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Mr. Ritchie believed as firmly as he was standing on
this floor, from personal contact with those who were in-
terested, that when he opposed this majority system he
represented the voice of nineteen out of twenty lawyers
of the city of Baltimore and of the entire bench of the
city. He believed that his four colleagues who favored
this system were almost the only members of the bar in
favor of the system they had reported here.
Mr. Ritchie said his colleague, (Mr. Brown, ) had alluded
to the state of business in one of the courts of the city, but
he (Mr. R. ) contended that it was not the fault of the
system, but of the judge, and all the outcry against the
Criminal Court and its gross perversion to political pur-
poses was not the fault of the system, but the man who
administered it, and as to this he challenged contradic-
tion. He spoke the voice of the people, bench and bar,
when he asked this Convention not to uproot a system to
which the community of Baltimore had become accus-
tomed, and to which they were wedded. He asked this
Convention if they could ignore the wishes of a majority
of the people, and, in the words of his colleague, (Mr.
Brown, ) ascribe it toward clamor? Let them do it, but
he asked if they could ignore the voice of the entire bar
of Baltimore?
Mr. Dobbin asked by what right does any gentleman
here claim to be the exponent of the views of the people
of Baltimore, or to represent the voice of the bar? All
such statements represent the mere personal assertion of
the gentlemen who make them, and he contended that he
had as much right to be believed as either of the gentle-
men who had spoken. He asked what petitions had come
up here against the majority report; what indications had
they that the people were opposed to it ? The gentleman
(Mr. Ritchie) who opposed the plan as reported by the
majority had received a letter from Judge Wylie, of
Washington, who was personally acquainted with the
practical workings of the system proposed by the major-
ity, speaking in the most favorable terms of it, and he
asked the gentleman to have it read.
The Convention then took a recess until 8 P. M.
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