ROBERT BOWIE, ESQUIRE, GOVERNOR. NOVEMBER,

1805.

lars for every such offence, one half of which sum shall be given to the informer, and the other half
thereof to be paid to the sheriff of the county where the recovery shall be had, to be by him paid
and accounted for to the justices of the levy court of said county, and by them applied towards de-
fraying the public charges of said county, to be recovered by action of debt, bill, plaint or informa-
tion, with full costs of suit, in any county court of this state where such offender or offenders shall
be apprehended or reside.

III. AND BE IT ENACTED, That if any slave shall fix any seine or seines across said rivers, by
which fish may be obstructed as aforesaid, such slave shall be punished for every such offence, on
conviction thereof before any justice of the peace, by the oath of one or more credible witness or
witnesses, by whipping on his back, in the discretion of the said justice, not exceeding for each of-
ence the number of thirty-nine lashes; provided. always, that the master or mistress of said slave,
or any other person, may release said slave so convicted, on the payment of fifty dollars, one half
to the informer, and the other half to be paid to the justice, and by him applied to the use of the
county; and provided further, that if such slave shall act as aforesaid by the order of his owner or
employer, he shall not be subject to whipping as aforesaid, but the owner or employer giving him
the order shall be subject to the penalty of one hundred dollars.

IV. AND BE IT ENACTED, That: it shall and may be lawful for any, person or persons whatsoever
destroy or remove any seine or seines, laid across said rivers to obstruct the passage of fish as
foresaid.

V. AND. BE IT ENACTED, That if any person or persons shall be sued or impleaded for destroying
any such seine or seines, laid across said rivers contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act,
shall and may be lawful for such person or persons to plead the general issue, and give this act and
the special matter in evidence, and if, upon trial, the plaintiff or plaintiffs shall be nonsuited, or
shall discontinue his or their suits, then and in such case the defendant or defendants shall recover

double costs.

VI. AND BE IT ENACTED, That every justice of the peace shall, at the levy court of his county,
account for all sums of money recovered by virtue of this act, under the penalty of two hundred

dollars.

VII. This act to continue until the tenth day of October, eighteen hundred and ten, and until
the end of the next session of assembly that shall happen thereafter.

CHAP.
XXXI.

CHAP. XXXII.

An ACT to authorise tie issuing of a patent to Joshua Meredith
and Thomas Meredith for the land therein mentioned.

WHEREAS it is represented to this general assembly, by the petition of Joshua Meredith and
Thomas Meredith, that a certain John Christeson purchased of the late intendant two lots
of land, part of My Lady's Manor, in Baltimore county, to wit: Lot number seventy-one, con-
taining sixty-one and an half acres, and lot number seventy-nine, containing eighty-eight and one
quarter acres, as appears by the certificate thereof returned to the land-office of the western shore,
id that the said intendant, by mistake, entered the purchase as having been made by William Chris-
teson: And whereas the said John Christeson hath assigned all his right, title and interest, of, in,
and to, the said lots, to the afore-mentioned Joshua Meredith and a certain Benjamin Meredith, who
devised his interest in, said lots to the above named Thomas Meredith:. And whereas also, by reason
of the mistake aforesaid, no patent can issue to the said Joshua Meredith and Thomas Meredith,
and they have prayed, that an act may pass authorising the issuing of patents to them for the lots
aforesaid; and the facts appearing to be true, and the purchase money on said lots having been paid
to the treasurer of the western shore, therefore,

II. BE IT ENACTED, by the General Assembly of Maryland, That it shall and may be lawful for pa-
tents to issue to the said Joshua Meredith and Thomas Meredith for the said lots number seventy-
one, containing sixty-one and an half acres of land, and lot number seventy-nine, containing eighty-
eight acres and one quarter of an acre of land, in the same manner as if the purchase aforesaid had
been entered in the name of John Christeson; provided, that the issuing of the patents to the said;
Joshua Meredith and Thomas Meredith, shall not affect or defeat the right of any other person, fair-
ly acquired before the passage of this act.

Passed 25th of
January; 1804.