Sec. 16. No book, or other printed matter, not appertaining to the business of the session, shall be purchased or subscribed for, for the use of the members of the General Assembly, or be distributed among them, at the public expense.

Sec. 17. No Senator or Delegate, after qualifying as such, notwithstanding he may thereafter resign, shall during the whole period of time for which he was elected be eligible to any office which shall have been created, or the salary or profits of which shall have been increased, during such term.

Sec. 18. No Senator or Delegate shall be liable in any civil action or criminal prosecution whatever for words spoken in debate.

Sec. 19. Each House shall be judge of the qualifications and elections of its members, as prescribed by the Constitution and Laws of the State; shall appoint its own officers, determine the rules of its own proceedings, punish a member for disorderly or disrespectful behavior, and with the consent of two-thirds of its whole number of members elected, expel a member; but no member shall be expelled a second time for the same offence.

Covington v. Buffett, 90 Md. 577.

Sec. 20. A majority of the whole number of members elected to each House shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and compel the attendance of absent members in such manner and under such penalties as each House may prescribe.

Sec. 21. The doors of each House and of the Committee of the Whole shall be open, except when the business is such as ought to be kept secret.

Sec. 22. Each House shall keep a Journal of its proceedings, and cause the same to be published. The yeas and nays of members on any question shall, at the call of any five of them in the House of Delegates, or one in the Senate, be entered on the Journal.

Sec. 23. Each House may punish by imprisonment, during the session of the General Assembly, any person not a member, for disrespectful or disorderly behavior in its presence, or for obstructing any of its proceedings, or any of its officers in the execution of their duties; provided, such imprisonment shall not at any one time exceed ten days.

Sec. 24. The House of Delegates may inquire, on the oath of witnesses, into all complaints, grievances and offences, as the Grand Inquest of the State, and may commit any person for any crime to the public jail, there to remain until discharged by due course of law. They may examine and pass all accounts.of the State, relating either to the collection or expenditure of the revenue, and appoint auditors to state and adjust the same. They may call for all public or official papers and records, and, send for persons whom they may judge necessary, in the course of their inquiries, concerning affairs relating to the public interest, and may direct all office bonds which shall be made payable to the State to be sued for any breach thereof; and with the view to the more certain prevention or correction of the abuses in the expenditures of the money of the State, the General Assembly shall create, at every session thereof, a Joint Standing Committee of the Senate and House of Delegates, who shall have power to send for persons and examine them on oath and call for public or official papers and records; and whose duty it shall be to examine and report upon all contracts made for printing, stationery and purchases for the public offices and the library, and all expenditures therein, and upon all matters of alleged abuse in expenditures, to which their attention may be called by resolution of either House of the General Assembly:

Marshall v. Harwood, 7 Md. 466.

Sec. 25. Neither House shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days at any one time, nor adjourn to any other place than that in which the House shall be sitting, without the concurrent vote of two-thirds of the members present.

Sec. 26. The House of Delegates shall have the sole power of impeachment in all cases; but a majority of all the members elected must concur in the impeachment. All impeachments shall be tried by the Senate, and when sitting for that purpose the Senators shall be on oath or affirmation to do justice according to the law and the evidence; but no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of all the Senators elected.

Sec. 27. Any bill may originate in either House of the General Assembly, and be altered, amended or rejected by the other; but no bill shall originate in either House during the last ten days of the session, unless two-thirds of the members

elected thereto shall so determine by yeas and nays; nor shall any bill become a law until it be read on three different days of the session in each House, unless two-thirds of the members elected to the House where such bill is pending shall so determine by yeas and nays; and no bill shall be read a third time until it shall have been actually engrossed for a third reading. Sec. 28. No bill shall become a law unless it be passed in each House by a majority of the whole number of members elected, and on its final passage the yeas and nays be recorded; nor shall any resolution requiring the action of both Houses be passed except in the same manner.

Sec. 29. The style of all laws of this State shall be, "Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland," and all laws shall be passed by original bill; and every law enacted by the General Assembly shall embrace but one subject, and that shall be described in its title; and no law, or section of law, shall be revived or amended by reference to its title or section only; nor shall any law be construed by reason of its title to grant powers or confer rights which are not expressly contained in the body of the Act; and it shall be the duty of the General Assembly, in amending any article or section of the Code of Laws of this State, to enact the same as the said article or section would read when amended. And whenever the General Assembly shall enact any Public General Law, not amendatory of any section or article in the said Code, it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to enact the same, in articles and sections, in the same manner as the Code is arranged, and to provide for the publication of all additions and alterations which may be made to the said Code.

Davis v. State, 7 Md. 151. Keller v. State, 11 Md. 525. Parkinson v. State, 14 Md. 184. Trustees of Allegany Co. School v. Maffit, 22 Md. 126. McPherson v. Leonard, 29 Md. 377. Cearfoss v. State, 42 Md. 403. MeGrath v. State, 46 Md. 632. Co. Commrs. of Dorchester Co. v. Meekins, 50 Md. 28. Second German-American Bldg. Asso. v. Newman, 50 Md. 62. Co. Commrs. of Talbot Co. v. Co. Commrs. of Queen Anne Co., 50 Md. 245. Mayor, &c., of Balto. v. Reitz, 50 Md. 574. State v. Fox, 51 Md. 411. Co. Commrs. of Prince George Co. v. Commrs. of Laurel, 51 Md. 457. Mayor, tc., of Balto. v. Stoll, 52 Md. 435. Maryland Agricultural College v. Keating, 58 Md. 580. Stiefel v. Maryland Institute for the Blind, 61 Md. 144. Slymer v. State, 62 Md. 237. State v. Norris, 70 Md. 91. Trustees Catholic, Ellicott Co. v. Speed, 72 Md. 22.

&c., v. Manning, 72 Md. 116.
Calvert Co. v. Hellen, 72 Md. 605. Scharf v. Tasker, 73 Md. 378.

Commrs.

Lankford

Bond v.

t. Commrs. Somerset Co., 73 Md. 105. Gans v. Carter, 77 Md. 1. State, 78 Md. 523. Drennen v. Banks, 80 Md. 310. Whitman v. State, 80

Md. 410. Mayor and C. Council Balto. v. Keeley Institute, 81 Md. 106. State v. Applegarth, 81 Md. 293. Garrison v. Hill, 81 Md. 551. Hamilton v. Carroll, 82 Md. 326. zinger, 83 Md. 481.

State v. Schultz Gas, &c., 83 Md. 58. State v. BenPhinney v. Sheppard Hospital, 88 Md. 633. Steenken v. State, 88 Md. 710. Stevens v. State, 89 Md. 675. Luman v. Hitchens, 90 Md. 14. Mealey v. Hagerstown, 92 Md. 741. Herbert v. Baltimore Co., 97 Md. 646. Swan v. Kemp, 97 Md. 691.

Sec. 30. Every bill, when passed by the General Assembly, and sealed with the Great Seal, shall be presented to the Governor, who, if he approves it, shall sign the same in the presence of the presiding officers and chief clerks of the Senate and House of Delegates. Every law shall be recorded in the office. of the Court of Appeals, and in due time be printed, published and certified under the Great Seal, to the several courts, in the same manner as has been heretofore usual in this State.

Parkinson v. State, 14 Md. 184. Berry v. Balto. & Drum Point R. R. Co., 41 Md. 446. Legg v. Mayor, &c., of Annapolis, 42 Md. 203. Hamilton v. State, 61 Md. 14.

Sec. 31. No law passed by the General Assembly shall take effect until the first day of June next after the session at which it may be passed, unless it be otherwise expressly declared therein.

Parkinson v. State, 14 Md. 184. Risewick v. Davis, 19 Md. 96.

Sec. 32. No money shall be drawn from the Treasury of the State by any order or resolution, nor except in accordance with an appropriation by law; and every such law shall distinctly specify the sum appropriated and the object to which it shall be applied; provided that nothing herein contained shall prevent the General Assembly from placing a contingent fund at the disposal of the Executive, who shall report to the General Assembly at each session the amount expended, and the purposes to which it was applied. An accurate statement of the receipts and expenditures of the public money shall be attached to and published with the laws after each regular session of the General Assembly.

Thomas v. Owens, 4 Md. 189. McPherson v. Leonard, 29 Md. 377.

Sec. 33. The General Assembly shall not pass local or special laws in any of the following enumerated cases, viz: For extending the time for the collection of taxes, granting divorces, changing the name of any person, providing for the sale of real estate belonging to minors or other persons laboring under legal disabilities, by executors, administrators, guardians or trustees, giving effect to informal or invalid deeds or wills,

refunding money paid into the State Treasury, or releasing persons from their debts or obligations to the State, unless recommended by the Governor or officers of the Treasury Department. And the General Assembly shall pass no special law for any case for which provision has been made by an existing general law. The General Assembly, at its first session after the adoption of this Constitution, shall pass general laws providing for the cases enumerated in this section which are not already adequately provided for, and for all other cases where a General Law can be made applicable.

Whittington v. Polk, 1 H. & J. 236. Horsey v. State, 3 H. & J. 2. Gover v. Hall, Exr., 3 H. & J. 43. Partridge v. Dorsey, 3 H. & J. 302. Crane v. Meginnis, 1 G. & J. 463. Dulany v. Tilghman, 6 G. & J. 461. Norris v. Trustees of the Abingdon Academy, 7 G. & J. 7. Barrett v. Oliver, 7 G. & J. 191. Lawrence v. Hicks, 8 G. & J. 386. The Regents of the University of Maryland v. Williams, 9 G. & J. 365. Dorsey v. Gilbert, 11 G. & J. 87. Cromwell v. State, 12 G. & J. 257. Prout v. Berry, 12 G. & J. 286. State r. B. & O. R. R. Co., 12 G. & J. 400. Campbell's Case, 2 Bl. 209. Wright v. Wright, 2 Md. 429. Fell v. State, 42 Md. 71. Rock Hill College v. Jones, 47 Md. 16. Pumphrey v. Mayor, &c. of Baltimore, 47 Md. 145. Co. Commrs. r. Meekins, 50 Md. 28. O'Brian & Co. v. Co. Commrs. of Baltimore Co., 51 Md. 15. Co. Commrs. of Prince George Co. v. Co. Commrs. of Laurel, 51 Md. 457. Montague v. State, 54 Md. 481. Hodges v. Balto. Passenger Railway Co., 58 Md. 603. Lankford v. Commrs. Somerset Co., 73 Md. 105. Brashears v. Lankford, 73 Md. 428. Gans v. Carter, 77 Md. 1. Revell v. Mayor, etc. of Annapolis, 81 Md. Hamilton v. Carroll, 82 Md. 326. Mealey v. Hagerstown, 92 Md. 745. Herbert v. Baltimore County, 97 Md. 645.

1.

Sec. 34. No debt shall be hereafter contracted by the General Assembly unless such debt shall be authorized by a law providing for the collection of an annual tax or taxes sufficient to pay the interest on such debt as it falls due, and also to discharge the principal thereof within fifteen years from the time of contracting the same; and the taxes laid for this purpose shall not be repealed or applied to any other object until the said debt and interest thereon shall be fully discharged. The credit of the State shall not in any manner be given, or loaned to, or in aid of any individual association or corporation; nor shall the General Assembly have the power in any mode to involve the State in the construction of Works of Internal Improvement, nor in granting any aid thereto, which shall involve the faith or credit of the State; nor make any appropriation therefor, except in aid of the construction of Works of Internal Improvement in the counties of St. Mary's, Charles