hitherto paid into it of this surplus, $1600 a
year.
Mr. STIRLING. The gentleman is entirely
mistaken in his facts, I do not see the abso-
lute necessity of having this clause at all, except
that it in well to have the whole law on
the face of it. The law fixed here by the
amendment is precisely what has always been
allowed ever since the constitution has been
in force, It does not change the law or the
fact.
Mr. MILLER. I see no use in putting it in-
to the constitution.
Mr. THOMAS. I beonly object of putting it
into the constitution, is that no comptroller
may hereafter deny the right of the State's at-
torney of Baltimore city to pay his deputy.—
It might happen that the comptroller might
refuse this amount of money in the account
of tire State's attorney of Baltimore city. it
is utterly impossible, as is known to almost
every one connected with the bar, for the
State's attorney there to get along without a
deputy; and in order to get a good deputy,
he must pay him a good salary, something lo
live on; because it takes the whole of his time
to attend to, the grand jury. It doe's not take
a dollar from the State, for the reason that
ever since the adoption of the present con-
stitution, for fourteen years, the comptrollers
have been allowing to the State's attorneys
of Baltimore city this amount of money out
of the fees which came into their hands.
Mr. MILLER. I would suggest that the pres-
ent provision of the constitution appoints an
attorney general, who will no doubt have his
residence in Baltimore city, and who will at-
tend to a good deal of the important criminal
practice in the city of Baltimore.
Mr. THOMAS Will the' attorney general go
before the grand jury and write out indictments?
Mr. Miller. No; but the important busi-
ness will tie attended to by the attorney general,
capital cases, &c. I know a former
attorney general, Mr. Richardson, used to
say that he did most of the work himself.
Mr. STIRLING. Mr. Richardson acted as his
own deputy; and he himself tried all the
cases, and got the fee's of the State's attorney.
Mr. MILLER. If this deputy is made a constitutional
officer, as provided here, it would
not be possible for him to keep any fees beyond
the $3,000.
Mr. THOMAS. He cannot do it now.
Mr. MILLER. I understand that now the
State's attorney has the power to employ Mr.
A, Mr. B, or Mr. C to attend to cases.
Mr. STIRLING. The gentleman does not understand
the facts of the case. The facts of
the case are these. Under the old constitu-
tion the attorney general always prosecuted
the cases in the Baltimore city court; and he
did that for the obvious reason that there was
all the important business, and all the profits
of the attorney general came out of the Balti- |
more city courts. He employed no deputy
there except to attend to the grand jury and
draw indictments. Mr. Pinkney was deputy
attorney there during many years. He attend-
ed the grand jury and drew the indictments,
and Mr. Richardson himself received the fees
of the attorney's office and tried the cases.
Since the present constitution the same state
of facts has existed all the time. The State's
attorney has had a regular appointed deputy,
one single person and no inure, who always
attended on the grand jury and drew the in-
dictments; and the only effect of this provis-
ion is to cover still more under the direct pro-
visions of law, what has been covered hereto-
fore by the entire practice both of the treas-
ury department and of the court The deputy
attorney of Baltimore city goes to the grand
jury room, goes as State's attorney to the
grand jury room; and he does it tor the simple
reason that it is impossible for any State's
attorney of Baltimore city to try cases and at-
tend the grand jury, because the grand jury is
in session when the petit jury is in session, and
no case can ever be in two places at the same
time. It is not to render temporary assist-
ance that a deputy is temporarily called in,—
He is a regular officer, and assuch is required
to take the oath of office under the constitu-
tion; but he will be to no further extent a
responsible officer thin he is now. He does
not now take any fees. it is an incident of
his place that he is never to take any tee as
counsel against the State, If he does lie must
resign his position. He has no right to receive
any; so that this doe's not at all prejudice him
in his personal rights. This is exactly the
same thing that has been done all the time ;
and this is only an additional sanction to the
responsibilities of the place. I did not know
that there would be any provision of this sort
placed in the report. I do not agree with my
colleague (Mr. Thomas) that any comptroller
could make any difficulty about it, because
the thing has been settled by the uniform prac-
tice of the departments. But it can do no
harm to put this in, and there can certainly be
no objection to it.
The amendment was agreed to.
Mr. DANIEL. I will renew the motion to fill
the blank with " 1500."
Mr. THOMAS. Fifteen hundred dollars has
always been the usual allowance.
The amendment was agreed to.
Mr. PARRAN. I move to insert after the
word "counties," in the seventh line, the
words "except the county of Calvert." We
have very little use for this officer in my coun-
ty, and I can hardly believe that his salary
ever exceeds four hundred dollars; and, con-
sidering the rate of taxation in our county, 1
propose this amendment,
Mr. HEBB. I think: it is very hard to make
any county paly a larger salary than the coun-
ty desires to pay to its own officer; and I will
therefore mure to strike out this clause, to |
