116 CONSTITUTION OP MARYLAND.

Supreme Bench of Baltimore City. It shall be the duty of the General
Assembly to prescribe by law a fixed compensation for all such officers, and
said Judge or Judges shall from time to time investigate the expenses,
costs and charges of their respective Courts, with a view to a change or
reduction thereof, and report the result of such investigation to the General
Assembly for its action.

Without this section the judges undoubtedly have the power to appoint such
officers as are necessary for the proper conduct of the business of the courts. This
section referred to in deciding that the control of the court house vested by art. 25,
sec. 1, of the An. Code, in the county commissioners, could not be given to the
court crier—see notes to art. 8 of the Declaration of Rights. Prince George's County
v. Mitchell, 97 Md. 338.

Sec. 10. The Clerks of the several Courts created or continued by this
Constitution shall have charge and custody of the records and other papers;
shall perform all the duties, and be allowed the fees which appertain
to their several offices, as the same now are or may hereafter be regulated
by law. And the office and business of said Clerks, in all their departments,
shall be subject to the visitorial power of the Judges of their respective
Courts, who shall exercise the same, from time to time, so as to insure the
faithful performance of the duties of said offices; and it shall be the duty of
the Judges of said Courts, respectively, to make from time to time such
rules and regulations as may be necessary and proper for the government
of said Clerks, and for the performance of the duties of their offices, which
shall have the force of law until repealed or modified by the General
Assembly.

The visitorial power given the judges over the clerk's is for the purpose of secur-
ing the faithful performance of duty; it was not the design to relieve the clerks
from obligations to do what the law already required of them; the judges have no
other or greater power than of supervisal, regulation and direction. An order of
court requiring the clerk to make a certain index and providing for his compensa-
tion therefor, held invalid. Peter v. Prettyman, 62 Md. 575.

See art. 17 of the An. Code.

Sec. 11. The election for Judges hereinbefore provided, and all elections
for Clerks, Registers of Wills, and other officers provided in this Con-
stitution, except State's Attorneys, shall be certified, and the returns made
by the Clerks of the Circuit Courts of the Counties, and the Clerk of the
Superior Court of Baltimore City, respectively, to the Governor, who shall
issue commissions to the different persons for the offices to which they shall
have been, respectively, elected; and in all such elections the person having
the greatest number of votes shall be declared elected.

The attorney-general, although' not expressly named, is clearly embraced within
the terms of this section. Construing this section in connection with art. 5, sec. 2,
it is clear that the Governor should issue commissions as soon as the result of the
election is ascertained from the official returns, and the newly elected officers should
at once take the oath and enter upon their duties; the commission should not be
withheld when the elections are contested. See notes to art. 5, sec. 2. Groome v.
Gwinn, 43 Md. 622. (See also concurring opinion in this case.) Brooke v. Widde-
combe, 39 Md. 401 (cf. dissenting opinion). And see Wells v. Munroe, 86 Md. 449.
It is the duty of the Governor under this section to issue his commission to the
person regularly and duly returned as elected, although such election may be con-
tested, and the Governor by sec. 12 is required to send the returns to the house of
delegates. Ijams v. Duvall, 85 Md. 261. And see Wells v. Munroe, 86 Md. 448.