pose of two cases per day, which allowing for
trial cases would certainly prove too much for
their endurance.
Mr. MORGAN. What is the number of jury
trials?
Mr. GWINN. The number of jury trials is
not authentically returned, according to the
statement here. But upon this tribunal, which
has charge of six hundred and fifty cases per
year, whether for trial or other disposition, the
gentleman proposes to cast the entire equity
business of Baltimore city, and what is that?
Why at the present time, although the expedi-
tion with which the present Chancellor decides
cases, and the press of business upon Baltimore
County Court, results in the transfer of a very
large number of contested cases to Annapolis,
it will be seen that one hundred and twenty-four
decrees every year have been passed by Balti-
more County Court, sitting as a Court of Equity,
as an average for the last five years. Yet the
gentleman tells us that it is reasonable to cast
upon two judges 650 cases per year, and in addi-
tion to superadd to the jurisdiction of one of
these courts 124 equity cases, taking the average
during the past five years. I humbly submit
that such a measure would entail upon the
judges of the two courts an amount of labor
which it is scarcely possible to perform with
advantage to the community.
At the present time we have three judges,
who attend to the civil and criminal business of
Baltimore and Harford counties, and to the civil
business of Baltimore city, and two judges for
the criminal business of Baltimore city alone.
The judicial districts were laid out in 1805. At
that period Baltimore city had about 32,000 and
Harford and Baltimore counties about 49,000,
making in all a gross population of 81,000. St.
Mary's, Prince George's and Charles had, on
the other hand, about 53,618. It will be seen
that at this period even the Baltimore district
was relatively too large.
in the forty-five years which have passed
since that time, Baltimore city has increased in
population to 169,000, which is more than dou-
ble the population of the whole district as then
laid out. Of late years it is notorious with the
profession, and with the whole community, that
our legal business has not been adequately at-
tended to; yet it is proposed to create asystem
which is certainly disproportioned to the in-
crease of business accruing since that time.
I am aware that it has been said that this in.
convenience proceeds from the dilatory charac-
ter of our courts, It is not necessary to speculate
whether greater expedition could be attained.
But it may be said that we have possessed the
services, in the past twenty years, of men as
conscientious in the performance of their duty,
as any who ever sat upon the bench of Mary-
land; and had it been possible to have made
the system answer the ends for which it was
designed, that object would have been accom-
plished by some one of those who have filled
the judicial office within the period referred to.
Surely no man was ever more entirely devoted |
to his duty than the late admirable chief justice
of the State, (Judge Archer;) yet his patience
and unwearied zeal were unavailing to the
steady performance of the laborious duties con-
nected with his station. It is not likely that
any system will call into office a man of higher
character or more devoted purpose; and if he
failed to make the organization then existing
fully serviceable, we cannot expect that any
other will accomplish that end.
it is proper to state the precise time which
the judges now spend in that city, in order that
it may be seen whether the public service is
neglected. Baltimore county court, sitting for
Baltimore city, was, in the terms of January,
May and September, 1848, in session one hun-
dred and seventy-three days in the regular call
of the docket. One of the judges sitting in the
appeal court, was employed about ninety days.
This is a very moderate computation. Another
was occupied in hearing equity causes, (taking
the one hundred and twenty-four decrees returned
as a fair average,) about thirty days, and it is
certain that the same court decided, and, with
separate juries, under the power given by act
of assembly, sat about thirty days longer. Be-
sides the chief judge, sat eighty days in the court
of appeals. These calculations are all made
with reference to the most moderate estimates.
If Sundays are reckoned, it will be seen that
the constitutional court, if it attended to the
business as a whole, would not be entirely unable
to attend to the legal wants of the city alone.
Even if when we consider that this same court sat
seventy-three days, in the year 1848, for Balti-
more county, and twenty days for Harford, the
impossibility of its affording the advantages of a
full court, under the arrangement of 1805, will
be clearly apparent.
Nor has the present system led only lo the evil of
a divided court. The press of business is so great
that the judges are not able to perform it. If the
docket is regularly reached at each term, beginning
with the case first standing ready fur trial, the
one at the fool of the docket would not be reached
in years. As it is, even when the court begins
one term at that part in the docket at which it
stopped on the term preceding, some three terms
must pass before the cases at the end of the docket
are reached. Surely a state of things, so injurious
to the interests of trade, ought to be remedied.
Such are the evils of the present system.
Now, what is the remedy? We have asked for
three courts organized as in the bill. One to
consist of two judges, with common law jurisdiction
in cases over five hundred dollars, and
with jurisdiction in equity causes; and the other
of one judge, with jurisdiction in sums less
than five hundred dollars, and a criminal court.
The last we have already, and the only alterna-
tive is to elevate it from the mere legislative
character it now has, and to put it on the foot-
ing of a constitutional court. The gentleman
proposes to give us one judge only for the court
with the larger jurisdiction, who is to perform
the same duties. A reference to these will show
that the labor imposed is such that it will se- |
