decisions shall be renewed. I propose to put up-
on this court that which would become a part of
its jurisdiction. It is an important matter which
enters into the elements of a great city like Bal-
timore, whose limits are expanding with increas-
ing prosperity. These cases occupy a large por-
tion of the time of the court. Not speaking in
the sense of a Prophet, and claiming no faculty
of looking very far into the future, I say give us
this district court, pass the bill which the Balti-
more delegation here, speaking the voice of the
united bar of Baltimore, whigs and Democrats,
recommend, and at some not very remote session
of the Legislature, you will find the wants of the
metropolis of the State bringing her down here
to speak for herself, with regard to the exercise
of legislative power in the creation of another
legal tribunal.
Before long, before 1853, you will find them
coming here (I hope not in vain, and no appeal
will be made in vain, if it is a just appeal, and
she will make no other,) begging for another
court; not for Baltimore merely, but for all who
have transactions with that city—for all those of
this great confederacy, who, by trade and daily
intercourse, have transactions with us, and to
whom, upon every consideration, independent of
the mere constitutional provision, we are bound
to open wide the doors of the courts of Maryland
justice. My own opinion, I do not suppose, will
weigh one feather in the scale of the judgment
of this House, and therefore I invoke the aid of
the opinions, in writing as well as verbally, which
have been communicated to distinguished gentle-
men, differing with me on this subject. The su-
perior court will be occupied all the time with
the common law jurisdiction.
You will have, then, day by day, a court in
every way qualified, if you have an energetic and
laborious judge, to attend to the wants of the peo-
ple, and to give the law which their voice calls
upon him to administer. And what will the dis-
trict court be doing? I scarcely open a daily
paper of the city of Baltimore, in which I do not
find notices of opening streets. There will be
many controversies necessarily growing out of
these. The eminent domain of the State will be
brought into exercise, and damages will be given
to me, and benefits to another. There must be
some high tribunal to prevent the accumulation
of these particular cases. In regard to questions
of mandamus quo waranto; I know cases that are
now sleeping the repose, I was going to say, of
centuries.
I have merely to say, in conclusion, that I hope
this will be regarded as a test question, and that
the House will determine whether or not we are
to incorporate the district with the superior
court, to have two wards or three.
Mr. STEWART'S time. here expired.
Mr. BOWIE. I am anxious to see all parts of
the Slate of Maryland satisfied upon the subject
of judicial reform. When I stated, upon a for-
mer occasion, that the people, in every portion of
the State, desired some judicial reform, I did not
mean to say that they desired merely a change in
the mode of appointment, but that when they |
were laboring under a press of business which
had been accumulating for years in our courts,
aid when they found that under the present sys-
tem it would never be disposed of, they desired
an increase of judicial power, by increasing the
number of the judicial districts. They cared
nothing about having three judges in one district,
provided the districts were smaller—one would
have been enough.
So it was in the district of my friend from Bal-
timore county, which has been joined with Har-
ford and Cecil counties. You have on the Eastern
Shore four counties which you have put together
into one judicial district. We ask you to sepe-
rate the chancery jurisdiction from the common
law, stating, upon the honor of men who knew
it, and if we were allowed to go to our constitu-
ents, we too can get certificates as the gentlemen
from Baltimore city have done, that under the
present system we cannot gel rid of the business
which accumulates on the dockets. You have
not only dune us no good, but you have done us
great injury. You have imposed additional labors
upon us. This morning you abolished the Court
of Chancery after the end of two years, and have
thus thrown a flood of Chancery cases upon our
courts. I say this, that in our judicial district we
have now 3500 cases pending upon the dockets.
How is this business ever to be disposed of? I am
not disposed to be unjust. I wish to see even-
handed justice dealt out to all portions of the
State. I will go as far as any man to bring use-
ful, practical reform to the people. I care noth-
ing about expenses, for I think it is a foolish
policy to look at cost when we wish to bring
home the administration of public justice to the
doors of citizens.
The gentlemen from Baltimore city have been
found uniformly denying us that which we have
asked. I have heard of various counties that
will suffer under the system which these gentle-
men helped to impose upon us. And yet these
gentlemen want us to give them two judges with
chancery powers. I say it is utterly impossible
that the system we have adopted for the counties
can ever dispose of the public business. I will
not agree to give one portion of the State every
thing they ask in the way of judicial reform,
when that portion is not willing to yield one inch
to the other portions of the State. If we are to
suffer, let us suffer together, so that when we ask
for judicial reform hereafter, there may be some
other portions of the State willing to go in for
another Convention, or to do something in alleviating
the burdens imposed upon the people by
this Convention, in the. way of judicial reform.
When we ask for bread you give us a stone.
Mr. B's time here expired.
Mr. JOHNSON. I agree in all that my friend
from Prince George's has said. I voted for his
earliest proposition, because I deemed it wise
though many thought it excessive. It brought
justice to every county. It made our judges
both Chancery and Common Law judges. I care
not about expense, because the demands of life,
are such that time to man is worth more than the
money in suit. He desired to know what is his, |
