1858.] OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES.          423

requiring months of patient research, and diligent and skill-
ful labors, as well as large outlays of money to readjust and
put them in proper order.

Some of the land records of recent date, conveying the titles
to large landed estates, are written with such had ink, and so
pale, that they are now almost illegible, and in a few years
will become wholly so—insomuch, that your committee think
it advisable to cause the same to be re-copied. Others, in
which are recorded the plats of estates in partition, and by
which the boundaries of the several parts of the various pro-
prietors are marked out and secured, have the plates torn out
and defaced. Many others, and particularly the indexes,
both daily and general, to the land records, have the leaves
torn from the binding and laying loose in the volume, at the
hazard of being lost. In others whole leaves are lost, and in
others parts of the leaves are torn off and lost, insomuch that
it will require skillful and patient examination of the volumes
they refer to, in order to collate and recopy the names of the
parties to estates. In the pursuit of their investigation, your
committee discovered an instance in one of the extract books,
where nearly double the price allowed by law had been charged
for the matter recorded; it is due however, to the late incum-
bent to state, that in this instance, as well as in others of a
similar character, for copying matter, he had been taken ad-
vantage of by some of his subordinates. Many of the plats
of roads and highways, of much importance to the city and
people of Baltimore, are torn and lying loose and disordered
about the office.

The deeds lying in the office not called for, of years stand-
ing, but which the owners are entitled to on demand, at any
moment; the insolvent debtors records and papers, left over
in the office under the late judicial system of the State, in
which the present as we'll as the succeeding generation may
be deeply interested, as tending to ascertain the rights of par-
ties, are in much confusion, disordered and covered with dust

The condition of every department of said office manifests
an entire want of system in its management under the late ad-
ministration; and unless speedy measures be adopted to repair
the errors of the past, the future must suffer, and the business
relations of the people of Baltimore city and county greatly
disturbed, and estates of large value put to the hazard of being
lost to the heirs and representatives of the present generation,
for want of the means to trace the titles.

Your committee herewith subjoin as part of this report, a
complete schedule of all the books in said office, with their
proper designation, numbers and dates, and describing their
condition, which require to be put in order.