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the said Company shall have power and authority,
to have condemned such lands, as may be neces-
sary for the purposes aforesaid by inquisition in
the following manner : when such lands may be
wanted, application may be made to any Justice
of the Peace of Howard county, if the land shall
lie in said county, or of Baltimore county, if the
lands lie in Baltimore, who shall therefore issue
his warrant under his hand and seal to the Sheriff
of said counties, requiring him to summon a jury
of the inhabitants, not related to the parties, nor
in anywise interested, to meet on the lands so
wanted, on a day named in said warrant, not less
than ten, nor more twenty days after issuing the
same, and if at the said time and place, any of the
said jurors summoned do not attend, the Sheriff
shall immediately summon as many persons simi-
larly qualified, as together with the jurors in at-
tendance will furnish a panel of twenty jurors,
and from the panel each party, his, her, or their,
or its attorney or agent, or if either party be not
present in person or by agent, the sheriff for him,
her, them, or it, may strike off four persons, and
the remaining twelve shall act as the jury of the
inquest of damages, and to each before he acts as
such juror, the Sheriff shall administer an oath or
affirmation that he will justly and impartially va-
lue the damages which the owner or owners will
sustain by the use or occupation of the said land
so required to be taken, and the said jury shall
reduce their inquisition to writing, and sign and
seal the same, and it shall be returned by the
Sheriff to the Clerk of the Circuit court of his
county, and be filed by said Clerk in his office, and
shall be confirmed by the said Circuit Court at its
next term or session, if no sufficient cause to the
contrary be shown; and when confirmed shall be
recorded by said Clerk to whose office the same
has been returned, at the expense of the said Com-
pany; but if the same be set aside, the Circuit
Court of either of the said counties, or both, if the
same be set aside in both, shall direct another in-
quisition to be taken in the manner above describ-
ed, and the inquisition shall in all cases describe
the land condemned, and the quantity or duration
of the interest in the same valued for said Com-
pany, and such valuation when paid or tendered
to the owner or owners of the property, his, her,
40
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Land— how
obtained.
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