438

LAWS OF MARYLAND.

their piers, booms, embankments or other im-
provements, or the owner of any sand bank or
drift bank, rocks, trees or undergrowth which may
be necessary to remove in making or maintaining
such improvements, or in drudging, cleansing or
controlling the water channel of said river for the
purpose of said Corporation ; and if they cannot
agree, or if any of the owners be a feme covert,
under age, non compos mentis, or out of the county
in which the property wanted is situated, applica-
tion may be made to a Justice of the Peace of said
county, who shall thereupon issue his warrant,
under seal, directed to the Sheriff of said county,
requiring him to summon a jury of twenty disin-
terested citizens of such county to meet at or near
the land, on the day named in said warrant, not
less than ten nor more than twenty days after the
issuing of said warrant ; and if any of the said
persons do not attend, the Sheriff shall imme-
diately summon as many persons as shall be neces-
sary, with the jurors in attendance, to furnish a
panel of twenty persons in attendance, and from
which each party may strike four jurors, and if
four be not stricken the Sheriff shall strike as

Jurors.

many as will reduce the panel of jurors to twelve
jurors, and the remaining twelve shall act as a
jury of inquest of damages, and before they act
as such the said Sheriff shall administer to each of
them an oath or affirmation, as the case may be,
that he will honestly value the damage sustained
by the said owner or owners by the use and occu-
pation of the said lands by the Corporation, and
the said jury shall reduce their inquisition to writ-
ing, and sign, and seal the same, and it shall then
be returned by the Sheriff to the Clerk of the Cir-
cuit Court of the county where the lands may be,
and by such Clerk filed in his Court, and shall be
confirmed by the Court at its next session if no

Inquisition.

cause be shown to the contrary, but if set aside,
the said Court shall direct another inquisition to
be taken, in the manner above prescribed ; and
such inquisition shall describe the property taken
by metes and bounds, and the valuation when
paid or tendered by the Corporation shall entitle
the said Corporation to the use and occupation of
said land during their corporate existence, and if
the valuation be not received when tendered, it