EMERSON C. HARRINGTON, GOVERNOR. 943

use and alter at pleasure a common seal; and may pass and
adopt all ordinances, resolutions or by-laws necessary or proper
to exercise the powers herein granted.

All property and franchises of every kind belonging to or in
the possession of the Board of Commissioners of the County
and any of its agencies, shall, immediately upon the adoption
of a charter, be vested in the said County, as a corporation.
And no action against the County Commissioners of any
County adopting the charter shall abate, but shall be continued
in the name of the County with the same effect as if originally
so brought or begun; and that all subsisting liabilities, obliga-
tions, contracts, claims and demands at law or in equity, ac-
crued or to accrue, of said County Commissioners or in its
favor, shall without further formality be and become the lia-
bilities, obligations, contracts, claims and demands of such
Commissioners and County Council of the County adopting a
charter under said Article XI-A, and that no criminal action,
prosecution or indictment shall be affected by the adoption of
a charter as aforesaid, but shall be prosecuted under the law
in force at the time of the commission of the offense.

GRANT OF POWERS.

2. Whenever any county among the geographical subdivi-
sions of this State, as that term is defined in Section 4 of Arti-
cle XI-A of the Constitution of the State, shall have adopted
for itself a charter or form of government under the provi-
sions of said Article XI-A of the Constitution, it shall be enti-
tled to exercise the following express powers, said powers
being, as to the counties of Maryland adopting such charter or
form of government, granted as a substitute for and in exten-
sion of the powers codified in Article 25 of the Annotated
Code of Maryland, title "County Commissioners," it being the
intent of the General Assembly of Maryland that said Article
25 shall continue to be operative in any and all such counties
of Maryland as do not adopt for themselves a charter or form
of government under the provisions of said Article XI-A of
the Constitution, but that the powers herein granted shall be
operative in any and all such counties of Maryland as do
adopt such charter or form of government.

ENUMERATION OF EXPRESS POWERS.

3. The following enumerated express powers are hereby
granted to and conferred upon any county or counties which