1396 ARTICLE 35.

the same as therein set forth, or if made on behalf of any body corporate
by any person therein alleging himself to be a charter officer thereof shall
be prima facie evidence of the fact of its corporation as therein set forth.

An. Code, sec. 51. 1904, sec. 51. 1888, sec. 46. 1785, ch. 46, sec. 6.

54. Nothing contained in this article shall preclude any debtor or de-
fendant from controverting any proof offered in pursuance of the pro-
visions thereof by any testimony which is legal and admissible by the rules
of the common law, or prevent any creditor or plaintiff from giving any
evidence admissible by the rules of the common law in support of his
claim; or pursuing any legal mode other than herein prescribed to prove
and establish his claim or demand.

Public Statutes and Office Copies and Official Certificates.

An. Code, sec. 52. 1904, sec. 52. 1888, sec. 47. 1829, ch. 219.

55. The private laws and resolutions published by the authority of
this State may be read in evidence from the printed statute book.

An. Code, sec. 53. 1904, sec. 53. 1888, sec. 48. 1845, ch. 89. 1898, ch. 342.

56. The public or private statutes of the United States or of any State
or territory of the United States or of the united kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland may be read in evidence from any printed volume
purporting to contain the statutes of the said United States, State or
territory or the united kingdom of Gread Britain and Ireland; and the said
printed volume shall in all cases be received as evidence of said statutes
without any further authentication or proof thereof.

Although the common or unwritten law of another state may be proved as a fact
by witnesses acquainted therewith, the statute law of another state can only be
proven as provided in this section, or by authenticated copy of the law. Zimmerman
v. Helser, 32 Md. 278.

Our courts do not take judicial notice of the laws of another state, and the mere
reading of such law to the court in argument, is not sufficient to make it evidence;
this section must be complied with. Mandru v. Ashby, 108 Md. 695; Goldsborough
v. Tinsley, 138 Md. 417.

Where book, from which a statute of another state is proposed to be read, pur-
ports to contain the statutes of such state and to have been " published for state
of Ohio and distributed to its officers under act of the general assembly, passed
March 16, 1860," such volume is strictly within meaning of this section, and there-
fore admissible in evidence. H'arryman v. Roberts, 52 Md. 76.

Cited but not construed in Eastwood v. Kennedy, 44 Md. 570; Fouke v. Fleming,
13 Md. 413.

An. Code, sec. 54. 1904, sec. 54. 1888, sec. 49. 1852, ch. 42.

57... The ordinances and resolutions of the mayor and city council of
Baltimore may be read in evidence from the printed volumes thereof pub-
lished by the authority of said corporation, and a copy of the plot of the
city of Baltimore from the record thereof in the mayor's office or from
the record thereof in the office of the clerk of the superior court of said