118

SAMUEL STEVENS, Jr. ESQUIRE, GOVERNOR.

Dec. Ses. 1823

thorized by this act to be borrowed on the credit of the said city,
shall have been fully paid and satisfied, provided it does not exceed
twenty five years from the passage of this act.

Authorised
to tax.

9. And to the end that the city of Baltimore may be provided
with other and more extensive means of paying the principal and in-
terest of the money borrowed on its credit, for the purpose of con-
structing the before mentioned great work, and that the burthens of
taxation may be made more light, by being made more indiscriminate
and equal; Therefore, Be it enacted, That the corporation of the city of
Baltimore shall have full power and authority, from time to time, to
cause every body politic and corporate, and every person or persons,
paupers excepted, within the city of Baltimore, to contribute its, his, her
or their proportion of public or city taxes, for the payment of any sum
or sums of money for which the city may hereafter, by virtue of this
act, become liable, according to its, his, her or their actual worth in
real or personal property within the said city;—Provided, that no-
thing herein contained shall be so construed as to subject any ban-
king institution within the City of Baltimore, to be taxed during the
period of time for which they or any of them may have been, for va-
luable consideration, heretofore exempted from taxation.

Right to
purchase the
canal reser-
ved to the
state, &c.

10. And be it enacted, That if the General Assembly shall at any
time before the Baltimore Canal shall have been fully completed, the
making whereof is herein provided for, pay, or cause to be paid, unto
the said corporation, all money which may have been expended for
the construction of the same, together with legal interest thereon
from the time the said sum was so as aforesaid borrowed or expend-
ed by the said corporation, that then, and in that case all right and
interest of the said city, of, in and to the said Canal, and all profits
arising therefrom, shall cease, and the same shall be vested in and be-
come the sole and exclusive property of this state, or if the said Ge-
neral Assembly shall at any time before the said Canal shall be com-
pleted, or within one year after its completion, pay or cause to be paid,
to the said corporation any part of the money which may have been
expended in the construction of said Canal, that then and in that case
the said state shall become interested as a stockholder in said corpo-
ration to the amount that the money so paid by her bears to the whole
amount expended by said corporation in the construction of said
Canal.

Twenty
four delegates
to convention
—their pro-
ceedings di-
rected.

11. And be it enacted, That the taxable inhabitants of the City of
Baltimore, as ascertained by the assessment books thereof, who are
qualified to vote for delegates to the General Assembly of this state,
shall at such time as the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore may
appoint, assemble at the usual place of holding elections in their res-
pective wards in the City of Baltimore, and elect by ballot twenty-
four persons as delegates to the convention of the City of Baltimore,
which persons shall be elected by general ticket, and two of them
shall be residents in each of the said wards, and the said delegates
shall, at such time as the Mayor and City Council shall appoint, meet
in convention in some convenient place in the City of Baltimore, and
assent to and adopt or dissent from and reject this act, with all the
terms and provisions thereof, and shall return in writing, under their
hands and seals, a statement of their proceedings and determination
to the register of the City of Baltimore, to be by him recorded and
safely kept, and also a duplicate thereof to the clerk of the court of