1801.

NOVEMBER. LAWS OF MARYLAND.

CHAP.
LII.

ed,) among all the proprietors of the said company's stock, and shall, on every first Monday in
January and July in every year, publish the half yearly dividend to be made of the said clear profits
among the stockholders, and of the time and place when and where the same will be paid, and
shall cause the same to be paid accordingly.

An abstract to
be laid before
the assembly,
&c.

XIV. AND BE IT ENACTED, That the president and directors shall, at the end of every third
year after the choice of the first directors as aforesaid, lay before the general assembly of this
state an abstract of their accounts, shewing the whole amount of their capital expended in prose-
cution of the said work, and of the profits and income arising from said toil for and during the
said respective periods, together with an exact account of the cost and charges of keeping the
said road in repair, and all other contingent cost and .charges, to the end that the clear annual in-
come and profits thereof may be ascertained and known ; and if, at the end of three years after
the said road shall be completed from the beginning to the end thereof, it shall appear, from the
average profits of the said three years, that the said income and profits thereof will not bear a
dividend of fifteen per centum per annum on the whole capital stock of the said company so expend-
ed, then it shall and may be lawful to and for the said president and directors to increase the tolls
herein allowed so much upon each and every allowance thereof as will raise the dividends up to
fifteen per centum per annum, in which increase they shall be regulated by the net profits of the
preceding year.

Tolls may be
reduced, &c.

XV. AND BE IT ENACTED, That in case the said tolls, as hereby first established, shall, in
any one year from and after the term of three years after the completion of the said road, exceed
the net profits the sum of fifteen per centum per annum, then the legislature may, at any subsequent
session, and from time to time, reduce the said toils, provided, that when thus reduced they shall
not yield in the net profits a less sum than fifteen per centum per annum, and in making such reduc-
tion they shall be governed by the average of the clear income and profits arising from the tolls of
the three years next preceding such reduction.

CHAP. LIII

Passed 31st of
Dec. 1801

Preamble.

An ACT to correct an error in a certain deed therein mentioned.

WHEREAS it is represented to this general assembly, that Robert Pratt, late of Queen-
Anne's county, deceased, did, on the twenty-ninth day of March, seventeen hundred and
fifty-eight, execute a deed of bargain and sale to a certain David Simm, of said county, for part
of a tract of land, containing one hundred and fifty acres, more or less, lying and being in said
county, called Pratt's Choice Enlarged, it being in that part of Queen-Anne's county which has
since been included within the limits of Caroline county: And whereas it appears that an error
was committed in the location of said deed, by affixing the beginning thereof at the end of the
tenth line of the whole tract, instead of the twelfth, whereby the true intent and meaning of the
aforesaid deed appears to be defeated, being thrown quite off the original tract, except six acres
and one half, to the great injury of the purchaser aforesaid: And whereas it is also represented to
this general assembly, that the aforesaid Robert Pratt hath, (since the execution of the aforesaid
deed of bargain and sale and without making any alteration thereto,) died intestate, and without
heir, or leaving any person or persons capable in law to execute a conveyance of the land aforesaid
to the said David Simm, for remedy whereof,

Conveyance to
have operation
&c.

II. BE IT ENACTED, by the General Assembly of Maryland, That the conveyance made and executed
by the aforesaid Robert rratt to the aforesaid David Simm, off the twenty-ninth day of March,
seventeen hundred and fifty-eight, shall have, (to every intent and purpose,) the same operation
and effect, as to the conveying the part of a tract or parcel of land therein mentioned, as if the
beginning thereof had been expressly fixed at the end of the twelfth line of the resurvey of said
tract, bearing date the tenth day of June, seventeen hundred and fifty-six, any law, custom or
usage, to the contrary notwithstanding; provided nevertheless, that nothing herein contained
shall affect or defeat the legal right or claim of any citizen of this state to the said part of a tract
of land, or any part thereof, legally acquired before the passage of this act.

CHAP. LIV.

Passed 31st of
pec. 1801.

An ACT relating to the public roads in the several counties therein
mentioned.

Preamble.

WHEREAS the present mode of repairing the public roads in Saint-Mary's, Calvert, Charles,
Caroline and Dorchester counties, is found by experience to be expensive, and inadequate to

the