130 CONSTITUTION OF MARYLAND. [ART. III

Sec. 24. The House of Delegates may inquire, on the oath
of witnesses, into all complaints, grievances and offences, as
the Grand Inquest of the State, and may commit any person
for any crime to the public jail, there to remain until dis-
charged by due course of law. They may examine and pass
all accounts of the State, relating either to the collection or
expenditure of the revenue, and appoint auditors to state and
adjust the same. They may call for all public or official papers
and records, and send for persons whom they may judge
necessary, in the course of their inquiries, concerning affairs
relating to the public interest, and may direct all office bonds
which shall be made payable to the State to be sued for any
breach thereof; and with the view to the more certain preven-
tion or correction of the abuses in the expenditures of the
money of the State, the General Assembly shall create, at
every session thereof, a Joint Standing Committee of the
Senate and House of Delegates, who shall have power to send
for persons and examine them on oath and call for public or
official papers and records, and whose duty it shall be to
examine and report upon all contracts made for printing,
stationery and purchases for the public offices and the library,
and all expenditures therein, and upon all matters of alleged
abuse in expenditures, to which their attention may be called
by resolution of either House of the General Assembly.

Marshall v Harwood, 7 Md. 466.

Sec. 25. Neither House shall, without the consent of the
other, adjourn for more than three days at any one time, nor
adjourn to any other place than that in which the House shall
be sitting, without the concurrent vote of two-thirds of the
members present.

Sec. 26. The House of Delegates shall have the sole power
of impeachment in all cases; but a majority of all the mem-
bers elected must concur in the impeachment. All impeach-
ments shall be tried by the Senate, and when sitting for that
purpose the Senators shall be on oath or affirmation to do
justice according to the law and the evidence; but no person
shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of all
the Senators elected.

Sec. 27. Any bill may originate in either House of the
General Assembly, and be altered, amended or rejected by the
other; but no bill shall originate in either House during the
last ten days of the session, unless two-thirds of the members