PHILLIPS LEE GOLDSBOROUGH, GOVERNOR. 445

Albert Mays, Arthur W. Shanklin, C. Lyon Rogers and N. Bos-
ley Merryman, acting for and on their own behalf and as well
on behalf of the personal representatives and heirs of Henry C.
Hutchins, William Parks, Henry J. Hebb, George W. Morgan,
Alfred Fowble and William B. Cochran, deceased, have peti-
tioned for their release from any and all claims which the State
of Maryland might otherwise have or maintain against them
or any of them on account of fees and commissions collected
by them as Treasurers of Baltimore County since April 5, 1878,
down until the present time;

AND WHEREAS, It appears from an investigation of the facts
and circumstances under which said fees and commissions were
collected and retained by said Treasurers that fairness and jus-
tice require the release of such claims, if any such the State of
Maryland may have, in that Chapter 494 of the Acts of 1878,
and its amendments, under which said fees and commissions
were collected, expressly provided that the same should be re-
tained by said Treasurers for the services therein prescribed by
them to be performed, and contained no intimation that the same
should be accounted for to the State of Maryland;
and for the further reason that since the enactment of said
Chapter 494 of the Acts of 1878 all State taxes due and col-
lectible in Baltimore County have been collected and turned over
to the State of Maryland by said successive Treasurers without
any deduction for the making of such collection, wherefore, the
State has received a far greater net return from taxes due it in
Baltimore County than it would have received under the law
which was in force prior to the enactment of said Chapter 494
of the Acts of 1878, and for the further reason that the General
Assembly of Maryland has since the enactment of said Act of
1878 by twelve separate laws duly enacted, acquiesced in the in-
terpretation placed upon said Chapter 494 of the Acts of 1878
by said successive Treasurers with full knowledge that under
said interpretation said Treasurers were retaining for their own
use said fees and commissions, and said General Assembly by
said subsequent enactments recognized the right of said Treas-
urers to the same in addition to the salary paid them by the
County Commissioners of Baltimore County under the pro-
visions of said Act; now, therefore,

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Mary-
land, That J. Harman Schone, George W. Yellott, G. Albert