SAMUEL SPRIGG, ESQ. GOVERNOR.

127

4. And be it enacted, That should any overseer as aforesaid
neglect to report as aforesaid, he shall be subject to the same penal-
ty to be recovered in the same manner as prescribed for neglect of
duty in the sixth section of the act to which this is a supplement.
5. And be it enacted, That the overseers to be appointed by
virtue of this act shall respectively be allowed a sum not exceeding
sixteen dollars a year for discharging the duties imposed by this
act; which allowance shall be paid to them in the same manner as
heretofore provided.

Dec. Ses. 1821.

Neglect to re-
port.

Compensation
of overseers.

CHAPTER 183.

A further supplement to an act entitled, An act to prevent the incon-
veniences arising from slaves being permitted to act as free.
Sec. 1. Be it enacted By the General Assembly of Maryland,
That from and after the first day of October, in the year one thou-
sand eight hundred and twenty-two, it shall be the duty of the con-
stables in Worcester and Caroline counties, to arrest and bring be-
fore a justice of the peace, any slave or slaves who may be going at
large and hiring him, her or themselves within their respective hun-
dreds, or who may not have a fixed home in the family or on the
estate of his, her or their owner, or be hired to and in the regular
employ of another person by virtue of a contract with his, her or
their owner.

Passed Feb. 20,

1822.

Constables
may arrest.

2. And be it enacted, That in all cases where a slave or slaves
shall or may be brought before any justice of the peace under the
provision of the first section of this act, if it appear to the satisfac-
tion of the said justice of the peace, that said slave or slaves so ar-
rested and brought before him, were going at large in violation of an
act of assembly passed at April session seventeen hundred and
eighty-seven, entitled, An act to prevent the inconveniences arising
from slaves being permitted to act as free, and the supplements
thereto, or of this act, he shall forthwith issue an order to the con-
stable who shall or may have brought the said slave or slaves be-
fore him, to hire such slave or slaves for the entire balance of the
year in which they may have been arrested; and for each examina-
tion of slaves had before him under this act, a justice of the peace
shall be entitled to twenty-five cents, to be levied on the county as
part of the county expenses for the ensuing year.

Slaves violat-
ing may be hir-
ed.

3. And be it enacted, That it shall be the duty of the consta-
bles to keep an account of the slaves by them respectively hired out,
and the amount of hire for each received, to be submitted to the levy
court at its first session in the year after such proceeding may have
been had under this act, and the amount so returned to be account-
ed for by the constable to the levy court for the use and benefit of
the county.

Constables to
keep accounts
of hire.

4. And be it enacted, That the levy courts of the several
counties in this state, be and they are hereby authorised to levy and
allow to any constable who may have taken up and hired, out a slave
or slaves under this act, two dollars for each and every slave so tak-
en up and hired out; Provided, That in no instance such allowance
shall exceed two thirds of the amount by him paid over to the court.

Fee.

Proviso.

5. And be it enacted, That any constable who refuses or ne-
glects to comply with the requisitions of this act, shall be subject
to a fine of not more than ten dollars nor less than three dollars, to

Neglect- -pen-
alty.