ART. 70]

OFFICIAL OATHS.

1545

ARTICLE LXX.

OFFICIAL OATHS.

When and How to 'be Taken. 1. Governor. 2. Secretary of state; Judges and clerk of court of appeals; state re- porter; librarian; adjutant gen- eral; treasurer; comptroller ; commissioner of the land office. 3. Members of general assembly. 4. Clerks of courts. 5. Corporation officers except chief magistrate. 6. District school trustees shall take oath.

7. Other officers. 8. Test book. 9. Declaration of religious belief. 10. Form of oath. 11. Refusal or neglect to take oath. 12. Clerk's report to secretary of state ; clerk's fee. 13. Oath to be taken by deputies and under-clerks of clerks of courts, registers of wills; commissioner of land office, and sheriffs.

When and How to be Taken.

1904, art. 70, sec. 1. 1888, art 70, sec, 1. 1860, art 68. sec. 1. 1856, ch. 183

1. The governor shall take and subscribe the oath prescribed by
the constitution on the second Wednesday of January next ensuing his
election or as soon thereafter as may be practicable between the hours
of twelve and two o'clock P. M. in the senate chamber before the chief
judge of the court of appeals, or in case of his sickness, absence or
inability from any other cause to attend, before one of the associate
judges of said court; and the said oath shall be recorded in the test
book of the court of appeals.

Ibid. sec. 2. 1888, art. 70, sec. 2. 1860, art. 68, sec. 2. 1852, ch. 172,
sec. 3. 1854, ch. 18, sec. 4. 1856, ch. 132, sec. 1.

2. The secretary of state, the judges of the court of appeals and
their clerk, the state reporter, the state librarian, the adjutant general,
the treasurer, comptroller and the commissioner of the land office shall
take and subscribe the said oath before the governor and the same shall
be preserved in a book to be kept by the secretary of state.

If an officer duly qualifies, though the books should not be preserved, the
right to the office would not be defeated nor would his acts be invalid. Har-
wood v. Marshall. 9 Md. 102. See also, Harwood v. Marshall, 10 Md. 452.
See notes to sections 11 and 12.

Ibid. sec. 3. 1888, art. 70, see. 3. 1860, art. 68. ses. 3. 1852, ch. 172, sec. 7.

3. The oath required to be taken and subscribed by the members
of the general assembly shall be administered by a member of the sen-
ate to the president, who shall administer the same to the other mem-