COEPORATIONS. 811

ceeding before said Commission from appearing in person or from being
represented by counsel.

All actions.and proceedings under this sub-title, and all actions and
proceedings commenced and prosecuted by order of the Commission, and
all actions and proceedings to which the Commission may be a party and
in which any question arises under this sub-title, or under or concerning
any order or action of the Commission, shall be preferred over all other
civil causes except election causes, in all the Courts of the States of Mary-
land, and shall be heard and determined in preference to all other civil
business pending therein, excepting election causes, irrespective of posi-
tion on the dockets of said Courts. The same preference shall be granted
upon application of the People's Counsel to the Commission in any action
or proceeding in which the People's Counsel may be allowed to intervene.

The Attorney General shall be the legal adviser and representative of the
Public Service Commission, and he shall advise the Commission and each
Commissioner, when so requested, in regard to all matters in connection
with the powers and duties of the Commission and of the members thereof,
and perform all duties and services as attorney and counsel to the Com-
mission which the Commission may reasonably require of him. The At-
torney General is authorized to assign to his assistants, and to each of
them, the performance, subject to his direction and control, of any of the
duties required of him by this Section.

This section referred to in construing sec. 379—see notes thereto. Hyattsville v.
W., W. & G. R. R. Co., 122 Md. 675.

An. Code, sec. 419. 1910, ch. 180, sec. 7 (p. 349). 1924, ch. 48, sec. 419.

354. Every commissioner, the People's Counsel, the secretary of the
commission and every person employed or appointed to office under, in the
service or in connection with the said commission, is hereby forbidden and
prohibited to solicit, suggest, request or recommend, directly or indirectly,
to any common carrier, railroad corporation, street railroad corporation,
gas company, electric light company, telephone company, telegraph com-
pany, water company and refrigerating company, or any other company
or corporation subject to this sub-title, or to any of the provisions thereof,
or to any officer, attorney, agent or employee thereof, the appointment of
any person to any office, place, position or appointment. And every com-
mon carrier, railroad corporation, street railroad corporation, gas corpora-
tion, electrical corporation, telephone company, telegraph company, water
company and all other companies or corporations subject to this sub-title,
or any of the provisions thereof, and every officer, attorney, agent and
employee thereof is hereby forbidden and prohibited to offer to any com-
missioner, People's Counsel, to the secretary thereof, or to any person em-
ployed by the commission, any office, place, appointment or position, or to
offer to give to any commissioner, to the People's Counsel, to the secretary
thereof or to any officer employed or appointed to office, or to any person
employed in the service of the commission or in connection with the work
of said commission, any free pass or transportation or any reduction in
fares, to which the public generally are not entitled or any free carriage