1884

DORCHESTER COUNTY.

neys which he may have collected under the provisions of this
act) and pay over to the said levy court any surplus remain-
ing in his hands, which surplus, if any, shall be applied to
county uses.

LANDS, DRAINING.
AN Ac? to facilitate the Draining of Land in the several Counties therein
mentioned. — 1790, ch. 3.

Preamble.

WHEREAS, considerable bodies of land in Somerset, Dor-
chester, Worcester and Caroline counties, lie unimproved
because the owners have not a power to cut ditches through
neighbouring interfering lands into natural drains and sinks ;
and as the improvement of such lands would not only render
them more useful to the proprietors, but would operate as a
public benefit,

Persons
may apply,
&c.

SEC. 2. Be it enacted, by the General Assembly of Maryland,
That any person or persons seized or posjessed of land which
is overflowed, or is liable to be ovei flowed, with water, having
given two months notice, by advertisement set up at the court-
bouse door of the county wherein the land lies, and to the
owners of, or persons lesiding on, the lands through which he
wishes to cut a ditch for the purpose of draining his or her
lands, of his or her intention to apply to the county court of
the said county for a commission to have a way laid out for
that purpose, may apply, by petition in wilting, to such court
for a commission ; and, upon proof being made to the satisfac-
tion of the court, that notice was given as aforesaid, or upon
the other persons interested appearing and waving the notice
as aforesaid, the court may issue a commission to any five per-
sons agreed on by all the parties, empowering them, or a majo-
rity of them, to lay out a way for a ditch to run through the
lands mentioned in such commission, according to the direc-
tions in this act ; but if the persons interested shall not agree
on the persons for commissioners, then shall the court appoint
Ave discreet persons, not interested in the lands, nor related to
either of the parties to whom a commission shall issue in
manner aforesaid.

Commis-
sioners to
give no-
tice, &c.

SEC. 3. And be it enacted. That the said commissioners, or
a majority of them, shall give notice, by advertisement set up
at the court-house door of their county, and such other places
as they may judge most effectual, of the time of their meeting,
thirty days at least before their meeting, and shall meet on the
land to proceed in the execution of their commission, agreeably
to the notice given by them as aforesaid ; but before any com-
missioner shall proceed in the execution of any commission,
otherwise than by giving notice as aforesaid, he shall take an
path or affirmation, before some justice of the peace, or some