178

LAWS OF MARYLAND.— 1782.

CHAPTER 38.

AN ACT allowing a longer time to compound OD old Certificates, and
making further regulations respecting the sale of vacant lands.
SEC. 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, are omitted, as they applied to a class of cases
existing before the passage of this law.

Certificates
to lie three
months, &c.

SEC. 2. And be if enacted. That all certificates returned or to
be returned in virtue of warrants or orders granted before the
first day of March, seventeen hundred and seventy-seven, shall
lie in the office three months after the first day of July next ;
and all certificates returned upon warrants granted in virtue of
the act* to appropriate certain lands to the use of the officers and
soldiers of this state, and for the sale of vacant lands, or here-
after to be granted, shall lie in the office six mouths after they
shall be compounded on, after which times respectively grants
may issue, without notice, as required by the act of last session.
*See November, 1781, ch. 20.

Chain-car-
riers to be
sworn, &c.

SEC. 3. And be it enacted. That no person shall act as a
chain-carrier, unless he be first sworn or affirmed, faithfully,
carefully and impartially, to carry the chain ; which oath or
affirmation any surveyor or sheriff may administer ; and no
surveyor shall execute any warrant from the land office, or the
general or any county court, unless the chain-carrier be first
qualified as aforesaid, and it is declared to be the duty of every
surveyor, diligently to observe the conduct of chain-carriers,
and to take care that they faithfully execute their duty.
SEC. 4. Relates to certificates in the bands of the late examiner.

New war-
rants may
be granted,
&c.

SEC. 9. And be it enacted, That where any special or com-
mon warrants shall not be executed, new warrants may be
granted in lieu thereof, or they may be applied towards the
composition on any certificate, and shall thereupon be entitled
to patent of confirmation, but nothing herein shall be taken or
construed to oblige or compel the owner or possessor to pay for
surplus land, or in any manner to weaken the title of such
owner, or to give any person except the owner, under the giant
heretofore issued, a right to take up or obtain a grant for any
such surplus.

Subpoenas
may issue,
&c

SEC. 11. And be it enacted, That subpoenas may issue from
the chancery, or from the general court of either shore, to sum-
mon parties to appear before the chancellor, to maintain or
answer any caveat, or to require the attendance of any wit-
nesses to give testimony on any caveat, provided there be not
less than fifteen days on the western, and thirty days on the
eastern shore, between the date of the subpoena and the day of
the return thereof; and every sheriff shall obey such subpoena,
and, on return thereof, attachment for contempt may issue out
of the court issuing the subpoena against any witness who