24

LAWS OF MARYLAND.

MAY SESS.
1813.
—
Receipts for
arms—arms to
be kept in good
order, &c.

11. BE IT ENACTED, That it shall be the duty
of non-commissioned officers and privates, who shall
receive any arms, to grant a receipt for the same,
(which said receipt shall be taken in a book to be by
the commanding officer of the company kept for that
purpose, ) making themselves liable for the safe keep-
ing thereof, and for their delivery when legally called
on for that purpose. It shall be the duty of all persons
in the militia who receive into their possession public
arms, to keep the same in neat and good order, the
musket barrel and bayonet free from rust, and bright,
the lock clean, well oiled, and with a good flint, and
to appear with such arms at every muster where by
law they are obliged to appear, and at all other times
when they may be called on duty; and at all musters
the officers in their respective stations shall be diligent
and careful in inspecting their arms, in noting delin-
quencies, and making report thereof, as herein after
directed.

Persons be-
coming ex-
empt from mi-
litia duty.

12. AND BE IT ENACTED, That if any person
in the militia, possessed of public arms as aforesaid,
shall be about to remove out of the limits of the com-
pany to which he belongs, or during such possession
arrive at the age of forty-five years, or otherwise shall
be exempt from militia duty, he shall deliver to the
officer commanding the company to which he belongs
in good order and unimpaired, such public arms as
may have been delivered to him; and if any person so
possessed shall die, it shall be the duty of the officer
commanding the company to which he belonged, im-
mediately to take possession of such arms, inspect and
take care of them, in the manner herein after directed,
to be delivered to some other person in his company
in manner before directed.

Arms to be in-
spected—Em-
bezzlement of
arms—how to
be recovered.

13. AND BE IT ENACTED, That it shall be the
duty of the commanding officers of companies, from
time to time, to inspect the public arms in the posses-
sion of the non-commissioned officers and privates of
their companies, and where it shall appear to him that
any such arms are not in the condition required by
this act, it shall be the duty of such officer to report the
same as other delinquencies; and if it shall at anytime
come to his knowledge, that any one of his company
has embezzled or disposed of his arms, or has remov-
ed out of the limits of his company, without delivering
them up, as herein before directed, in all such cases it
shall be his duty immediately to proceed by and under
the authority of a warrant, according to law, issuing
from any justice of the peace of the county or counties