1861,] OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES. 331

3d. The memorial of Charles Murdocck, asking relief by a
modification of his contracts with the directors of the Peni-
tentiary and the equitable settlement of claims in dispute be-
tween them.

3d. An investigation of the manufacturing department of
the institution generally.

4th. An examination of the financial affairs and condition,
and,

5th. An enquiry into its general management and disci-
pline.

Taking the points to be examined in the order they appear,
the committee commenced with the memorial of Messrs. Du-
vall and Howard.

The memorial states that on the 3d of October, 1859., they
entered into a written contract with the Directors of the
Maryland Penitentiary for the rent of certain shops and yard
room, and the employment of convict labor in the manufac-
ture of barrels, and in the prosecution of that business had
invested a large amount of money in the purchase of patent
rights, machinery, and the necessary stock to carry it on suc-
cessfully, that while in the prosecution of a successful busi-
ness, on the 23d of December, 1860, their work shops were
fired by some of the convicts, and their property almost
destroyed, entailing, as they allege, a loss over and above the
amount of insurance of $23,150, and avers that said fire was
caused partly by the refusal of the Directors to permit them to
have their own watchman on the premises on Sunday, (the fire
having occurred on that day,) whereby their property was
left in an unprotected state on Sundays, and partly by a want
of proper discipline on the part of the officers of the institu-
tion, by which the convicts were enabled to obtain access to
the shops and commit the incendiary act; and the memorial-
ists plead that as the loss was by no act of their own, but was
indirectly caused by the officers of the State, as above stated,
that the Legislature should grant them relief by reimbursing
in whole, or in part, the loss sustained.

The magnitude of the claim, and the importance of it to the
memorialists, who were entirely ruined by the fire, as well as
to the State, whose finances are not in a condition to bear any
burdens that are justly avoidable, demanded of the committee
the most careful and thorough examination of the case, it was
conducted and argued by eminent counsel on both sides.
Numerous witnesses were examined, whose evidence will be
found in the proceedings of the committee, pages 1 to 53,