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1498 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Apl. 1,
19th ward, 4 p, Eugene P. Mercer, Clerk, Record Office.
19th ward, 3 p., Samuel A. Hart, Clerk, Cattle Scales,
19th ward, 3 p., V, B. Heins, Clerk, Water Department.
20th ward, 3 p., Jas. Kirk, Market-Master.
20th ward, 3 p., B. H. Hobbs, Bailiff Superior Court.
20th ward, 3 p., George V. Metzell, Magistrate.
Another charge made against the Board of Police Com-
missioners, was that they violated the law in not supplying
boxes for rejected ballots to the different polling places, and
also improperly administering the oaths of office to the
Judges of Election, in consequence whereof, the late elections
held in the City of Baltimore, became null and void through
their misconduct. Section 216, of the Public Local Laws,
title "Baltimore City," and the duties of the police general-
ly, in regard to the custody and distribution of the ballot
boxes, made it clearly the office of the Board to see that
boxes for rejected ballots were supplied to all of the precincts.
That this duty was neglected in very many cases the testi-
mony of the Judges and Clerks of Election in the contested
election cases, shows beyond a doubt, and the evidence of the
Commissioners themselves, shows an inattention to the sub-
ject in the highest degree reprehensible, to say the least.
As to the oaths administered to the Judges of Election,
the Act of 1868, chapter 377, makes the provisions of the
General Law of elections, (Code, Article 35,) applicable to
the City of Baltimore, in this, and many other respects, and
declares, furthermore, that no election to be held in that city,
whether Federal, State or Municipal, shall be valid, unless
held under and in conformity with the provisions thereof.—
This enactment took the power of administering the said
oaths oi office out of the hands of the Police Commissioners
and their clerks, and vested it where the general election law
had lodged it, i. e. in the hands of Justices of the Peace and
of the judges themselves, (see Code of Public General Laws,
Ariicle 36, Section 11, as amended by Act of 1867, chapter
874.) The same Section provides that a certificate of such
oath, signed by the person administering the same, respec-
tively, shall be annexed to the poll books ; the full form of
the oath also is given in Section 9, of the last mentioned
amendatory Act, and the proper oath, the proper administra-
tion of it, and the proper certification of it, are each made,
as before stated, prerequisites to a valid election by the Act
of 1878 chapter 377. This being the law, the evidence of
If r. Bos well, Clerk of the Commissioners, and the returns
themselves, show that its plain and mandatory provisions
were utterly disregarded by the Board ; that their clerk,
acting under their instructions and with their approval, him-
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