" clerk, and keeper of the land records." Mr. Jennings was succeeded by Levin Gale, Esq. who was commissioned on the 16th of December 1738 judge and register, and, in his turn, commissioned Mr. Griffith Beddoe chief clerk and keeper of the records, as aforesaid. Philip Thomas, Esq. commissioned on the 13th of March 1743, was the last sole judge and register of the land office. On the 17th of May 1746, Benjamin Tasker and Benjamin Young, Esq'rs were commissioned, jointly, judges and registers of the land office, and Mr. Thomas Jennings, already acting, was commissioned by them chief clerk, without the addition of" keeper of the records." On the 13th of July in the next year a commission issued to Benjamin Young and George Stewart, Esquires, as before. On the 5th of March 1755 this commission was succeeded by one to Benedict Calvert and George Steuart, Esq'rs, still as Judges and registers, and in the hands of those (b) two gentlemen, though by a renewal of their commission under Mr. Harford, the office continued until the revolution, the place of chief clerk being held in succession by Mr. William Steuart and Mr. David Steuart, until, upon the resignation of the latter, after the declaration of Independence, the executive, then newly formed under the present constitution, appointed Mr. St. George Peale, by a commission dated the 21st of April 1777, to be "REGISTER of the land office," leaving the appointment of Judges, on which the constitution had been silent, to be provided for, as it afterwards was, by the legislature.     Connected with this enquiry is what concerns the offices of surveyor general, examiner general, and deputy surveyors. The first mentioned office, I have formerly had occasion to observe, resembled, from the tenor of the commission, rather the employment of a chief steward, or intendant, than that of a practical surveyor of land; and accordingly, the surveyor general seldom did make surveys, although there are instances of his being desired or directed to do so. In the early times he was always of the council. He appointed the deputy surveyors, upon such terms in respect to the fees as he thought proper to stipulate, and was held responsible for their conduct. In the middle period of the proprietary government this office was divided, a surveyor general being appointed for each shore. At a later period these establishments were complained of as useless, for the express reason that the officers never made surveys, and it is certain that, at the erection of the board of revenue, the surveyor-generals were so entirely without active public functions that the board could find nothing to instruct them about, and contented itself with passing through their hands the instructions prepared     (b) Or finally in those of Mr. Calvert the survivor.