municipal taxation, and that the principal amount of said loan
shall be redeemable at the pleasure of the State of Maryland,
after the first day of July in the year nineteen hundred and three.