the orphans' court and the exclusive chancery
jurisdiction?
if there is any evil above all others which,
in my judgment, exists in the present judicial
system of the State, it is in imposing upon the
judges the necessity of traveling through large
and extended tracts of country, riding circuits.
in doing this, you violated the great fundamen-
tal principle which I have just read, contained
in the 17th article of the Bill of Rights; for in
so doing, you necessarily denied a speedy ad-
ministration of justice.
The entire argument of my friend from Som-
erset consisted rather in a mere statement in
detail of statistics, which he has thought proper
to gather up for the information of this body—
a matter which, after collected, amounts, in my
judgment, to as strong, clear, and convincing
proof of the inefficiency of the present system
as could be devised. He founds his own argu-
ment upon these statistics, with a view to per-
petuate the. evils of this judicial system. He
seems to assume, that because these judges
have not attended more than thirty days in one
county, and twenty days in another, twelve days
in another, and as high as forty days in another,
that these facts are proofs from which we have
a right to presume that there was no other bus-
iness for them to do; that the judicial business
of the county did not require their attendance
beyond these limits; that the attendance of the
Judges is a sort of thermometer by which we
are to measure the amount of business within
the county or judicial district. Why, sir, the
very statement itself, the very fact disclosed by
these statistics, show how utterly the present
system has failed to answer the great wants of
the people. He has said that if Fredhrick coun-
ty, where there are from three hundred and
sixty to four hundred cases, was put along side
of Prince George's county, the attendance of
the judges would be found to be almost the
same, I desire my friend to state whether
these statistics show how much of the business
was left undone by these judges. They show
only one fact—that the judges attend so many
days; but that is not the important inquiry; that
is not an important consideration. I wish to
know how many cases were left untried because
of the want of attendance of the judges, or be-
cause of the fact that they did not sit long
enough. I put it to the experience of every
practicing lawyer upon this floor, if he does not
know that cases are constantly continued from
term to term, without being tried? I put it lo
him to say whether, if the judge had pleased to
sit longer than ten, twelve, or fourteen days
each term, the cases might not have been tried?
These statistics only show the number of days
the judges have actually attended. They do
not show the amount of business undisposed of.
That fact may be arrived at by the observation
and experience of every man in this Conven-
tion.
Now, I say, judging of other portions of the
State by my knowledge of my own judicial dis-
trict—a fact which I am sure my colleague, who |
belongs to the same profession as myself, and
others who belong to the same judicial district,
will confirm—that if we get a judge to sit longer
than a fortnight in Prince George's or Charles,
(there are occasions when they have pat longer
in Prince George's, it is true, but I believe very
rarely longer than that time in Charles and St.
Mary's,) it is considered a? something singular.
From the time I first became a member of the bar
in Prince George's, the docket has varied from
six lo seven hundred cases down to three hundred
and sixty or three hundred and seventy as the
lowest number on the trial docket, and in the
course of a practice now of some fifteen or sixteen
years, I say that out of these cases, one-third of
which are generally disputed cases, we do not try
more than from eight to ten at any one term, and
we are now precisely in that predicament through-
out the whole of the judicial district. You may
go to Charles and St, Mary's, you may go to
Prince George's, and you will find that one-third
at least of the cases upon the calendar are dispu-
ted cases marked for trial, and are generally con-
tinued from term lo term, and if we get even ten
cases tried during one term, we think we are dis-
patching business most rapidly. This is the fact
within our judicial district; it is a matter known
to every gentleman who practices in that district.
I have no doubt the very same causes of delay
exist every where. I say that this evil, this vice,
this constant accumulation of costs upon the peo-
ple of the State, growing out of the continuance
of cases, this constant accumulation of fees in the
shape of witness fees and other expenses, are en-
tailed upon the people of this State by the vices
of the present judicial district system. We have
departed from that great cardinal maxim laid
down by our ancestors, and engrafted upon the
constitution, that the people are entitled to a
speedy administration of justice. It is our duty
to devise some plan by which justice will be
speedily administered. To carry out this great
and valuable principle in practice there is no com-
promise to be made. You can devise no scheme
of judicial districts, to embrace more than one
county, or two at the furtherest, by which the
large amount of business now thrown upon the
hands of the judges can be disposed of. Have a
judge for each county end you at once establish
a system which will work off the public business,
and this is what the people require. Any sys-
tem short of this will bring no substantial relief
to the people, but will only add to their burdens.
The gentleman assumes, as the foundation of
his argument, the very evils which we are now
called upon to remedy. And here lies the fault
of his argument. He assumes that the number
of days which the judges have attended is evi-
dence of the amount of business within the courts
over which they are called to preside. We
know the facts to be otherwise. If I were to ask
my friend I am sure he would answer me that in
his district large portions of business are constant-
ly left untried.
Mr. CRISFIELD. Does the gentleman desire
an answer?
Mr, BOWIE. I do, sir. |
