pending, may dispense with the rule herein provided
for the reading of the bill upon three several
days.
Sec. 18th. No bill shall become a law unless it
receive the concurrent vote of a majority of the
members present in both Houses.
Sec. 37th. Any citizen of this State who shall
after the adoption of this Constitution fight a due
with deadly weapon, or send. or accept a challenge
to fight a duel with deadly weapons, either
in or out of the State, or who shall act as second,
or knowingly aid or assist in any manner
those thus offending, shall he deprived of holding
any office of trust or profit under this State.
Sec. 38th. No new lottery grant shall be authorized
by the Legislature of this State.
Sec. 39th. It shall be the duty of the legislature
to pass such laws as may be necessary and
proper to decide differences by arbitration when
the parties may elect that method of trial.
Sec. 40th. All property both real and personal,
of the wife owned or claimed by her before marriage,
and that acquired by gift, devise or de-
scent, shall be her separate property, and law
shall be passed by the legislature, more clearly
defining the rights of the wife in relation to her
separate property.
Which was read.
Mr. P. said he gave this notice now, in order
that the Convention might have an opportunity
to examine the amendment.
CHURCHES AND CHURCH GOVERNMENT.
Mr. BUCHANAN enquired of the "hair, whether
there was any business before the Convention ?
The PRESIDENT, pro tem, answered in the
negative.
Mr. BUCHANAN said, he had received a petition
from a very respectable citizen of the city of
Baltimore. He, (Mr. B.,) declared that he did
not know exactly what to do with it. It seemed
to him that the petition was respectful. The
petition was entitled to be heard, and he, (Mr.
B.,) could see no reason why he should not be
heard. He did not know precisely to what com-
mittee it should be referred. [Mr. B. explained
the petition. It came from James P. Kennedy,
and related to the building of churches and to
church government.]
Mr. B. moved its reference to committee No.
14—(not knowing, he said, any other committee
to which it more appropriately belonged.)
Mr. MITCHELL called for the reading of the
petition.
The petition was read and created much
amusement.
The propriety of the reference of the paper,
gave rise to some desultory discussion, in which
Messrs. JENIFER, BUCHANAN, THOMAS and SOLLERS
took part, when
Mr. JENIFER moved that the petition be laid on
the table.
The question was taken, and, by ayes 23, noes
25, the Convention determined that the petition
should not be laid on the table.
And then the petition was referred to committee
No. 14.

PERSONAL EXPLANATION.
Mr. DORSEY rose and said:
It is with extreme reluctance that, in consequence
of the remarks made by the gentleman
from Baltimore, in which I am held up before
this body, and intended so to be held up, I presume,
before the public, as guilty of the grossest
dereliction of official duty as one of the Judges of
the Court of Appeals, I rise to communicate a
few facts within my own knowledge; but which
are unknown, for the most part to the members
of this Convention. I should, in immediate response
to the gentleman from Baltimore, have giv-
en the explanation I now offer, but I did hope that
he would have made such inquiries above stairs,
(where the means of information were abundant,)
as would have enabled him to ascertain the cor-
rectness of the information received by him from
his informant; and in that event, I expected from
him such explanatory statements as would have
rendered any remarks from me on this subject,
wholly unnecessary. But in this expectation I
have been, to my regret, disappointed.
The impressions made upon this body by the
statements of the gentleman, were, I have no
doubt, not only that the Court of Appeals had
been adjourning day after day from the want of a
constitutional quorum for the transaction of its
business, to the great hindrance and delay of the ad-
ministration of justice; and that had greatly contributed
to produce this inconvenience by wholly
absenting myself from the Court and having no
participation in its labors; or paying any atten-
tion to its progress with the business before it.
Sir, this could not have been the meaning of the
gentleman, for he well knows that since this
Convention has been assembled, he argued before
me, as one of the Court, with two other counsel,
a case of no Inconsiderable length, difficulty and
importance; that I participated in its decision,
and drew the opinion of the Court in the case
which has been for sometime filed. And the in-
formant of the gentleman oil whose statement his
remarks were predicated, since the Christmas
recess, argued also a case before me, in which I
believe his speech consumed an entire day.
I understood the gentleman to say, that I am
not here as a representative of the sovereign peo-
ple of the State; but was only selected by a portion
of the people of Anne Arundel county. This
assertion proves rather too much. If true, it
shows that the people of the State have no repre-
sentatives in this body; although we are sitting
here preparing a Constitution for their adoption
and government. It proves that our Revolution-
ary ancestors in 1776, who framed our Constitu-
tion at that period, were not the delegates of the
people of the State; that no Constitution perhaps
of any State in the Union was framed by the re-
presentatives of the sovereign people. Such a
doctrine has nothing to sustain it. Each and all
of us in this body are as much the representatives
of the people of the State as if elected by a gen-
eral ticket or popular vote of the whole people
of Maryland. My authority to withdraw from
the Bench of the Court of Appeals to serve as a
member of this body, I believe to be as fully es-