116

SAMUEL STEVENS, Jr. ESQUIRE, GOVERNOR.

Dec. Ses. 1823

may be claimed, and such owner or owners another, and these two
freeholders shall select a third, which three, after being severally
sworn, before any person authorised to administer oaths, faithfully
and impartially to assess said damages, shall proceed to enquire
into the said damages, and after having ascertained the same,
by the concurrent opinion of any two, or all of the said freeholders,
they shall certify the same, in writing under their hands and seals, or
the hands and seals of any two of them, to the said commissioners if
such damages should be assessed during the continuance of such
officers, or if otherwise to the said corporation, and it shall be the
duty of such commissioners, or corporation, as the case may be, to

Proceedings,
directed.

have the same recorded in the books or proceedings of the said com-
missioners, if the same shall be returned during the continuance of
such office, or in such manner as the said corporation shall direct,
should the same be returned after the expiration or abolition of said
office, and the amount of such damages, thus certified, shall be paid
to the owner or owners, by the said commissioners or corporation,
within ten days thereafter, and proof of such payment, or of the offer
of such payment, in case of the refusal to receive the same on the
part of such owner or owners, shall forever discharge the said com.
missioned corporation, and their agents, or other persons by them
employed, and in case the amount of damages so certified by said
freeholders, in any case shall fall short of the sum offered for such da-
mages by the commissioners, corporation, or agents previously to the
selection of said freeholders, then the costs of all proceedings, after
such offer, shall be deducted from the amount of damages so certi-
fied, and the said commissioners or corporation, shall pay to the said
owner or owners no more than the residue of said damages after
the deduction of such cost, but in case the amount of damages so
certified shall exceed such previous offer, then all such costs shall be
paid by the said commissioners or corporation, over and above the
damages so certified; and the said freeholders shall each be entitled,
for his services to the sum of one dollar and fifty cents, for each assess-
ment of damages, and if more than one day be required for the same,
he shall be entitled to one dollar and fifty cents, for each and every
day that his services are thus required, and if any action or suit of
any description whatever should be brought against the said com-
missioners, corporation, their agents, or other persons employed by
them, or either of them, for any act, matter or thing, done in pur-
suance of this act, or any of the provisions thereof, it shall be law-
ful for them or either of them, to plead the general issue in such ac-
tion or suit, and to give this act and the special matter in evidence.

Maps and re-
cords.

6. And be it enacted, That when the said canal shall have been fully
completed, the said commissioners shall cause duplicate maps or
plats thereof to be accurately made out in books to be provided for
that purpose, on a scale sufficiently large to admit of a clear repre-
sentation and description of the course and dimensions thereof, and
of all other matters necessary and proper to exhibit the most dis-
tinct and perspicuous view of the whole; one of which said maps
or plats, shall be deposited with the clerk of Baltimore county court,
to be by him safely kept and preserved as a public record among the
the land records of the said county; and the other copy thereof shall
be delivered to the register of the city of Baltimore, to be by him
safely kept as a public record among the records of the city; and the
said maps or plats, and the books wherein shall be recorded all the