419

Sec. 21. For each Circuit (the eighth excepted) there shall
be three Judges, who shall be styled Circuit Judges, one of
said Judges, during his term of office, shall reside in each
county of the Circuit; the said Judges shall hold a term of
their Courts in each of the counties composing their respec-
tive Circuits at such times as now are or may hereafter be
fixed by law, such terms to be never less than two in each
year in each county; special terms may be held by said
Judges, in their discretion, whenever the business of their sev-
eral counties renders such terms necessary; a single Judge
may hold sessions of the Circuit Court for the disposal of all
equity business, all business merely formal and uncontested,
appeals from the decisions of Justices of the Peace, (but no
other appeals, ) and such causes civil or criminal as the par- *
ties litigant shall consent to try before a single Judge.

Sec. 22. The salary of each Judge of the Circuit Court shall
be three thousand dollars per annum, payable quarterly, and
shall not be increased or diminished during his continuance

in office,

Sec. 23. There shall be a Clerk of the Circuit Court for
each county, who shall be elected by a plurality vote of the
qualified voters of said county; he shall hold his office for the
term of six years from the time of his election, and until a
new election is held and his successor duly qualified; he shall
be re-eligible at the end of his term, and shall at any time be
subject to removal for wilful neglect of duty, or other misde-
meanor in office, on conviction in a Court of Law.

PART IV.

ORPHANS' COURTS.

Sec. 24. There shall be an Orphans' Court in each of the
counties of the State, and the city of Baltimore, and the Cir-
cuit Judge resident in any county shall be ex-officio Chief
Judge of the Orphans' Court of such county, and one of the
Judges of the Circuit Court of Baltimore city shall sit as Chief
Judge of the Orphans' Court of said city; the qualified voters
of the city of Baltimore and of the several counties of the
State shall, on Tuesday next after the first Monday in the
month of November eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, and
on the same day of the same month in every fourth year there-
after, elect two men to be Associate Judges of the Orphans'
Court of said city and counties respectively; no person shall
be elected Associate Judge of the Orphans' Court unless he be
a citizen of the State of Maryland, and resident in the city or
county for which he may be elected at the time of his elec-
tion; each of said Associate Judges shall be paid at a per diem