1842

FRANCIS THOMAS, ESQUIRE, GOVERNOR,

CHAP. 29.

CHAPTER 29.

Passed Jan.
20, 1843.

Preamble.

An act authorising Gates to be kept on the public roads in
Talbot county, except those roads that the United States
mail passes over.
WHEREAS it has long been a practice of the citizens of Tal-
bot county, owning or residing on lands through which pub-
lic roads pass, to keep gates on said roads for their own
use and convenience without any legal authority, and where-
as, the county court at its May term of eighteen hundred
and forty two, after a full investigation of the subject, de-
cided that gates on the public roads were public nuisances,
thereby subjecting the owners or keepers of them to all the
penalties imposed by law on such as shall impair or ob-
struct the public highways, whereby the real estates of
many citizens would be rendered of little value and some
of them totally ruined for want of materiels to enclose their
fields — therefore,

Gates— how
to be kept.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of
Maryland, That from and after the passage of this act, it
shall and may be lawful for any of the Citizens of Talbot
county, to keep on the public roads in said county, such gates
as are now erected on the public roads for their own pri-
vate use and convenience, except those roads that the
United States mail passes over, upon the express conditions
following: all and every owner as owners of a gate or gates
kept on the public roads shall have his, her or their gate
or gates hung on good and substantial posts, with good and
sufficient iron hinges, and shall keep the same in good repair
so as to impead as little as possible, persons travelling with
carriages of pleasure or burthen.

Penalty.

SEC. 2. And be it enacted, That if any person or persons
after the passage of this act, shall cut down, destroy, take
away, or remove any of the said gates, upon conviction
thereof before a single magistrate, shall forfeit and pay to
to the owners of such gate a sum not less than one nor more
than ten dollars for every such offence, to be recovered as
small debts are out of Court.

Slaves — pun-
ishment,

SEC. 3. And be it enacted, That if any slave shall cut
down, destroy, injure, or willingly leave open, any gate on
the public roads, such slave shall be punished for every
such offence, on conviction before a justice of the peace, on
oath of one or more witnesses, by whipping, in the discre-
tion of said justice, not exceeding for each offence ten lashes;
and provided also, that no person shall be fined, or slave be
punished, under the provisions of this act in any case where
such gates shall be found carelessly standing open, not hung
upon good iron hinges, or otherwise in bad order or repair.