Further proceedings under the call of the Convention
were dispensed with.
Mr. DAVIS moved to postpone the consideration
of the report of the committee on the Judiciary
until to-morrow, for the purpose of taking up the
report on Education, which motion was agreed
to.
The question then recurred on the adoption of
the amendment offered by Mr. Bowie, to the
substitute offered by Mr. STEWART, of Baltimore
city, for the 12th section of the report.
Mr. GWINN. I only desire the sense of the
House on the amendment of the gentleman. I
do not wish to renew the argument which took
place upon this question some days since. It
was then announced by my colleague, that the
proposition of the gentleman from Prince George's
was in point of fact, a test question to ascertain
the sense of the House—whether they are deter-
mined to allow us two or three judges for the
purpose of transacting the civil business of the
city. All that I have heretofore stated with re-
lation to the necessity of our having an increase
of the judiciary, has been abundantly confirmed
by letters received from the most eminent coun-
sel of the city of Baltimore, and those who have
had the largest experience in practice there.
All agree that under the plan proposed by the
gentleman from Prince George's, (Mr. Bowie,)
there will be a large impediment thrown in the
way of justice, and I am fimly persuaded that
they have reason for their apprehension. Is it
fair to advise this House that gentleman even
upon the other side are not persuaded that we do
not require these judges; a partial admission has
been made even by the gentleman from St.
Mary's, (Mr. Morgan,) and the gentleman from
Anne Arundel, (Mr. Randall,) who have said
that their justification is that we shall be invol-
ved in what they think is a common calamity.
if the whole system had been put upon the
Convention by the delegation from Baltimore
city, I should have regarded any retribution as
just; but a system has been adopted here, over
which his delegation could exercise no control,
and it seemed extraordinary that for this reason
a prejudice should be indulged against the ju-
dicial interest of the city of Baltimore. In
view, therefore, that the opposition which gentle-
men made upon the other side, to the necessity
of this system for the well-being of our judicial
proceedings, has been because of our supposed
resistance to the county system, we call upon the
majority to aid us in administering to the judi-
cial wants of our own portion of the community,
and we do trust that as that majority has arrang-
ed a system satisfactory in other particulars to
itself, it will not, through a false idea of economy
embarrass our judicial proceedings. I make no
other appeal than that directed to the sense of
justice of the Convention. I am sure that in the
fall confidence which must be placed in the state-
ments of both of my colleagues, who have long
practiced at the bar in Baltimore, and of such
men as Schley, Latrobe, and other gentlemen
whose testimony I can produce, (and I pledge
myself to be able to produce the testimony of |
one of the very ablest lawyers of Baltimore,)
that this Convention will not refuse to award to
the city of Baltimore that boon which she has a
right to ask at its hands. If the business, popu-
lation, and wants of the city of Baltimore, were
as stationery as those of the counties have been
for the past fifty years, we should not claim this
indulgence, nor would we ask you to provide for
an emergency not yet arrived. But that emer-
gency now exists—in the course of a few years
more we must number two hundred thousand
souls, and we say that it is ungenerous to force
us to a system not proportionately as liberal as
that established in 1805, when we had hardly
one-fourth of our present population.
Mr. BOWIE. It seems to me extraordinary,
indeed, that the gentleman from Baltimore city,
(Mr. Gwinn,) and all of his colleagues, after
they have given their votes in this Convention,
and expressed their opinions that one judge was
sufficient in the circuit composed of Prince
George's, St. Mary's and Charles, and one judge
in that composed of Calvert, Anne Arundel, How-
ard and Montgomery, (which according to the
facts shown to us by the gentleman from St.
Mary's, (Mr. Morgan,) have largely more business
than the city of Baltimore,) should now say
that two judges are not sufficient to transact
their business, and should now ask us to give
them three judges to do less business. Gentle-
men were incredulous when I appealed to them,
and said that in my judgment I could bring al-
most every member of our bar to testify that one-
judge would not be sufficient to transact the bus-
iness of our district; they forced this system down:
upon us, and now it is proposed to have an additional
judge in the city of Baltimore, where there-
is not as much business as in these two judicial
circuits. There are now upon our dockets in the
whole judicial circuit, more than 3,500 cases
pending, and our delegations are confident that.
one judge cannot dispose of this business. I ask
them if the same rule ought not to work on both
sides, and if one judge is enough to dispose of
three thousand five hundred cases in one judicial
district, if two are not more than enough to dis-
pose of five or six thousand cases in another?
Mr. MORGAN. I did not intend to say another
word upon this subject, nor should I, had I been,
permitted to proceed the other evening, for a
few moments, to present some facts to this Convention
in reference to this whole judicial
scheme, and to show that the basis upon which
it was founded, was not, so far as I could gather
from the returns made here, formed upon any
principle at all. The gentleman from Baltimore
city brought forward the opinions of some of the
lawyers of that city, for the purpose of sustain-
ing what he said. Upon a previous occasion, I de-
clared that I did not know whether the force
given was sufficient for the transaction of the
judicial business of Baltimore city or not, but
that looking to the system which had been adopted
for other sections of the State, the force
given to the city of Baltimore by this Convention
was greater than that given to these sections.
The gentleman from Baltimore city has |
