CHARLES COUNTY. 2091

the ground of fraud or collusion or other usual equitable ground setting
aside sales in a court of equity. And it shall be the duty of the clerk of
the County Commissioners, the clerk of the Circuit Court, and all other
officers or other persons, to perform all the duties upon their part required
by law prior to the enactment of this Act, and the Acts of which it is
amendatory, in relation to or in aid of the duties of the office of treasurer
as were formerly required by them in respect to the office of State and
county collectors of taxes in said county. The clerk of Circuit Court,
upon receiving from the treasurer a list of the real estate about to be
advertised and sold for taxes, shall verify the said treasurer's list by
reference to the libers and folios set out in the treasurer's list from the
records in the clerk's office. The said clerk shall receive a fee of twenty-
five cents for verifying each and every reference to the liber and folio set
out in the treasurer's list; and the said clerk shall receive five dollars for
filing a report of tax sales made by the said treasurer as hereinbefore pro-
vided, docketing the same and making other entries relative thereto; all
of said fees, as well as other costs and expenses, to be taxed against and
collected out of the proceeds of the property sold for taxes. In all cases
of sales where exceptions are filed, a separate suit shall be docketed by
the clerk on the equity docket, and he shall receive from the party re-
quiring any service therein the same fees allowed for similar services in
ordinary equity suits, the said fee, as well as matters of procedure, to be
fixed by the court where otherwise not specifically provided by law, and
the exceptions shall be heard by the court in the usual manner that excep-
tions in chancery are generally heard, except as to the taking of evidence,
which shall be in open court, if the court shall so order it; in all matters
in the hearing of such exceptions, not specifically provided for herein,
the court shall hear the same under such regulations as it may see fit
to prescribe, in order to try the case upon its substantial merits without
regard to technical errors or formal inaccuracies, it being the distinct
intention of this Act that it shall be construed liberally in favor of main-
taining suits and proceedings for the collection of taxes against delinquent
taxpayers.

1910, ch. 354 (p. 747), sec. 11.

96. Nothing in this Act shall, in any manner, effect the legality of any
tax sales heretofore made by any Treasurer of said Charles County; and
that the said treasurer shall report such sales, as provided by the existing
law at the time of the making thereof, and the same proceedings shall be
had in reference thereto, in the same manner as if this Act had not been
enacted.*

CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

P. L. L., 1888, Art. 9, sec. 58. 1880, ch. 129.

97. The provisions of Sections 241 to 245, of Article 4, of the Public

*Sec. 12, ch. 354, 1910, repealed all laws inconsistent therewith.