ALBERT C. RITCHIE. GOVERNOR. 789

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Mary-
land, That Section 56 of Article 15 of the Code of the Public-
Local Laws of Maryland, title Kent County, '' sub-title ''Ches-
tertown, " be and the same is hereby repealed and re-enacted
with amendments so as to read as follows:

56. If any Commissioner so elected shall die, refuse to act,
resign or remove out of said town the remaining Commissioners
shall appoint a person duly qualified to fill said office, who shall
hold the same until the next annual election for Commissioners
when a successor shall be elected, whose tenure of office shall be
for the residue of the term so made vacant,

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That this Act is hereby
declared to be an emergency law and necessary for the immedi-
ate preservation of the public safety, and being passed upon a
yea and nay vote supported by three-fifths of all the members
elected to each of the two Houses of the General Assembly, the
same shall take effect from the date of its passage.

Approved April 9, 1924.

CHAPTER 268.

AN ACT to permit the consolidation and merger upon com-
pliance with the provisions of Section 48 of Article 48A
of the Code of Public General Laws of Maryland, of the
Standard Benefit Society, incorporated, and the National
Benefit Life Insurance Company, and to authorize and ap-
prove the agreement of consolidation entered into between
said Companies,

WHEREAS, The National Benefit Life Insurance Company,
a body corporate organized in the District of Columbia, under
the Statutes of the United States, heretofore acquired all the
capital stock of the Standard Benefit Society, Incorporated,
a body corporate organized under the laws of the State of
Maryland; and, that both corporations were engaged under
their respective charter rights in the business, among others,
of insuring lives, as well as writing accident and health in-
surance policies; and, that it was the desire and intent of the
stockholders, officers and directors of both said corporations
that they be consolidated and merged together as one cor-
poration, under the name of the National Benefit Life Insur-
ance Company, and, that all the assets and all the liabilities