verely task the energies of one man, if he fully
performs the service required of him. For al-
though the permanent and necessary division of
the city business, between two courts, is be-
tween them, the optional arrangement which is
now sometimes resorted to, yet we are entitled
to ask not only for an improvement in the pres-
ent law, but for a full provision for our reason-
able wants.
Something has been said about the inequality
of' the proposed system, assuming the latter of
Mr. Crisfield to be in all respects accurate. The
second district, consisting of Anne Arundel,
Calvert, Montgomery and Howard District, pre-
sents an array of eight hundred and sixty-two
cases instituted, which is more than one-half of
the whole number of suits instituted in the city
of Baltimore. It is surely not necessary to re-
mind those who are familiar with the dockets of
that section of the State that they are largely
made up of cases which are litigated for the
sake of time only, and in which there is no pur-
pose of trial. The comparison of the number
of days which the court sits in this district with
the time specified in Baltimore, shows this, or
if it does not, the judges of that district are very
derelict in duty. The presumption certainly is
that they perform their duty, and the leisure
days remaining show that they have ample
space to perform it. In 1845 the court sat in
these counties sixty-six days only; in 1846,
Seventy-three days; in 1848, fifty-three days; in
1849, eighty days. All the remaining portion
of the year was unemployed by the associates.
If the business was not done thrice over, the
fault was not in the system, but in the court.
It must be recollected also that it is not just
to make a provision on the basis of our present
wants only. While the counties for the most
part remain stationary, the city is growing to a
magnitude hardly dreamed of when the judici-
ary system was framed in 1805. We heard
enough of this when gentlemen were arguing
the necessity of a check upon our representa-
tives, but it is overturned when a competent pro-
vision should be made for our judicial wants.
Mr. MORGAN. I move to strike out "the
Chancery Court of the city of Baltimore." I
for one certainly am not subject to the charge
of illiberality towards the city of Baltimore, for
I feel disposed to give her every facility for
transacting all her business, and I am for ex-
tending every remedy in a court of justice which
her citizens may require. I cannot see the pro-
priety, nor do I see the necessity, of first insti-
tuting two Common Law Courts in the city of
Baltimore and then organizing a Chancery ju-
risdiction for the transaction of its business.—
The gentleman from the city of Baltimore (Mr.
Gwinn) has read you some statistics in refer-
ence to the number of suits originating in the
courts. They may be correct, but these are
net the data upon which this Convention has
come to its conclusion in reference to the or-
ganization of the courts throughout the State.
The gentleman from Somerset county (Mr.
Crisfield,) who brought forward the statistics, |
referred you to the fact of the number of trials
and the number of verdicts brought before judgment.
In my own county I recollect that some
one hundred or two hundred actions were instituted,
and the gentleman said that there were,
about five trials per annum, and that was the
measure upon which the business of the State
was said to be transacted. There may be 650
cases in Baltimore City Court, instituted there,
but will the gentleman pretend to say that there
were 650 trials in the County Court? Most cer-
tainly not.
Mr. GWINN, I can say that if the present system
continues, we will not have any trials at all.
Mr. MORGAN. I am as much opposed to the
present system as the gentleman, but the gentle-
man will recollect that the present system in-
cludes Baltimore and Harford counties, with the
city. What does this bill propose? It proposes
just to institute a court which shall be called a
court of common pleas, having cognizance of
claims to the amount of fire hundred: dollars. It
next proposes to institute another court, to be
styled the superior court of Baltimore, which
shall have cognizance of claims above the
amount of five hundred dollars. Is not this a
sufficient judiciary for the transaction of the
business of Baltimore city upon the civil aide of
the docket in addition to this, the bill proposes-
to give Baltimore city a criminal court, an or-
phans' court, as well as a police court, making
six courts, the chancery court included. I think
that the judges upon the bench of these two
courts of common pleas, one styled the court of
common pleas, the other the superior court, may
discharge all the duties, may attend to all the
trials which will come to issue in these 650 suits
which are instituted there, and also attend to 'the
chancery jurisdiction in the city. I do not care
which the gentleman chooses so select. If he
prefers a court of common pleas and a superior
court, having equity jurisdiction, I am for let-
ting it remain so, but if he prefers a chancery,
I would say to him that we certainly ought to
take away one of the common law courts. You
are to have two civil courts, two courts for the
transaction of ordinary business and an equity
court at the same time. It seems to me that
there would not he sufficient business to occupy
these judges during the time for which they
ought to sit at least upon the bench, if we may
judge of the business imposed upon judges in
other sections of the State. The gentleman
from Baltimore city seems to think we are illib-
eral in this matter, and that we are unwilling
to extend to the growing population of the city
of Baltimore, to the development of her com-
mercial wealth, and to the adjudication of the
many suits which must necessarily come before
the courts, all the remedies which they need. I
repudiate any such idea, and I would say to him
that I would give to the citizens of that city a
remedy, a speedy and effectual remedy, and a
court ready to enforce that remedy.
But does not the gentleman see that this ar-
gument applies with equal force to the remain-
der of the State? We have provided but seven |
