366 LAWS OF MARYLAND. CH. 261

repealed, and that 42 new sections be and they are hereby
enacted in lieu thereof, said new sections to be known as
Sections 39 to 80, inclusive, to follow immediately after
Section 38 of said Article and to read as follows:

39. The Boards of County Commissioners of the several
counties in the State of Maryland shall have jurisdiction,
power, and authority to establish Public Drainage Asso-
ciations in their respective counties, and to locate and estab-
lish ditches, drains, or canals, and to cause to be con-
structed, straightened, widened or deepened any ditch,
drain or watercourse for the purpose of draining wet,
swampy or overflowed lands or lands subject to overflow;
and it is hereby declared that such drainage shall be con-
sidered a public benefit and conducive to the public health,
convenience and welfare.

40. Whenever a petition signed by not less than one-
third of the landowners or by the owners of not less than
one-third of the land in a contiguous body of wet, swampy
or overflowed land is filed with the Clerk of the Board of
County Commissioners of the county in which all or any
part of such body of land is located, setting forth that such
body of land, described in such a way as to convey an
intelligent idea of its location, is subject to overflow or too
wet for cultivation, and that the public benefit or utility,
or the public health, convenience or welfare would be pro-
moted by draining or ditching the same, or by changing
or improving the natural watercourses, and asking for the
establishment of a Public Drainage Association for such
purposes, it shall be the duty of the Board of County Com-
missioners forthwith to appoint a Board of Drainage
Viewers, to be composed of three or more judicious and
impartial citizens, residing in the vicinity of the said body
of wet, swampy or overflowed land, provided, however,
that no member of the Board of Drainage Viewers shall be
the owner of any land which will be affected by the pro-
posed improvements. No person appointed -as a member of
the Board of Drainage Viewers shall act in that capacity
until he has given the Board of County Commissioners
written notice of his acceptance of his appointment.

If any member of the Board of Viewers appointed by
any order of the county commissioners shall die, or re-
move from the county or counties in which the swamp or
lowlands are situated, or otherwise be or become unable to
act, the county commissioners shall appoint another person
in his stead as soon as practicable, and such appointment
shall in no wise affect the validity of any of the work of the
Board of Viewers theretofore done.