Mr. Daniel demanded the yeas and nays,
and they were ordered,
Mr. MILLER, I do not see what objection
there can be to filling the blank with $800,
especially as the committee proposes to pro-
vide that the county shall pay it. If the
gentlemen from the counties that would have
to pay it object to it, we might vote against
it; but I cannot for my life see why the dele-
gation from Baltimore city should oppose it.
Mr. DANIEL. We are legislating for the
whole State.
Mr. MILLER. We think in the counties
that $800 is little enough to pay any man.
By a previous provision in this section we
give them .the fees mow prescribed by law, so
that they may get a much larger sum than
$800; and if so the counties will not be
asked to add anything to the fees of the office.
But if in any county it should happen that
the fees of the office should run short of $800,
he will be entitled to receive from the county
commissioners enough to make up that sum.
It is not a tax to come upon anybody except
the people of the counties where they happen
to be.
Mr. PURNELL, While I am entirely willing
that the city of Baltimore should compensate
the Stated attorney in proportion to the
amount of business, in the county of Worces-
ter I am very well satisfied that the salary
proposed is too much for the services required.
At the last session of the legislature there
was a special law passed with regard to
Worcester county, by which the fees were
regulated, at the suggestion of the State's
attorney himself; and as it was entirely sat-
isfactory to him. I think that so far as Wor-
cester county is concerned., $400. would compensate
the State's attorney for the amount
of service required of him. There is very
little business in that county of that charac-
ter. Not that we are a more law-abiding or
moral people than ether counties; but it has
so happened that we have very little of that
business requiring the services of a State's
attorney. The practice has been to elect a
man who would accept the office as an intro-
ductory matter, and, for the sake of giving a
little more character to his profession, and
after serving a term or two, the office passes
into other hands under like circumstances.
I think that $500 would very liberally com-
pensate him in Worcester county; and I
suppose there are other counties where $500
would be a very liberal and fair salary for
the amount of labor imposed upon the State's
attorney. I suppose that $800 would be
too much for the labor required for that office
in the county which I have the honor in part
to represent.
Mr. SANDS. I must say to the convention
before I make any further remark, that I am
not at all interested personally in the sum with
which this blank is to be filled, as the fees of
the office which I hold amount to twice that |
sum and frequently •to more; but I want to
suggest to my friend from Worcester (Mr.
Purnell) some facts in connection with this
provision which may induce him to change
his mind. There are many counties in the
State where a large amount of criminal busi-
ness is done. Now I am prepared to say that
no very young gentleman is qualified to dis-
charge that business I think any one whose
experience in courts of justice is such as to
enable him to determine about this fact, will
agree with me, that where there is any quantity
of criminal business to be dome, a very young
and inexperienced man ie by no means the
individual who ought to have charge of it.
What is of more importance to the people
of the State at large, than the administra-
tion <}of the criminal justice of the State? 1
can say that in my observation, on account
of the inefficiency of the prosecuting officer,
I have seen criminals turned oat of court un-
whipped of justice, who, had they been property
prosecuted would have got it to its full
extent. I would suggest to my friend that
there are other considerations besides the
mere amount of actual service done, which will
1 always operate upon competent men. 1
have myself individually had lo refuse a fee
of $590 to defend, when as prosecutor 1
could receive but a fifth part of that sum.
Gentleman of experience, ability and capacity
are not going to accept positions which ne-
cessitate such things, unless those positions
pay him otherwise, not only for his services,,
but remunerate him for his losses..
the convention will understand me that 1
am not personally interested at all in filling
this blank, because my own salary tor nearly
ten years past has been largely beyond it,
nearly double the amount proposed. But 1
know from observation that there is no more
important post than that of prosecuting at-
torney, scarcely excepting that of judge.
Mr. STIRLING. I should like to learn from
the convention what counties there are in
which the fees of the State's attorneys are
below $800- I know there are some, but my
impression is that there are very few, and
that in those few the services rendered are so
small that anybody can be got to do the
work,
Mr. SANDS. I do not know. I cannot
inform my friend as to the number of coun-
ties where the fees are below this sum. But 1
know this, that whereas the lives and prop-
erty of .citizens are measurably in the pro-
tection of this officer, and in a large measure,
he ought lo be a man at all times well quali-
fied for his post. I repeat that I have fre-
quently seen criminals dismissed unwhipped
of justice, merely from the inefficiency or
want of experience and knowledge of the
prosecuting officer.
We have been fixing the salaries of judicial
officers liberally. I declare it as my conviction
that in every county, next to die judge |
