1892. ] OF THE SENATE. 593

Senate bill entitled an Act to prevent the adultera-
tion and to regulate the sale of milk.

Which was adopted.

Mr. Coffin, from a minority of the Committee on
Elections, submitted the following report in the con-
tested election case of Bird vs. Talbott:
MINORITY REPORT.
To the Senate of Maryland;

As a member of the Committe on Elections of the
Senate, to which were referred the memorial and
papers embodying the contested election case of
Samuel R. Bird against Joseph F. Talbott, who was
declared elected by the Governor, and became until
his recent death, the sitting member from Calvert
county. I am unable to concur in the opinions ex-
pressed by a majority of said Committee, and there-
fore beg leave to respectfully submit this statement
of my conclusions, in the shape of a minority report.

1st. As to the facts in this case there is little or no
controversy and they seem, with one or two immater-
ial exceptions, to be correctly stated in the report of
the Committee. The conclusions arising from these
facts, however, leave room for great differences of
opinion.

With some of the conclusions of the Committee
upon the admitted facts I am unable to agree, and
especially with the insidious suggestion contained in
the following portion of their report, viz:

"The Committee find from the evidence that the
Democratic Supervisor of Elections did deliver the
official ballots in proper sealed packages to the Re-
publican Sheriff of the county, and said sheriff on the
morning of the election did deliver to the Judges of
Election of the Second Precinct what purported to be
the official ballots for said precinct, but on being
opened by said Judges was found not to be ballots,
but the local laws for the county. The proof does
not show how these local laws were substituted for
official ballots after the latter reached the sheriff's
hands. "

In this is contained the assumption and covert
charge, that whatever fraud there was in the said
38