JOHN WALTER SMITH, ESQ., GOVERNOR.

directed to the sheriff of said county, requiring him to sum-
mon a jury of twenty inhabitants of said county, of legal
age, not related to the parties or in anywise interested, and
from such panel of twenty jurors, each party or his agent, or
if either be not present in person or by agent, the sheriff
for him shall strike off four jurors, and the remaining twelve
shall act as a jury of inquest of damages, to meet on th
land or near the property to be valued, on a day to be
named in the warrants, not less than ten nor more than
twenty days after the issuing of the same; and the sheriff
shall, before the jury shall proceed to act, administer an
oath to each that he will justly and impartially value the
damages the owner will sustain by the use or occupation of
the property for the uses hereinbefore mentioned. The jury,
in estimating the damages, shall take into consideration the
benefits resulting to the owner from the opening: and laying
out of the streets and alleys, through, along or near to the
property of said owner; and the jury shall reduce their
inquisition to writing, and shall sign and seal the same, and
it shall then be returned by the sheriff to the Clerk of the
Circuit Court for Calvert County, and shall be confirmed by
the said court at its next session, if no sufficient cause to
the contrary be shown, and when confirmed shall be recorded
by said clerk at the expense of said Commissioners, and if
said inquisition shall be set aside by the Circuit Court of
Calvert Count j', the said court may direct another to be
taken in the same manner as the first. Every inquisition shall
describe the property taken or the bounds of the land con^
demned, and the quantity or extent of the interest therein
taken and valued, and such valuation, when paid or tendered
to the owner or owners of the property taken, or his legal
representatives, shall entitle the Commissioners to the estate,
use and interest in the same so valued for the purposes
aforesaid, as fully as if the same had been conveyed by the
owner or his legal representatives.

147

21. And be it enacted, That the Commissioners shall have the
power to pass ordinances regulating the limits within which it
shall be lawful to erect steps, porticos, bow-windows or other
architectural ornaments to houses fronting on any part of said
streets; to regulate party walls and partition fences; to regu-
late in what part of said town buildings of wood may not be
erected; to regulate the manner in which public halls,
churches, school -houses or places of amusement shall be
constructed, and to fix the penalty for violation thereof.

Building
limits.