2230 ARTICLE 70.

that body and to its officers, and the same shall be subscribed accordingly
and be administered by one of the members of the house of delegates to
the speaker and by him to the other members of that body and to its offi-
cers, and the same shall be subscribed accordingly.

An. Code, sec. 4. 1904, sec. 4. 1888, sec. 4. 1854, ch. 18, sec. 7.

4. The clerks of the circuit courts for the counties, the superior court
of Baltimore city, the court of common pleas, the circuit court of Baltimore
city, the circuit court No. 2 of Baltimore city, the Baltimore city court and
the criminal court of Baltimore, shall severally take and subscribe the oath
prescribed by the constitution before the judges of their respective courts.

An. Code, sec. 5. 1904, sec. 5. 1888, sec. 5. 1854, ch, 18, sec. 6.

5. All officers of municipal corporations, except the mayor or chief
magistrate, shall take such oath as may be prescribed by law or ordinance
before the mayor or chief magistrate of the corporation.

While act of administering the oath is a ministerial one so far as the mayor is
concerned, it is essential to the induction into office. Where mayor declines to ad-
minister oath, right to a public office is involved. Creager v. Hooper, 83 Md. 501.

An. Code, sec. 6. 1904, sec. 6. 1894, ch. 110, sec. 5A.

6. District school trustees shall take and subscribe the oath or affirma-
tion of office prescribed by the constitution before the county school com-
missioner and examiner or a justice of the peace in their respective counties.

An. Code, sec. 7. 1904, sec. 7. 1888, sec. 6. 1852, ch. 172, sec. 1. 1854, ch. 18, sec. 5.

7. All other officers elected or appointed to any office of trust or profit
under the constitution and laws of this State, including the mayors or
other chief magistrates of municipal corporations, shall take and subscribe
the said oath in the city of Baltimore before the clerk of the superior
court, and in the several counties before the clerk of the circuit court or
before one of the sworn deputies of such clerks.

This section has no application to officers of registration—see art. 33, sec. 12.
Hardesty v. Taft, 23 Md. 527.

An. Code, sec. 8. 1904, sec. 8. 1888, sec. 7. 1852, ch. 172, sec. 2.

8. The said clerks shall each procure and keep in his office a well-
bound book to be called a test book, in which shall be printed or conspicu-
ously written the oaths aforesaid, and every person taking or subscribing
the same shall annex to his signature the title of the office to which he shall
have been elected or appointed and the date of his signature.
See note to sec. 7.

An. Code, sec. 9. 1904, sec. 9. 1888, sec. 8. 1854, ch. 18, sec. 1.

9. It shall only be necessary for an officer who is required to take and
subscribe the oath prescribed by the sixth section of the first article of the
constitution to declare orally at the time his belief in the Christian religion,
or, if he profess to be a Jew, of his belief in a future state of rewards and
punishments; and it shall be presumed that an officer who has taken and
subscribed the oath made at the same time such declaration of belief.