370 LAND OFFICE. [ART. 54.

21. Whenever any landlord shall give notice of rent due, to
the sheriff or constable, who may be about to sell the goods and
chattels of his tenant under execution, there shall be appended
to said notice an affidavit of the amount of his rent claimed
to be due.

ARTICLE LIV.
Land Office.

SEC. 1. The Commissioner of the Land Office is hereby
declared to be a Court of Record, with the same power to
preserve order, punish contempts and enforce obedience to his
orders and adjudications, as are possessed by any other court
of record.

2. The said commissioner may issue summons for witnesses to
testify in cases pending before him, and may compel their attend-
ance, and may order depositions to be taken in writing on rea-
sonable notice to the opposite party to be used in such cases.

3. He shall keep a docket in the form of the dockets used
in courts of equity, of all disputed cases affecting the title to
land, transcripts of which shall be evidence of the proceedings
thereon.

4. All papers filed in disputed cases affecting the title to lands
shall, with the proceedings, adjudications and orders of the Com-
missioner of the Land Office, be duly recorded.

5. The Commissioner of the Land Office shall be entitled to
the same fees for recording such papers and proceedings as the
clerks of Circuit Courts are for similar services

6. He shall keep a seal, and all process relating to proceedings
in the Land Office shall issue under the seal of the Land Office,
attested by the commissioner.

7. He shall give bond to the State of Maryland with security
to be approved by the Governor, and kept in the State Depart-
ment, in the penalty of two thousand dollars, for the faithful
performance of the duties of his office.