ART. 3.] BALTIMORE COUNTY. 25

and preserved as all other records in hia office, and the said
clerk, hereby authorized to be appointed, shall perform gener-
ally such other duties connected with the business of said com-
mission as the said commissioner may from time to time pre-
scribe, and before he enters upon the duties of his office, shall
take and prescribe an oath or affirmation well and truly to per-
form the duties of his office, which oath or affirmation may be
administered by the [the] said commissioner and certified by
him, and recorded in the proceedings of the said commissioner.

16. Said commissioner shall have and exercise all the powers
which are now possessed by the Judges of the Circuit Courts of
the several counties of the State, to issue and compel process for
the attendance of witnesses, and it shall be the duty of the
sheriff' of said county to serve such process, for which service
he shall be entitled to receive the same fees as are now allowed
by law for like services, to be paid either by the parties in-
terested or by the county, as the said commissioner may pre-
scribe.

17. The said commissioner shall notify, by circular or other-
wise, all persons having original deeds or other instruments of
writing or papers which have been recorded in the office of the
clerk of the Circuit Court of said county, the record of which
has been wholly or partially destroyed by fire, to file said
originals with the clerk of the said Circuit Court, and shall also
prescribe the time and place of sitting of the said commissioner,
which shall be at the court house in said county.

18. In all cases where, in the judgment of the commissioner
appointed by this act, any record in the office of the clerk of
the Circuit Court for said county, shall have been so burnt or
defaced as to be wholly destroyed by fire, and the index to such
record, or the general index, may supply the titling to such
records, he shall take and accept said index as auxiliary evi-
dence, and shall, if the original papers are a certified copy
thereof, properly evidenced, as of record, be produced, order
and direct such original paper or copy, as the case may be, to be
recorded anew by the clerk of the Circuit Court for said county,