ART. 81] MODE AND MEASURE OF ASSESSMENT AND TAXATION. 565

and said owner or owners, shall respectively answer the said
petition in ten days after he or they shall respectively have actual
notice thereof. It shall be the duty of said circuit court or Bal-
timore City Court, to hear the said case upon petition and answer,
and upon such affidavits, if any, as the court may authorize to be
taken by any party to said proceedings, on such notice as the
court may prescribe at its then session, or at the earliest practi-
cable day thereafter, and the said court shall determine whether
the said property ought or ought not to be valued to the said
owner. If the said court shall determine that the said property
ought not to be valued to the said owner, it shall so direct by its
order; but if it shall determine that the said property is subject
to valuation and assessment, it shall direct the same to be valued
to the owner thereof in the assessment district in which the same
ought to be so valued.

1896, ch. 120.

186. Any one of the parties to the proceedings mentioned in
the two preceding sections, may appeal from the order of the
court therein to the Court of Appeals, and on such appeal, the
clerk of the court shall forthwith transmit the original papers,
including the order of the court, to the Court of Appeals, and
the said court shall, if then in session, immediately hear and
determine the said case or shall hear and determine the same upon
its reassembling.

Ibid.

187. It shall be the duty of the State tax commissioner to
supervise strictly the conduct and proceeding of the assessors,
members of the several boards of county commissioners acting
as boards of control and review, and said boards of control and
review of Baltimore city and clerks, and to report to the Gov-
ernor all instances of neglect, or dereliction of duty on the part
of any such officers, which may come to his notice or be brought
to his attention, and to use his best efforts to promote the prompt
and effective execution of the provisions of this article. All
returns made by any assessors hereunder, and the entries made in
the respective books hereunder required to be entered and
recorded, shall be legibly written with ink, and not with pencil.