1776.] OF THE PROVINCE OF MARYLAND. 359

the justices there summoned to attend for the preservation of the
peace shall be judges thereof, and of the qualification of candidates,
who shall appoint a clerk to take the ballots : all freemen above
the age of twenty-one years, having a freehold of fifty acres of
land in the county in which they offer to ballot, and residing there-
in, and all freemen above the age of twenty-one years, and having
property in the state above the value of thirty pounds current money,
and having resided in the county in which they offer to ballot one
whole year next preceding the election, shall have a right of suffrage;
no person to be eligible to the office of sheriff for a county but an in-
habitant of the said county, above the age of twenty-one years,
and having real and personal property in the state above the value
of one thousand pounds current money; the justices aforesaid
shall examine the ballots, and the two candidates properly qualified,
having in each county the majority of legal ballots, shall be declared
duly elected for the office of sheriff for such county, and returned
to the governor and council, with a certificate of the number of bal-
lots for each of them.

43. That every person who shall offer to vote for delegates, or
for the electors of the seriate, or for the sheriff, shall (if required
by any three persons qualified to vote) before he be admitted to
poll, take such oath or affirmation of support and fidelity to this
state as this convention or the legislature shall direct.

44. That a justice of the peace may be eligible as a senator, dele-
gate, or member of the council, and may continue to act as a jus-
tice of the peace.

45. That no field officer of the militia shall be eligible as a sen-
ator, delegate, or member of the council.

46. That all civil officers hereafter to be appointed for the seve-
ral counties of this state shall have been residents of the county
respectively for which they shall be appointed, six months next be-
fore their appointment, and shall continue residents of their coun-
ty respectively during their continuance in office.

47. That the judges of the general court and justices of the
county courts may appoint the clerks of their respective courts,
and in case of refusal, death, resignation, disqualification, or re-
moval out of the state, or from their respective shores, of the clerks of
the general court, or either of them, in the vacation of the said court;
and in case of the refusal, death, resignation, disqualification, re-
moval out of the county of any of the said county clerks in the va-
cation of the county court of which he is clerk, the governor, with
the advice of the council, may appoint and commission a fit and
proper person to such vacant office respectively, to hold the same
46