1012 DORCHESTER COUNTY. [ART. 10.

1872, ch. 281.

123. The clerk to the county commissioners is authorized and
empowered to administer an oath or affirmation upon any claim
against the county, or upon any official papers connected with his
office.

1878, ch. 370.

124. The county commissioners are authorized and directed
to levy each year upon the taxpayers the sum of two thousand
dollars, in addition to the ordinary expenses of the county, to
provide a sinking fund for the payment of the bonded debt
of the county.

Ibid.

125. Such levy shall be made until said bonded debt is dis-
charged and cancelled, and under the direction of the county
commissioners, the proceeds shall be applied either to the pur-
chasing and cancelling of the outstanding bonds of the county, or
invested in first mortgages, or prior judgment liens on real estate
of at least double the assessed value of the investment made, as
they may find most favorable to the interests of the county, and
to no other purpose whatever; but they shall always purchase the
bonds of the county at a price not exceeding par, when the same
are offered, in preference to investing said monies raised as
aforesaid; and when any of said bonds shall have been purchased,
they shall be destroyed by the clerk of the board of county com-
missioners, in their presence, and a memorandum of the fact and
of the number and amount of said bonds shall be made on the
record of the proceedings of said commissioners; and when any
judgment or mortgage shall be entered or executed as aforesaid,
it shall be entered or executed in the corporate name of the board
of commissioners, and the treasurer of the county shall make the
necessary affidavit in case of an investment on mortgage; the
investments in each case either to remain at interest, or the
interest to be collected and reinvested as they may find expedient.

1882, ch. 237.

126. In the event of additional bonds being issued by them
for the erection of a new jail for the county, said commissioners,
in lien of investing the money required to be levied under section