"Sec. 19. The State shall be divided into
eight judicial circuits, in manner following
The counties of St. Mary's, Charles and
Prince George's shall constitute the firs
circuit. The counties of Calvert, Anne
Arundel and Montgomery, the second. The
counties of Allegany, Washington and Fred-
erick, the third. The counties of Baltimore
Howard and Carroll, the fourth. The coun-
ties of Harford, Cecil and Kent, the fifth
The counties of Queen Anne's, Talbot and
Caroline, the sixth. The counties of Dor-
chester, Somerset and Worcester, the seventh
And the city of Baltimore, the eighth."
The pending question was upon the follow-
ing amendment submitted by Mr. HEBB :
Strike out all after the word "the," in
the first line and insert:
"State shall be divided into twelve judicial
circuits, in manner following: The coun-
ties of St. Mary's, Charles and Prince
George's, shall constitute the first circuit;
the counties of Anne Arundel, Calvert and
Montgomery, the second; the county of
Frederick, the third; the county of Wash-
ington, the fourth; the county of Allegany,
the fifth; the counties of Carroll and Howard,
the sixth; the county of Baltimore, the sev-
enth; the counties Of Harford and Cecil, the
eighth; the counties of Kent, Queen Anne's
and Talbot, the ninth; the counties of Caro-
line and Dorchester, the tenth; the counties
of Somerset and Worcester, the eleventh; and
the city of Baltimore, the twelfth. "
Mr. MILLER. Mr. President—
Mr. THOMAS. I move the amendment on
page one of the printed amendments.
Mr. MILLER. I move to strike out the sec-
tion and to insert the provision on page 18 of
the amendments.
Mr. THOMAS. I submit that my amend-
ment was offered first. The only difference
between the amendment of the gentleman
from Allegany and my own is that he strikes
out all after the word " the" in the first line
while my amendment is to strike out and in-
sert. He makes twelve circuits, and my amend-
ment makes nine.
The amendment was as follows ;
Strike out the nineteenth section and in-
sert the following;
''Sec. 19. The State shall be divided into
nine judicial circuits, in manner and form
following, to wit: St. Mary's, Charles and
Prince George's shall be the first; Anne
Arundel, Howard, Calvert and Montgomery
shall be the second; Frederick and Carroll
shall be the third; Washington and Allega-
ny shall be the fourth; Baltimore city shall
be the fifth; Baltimore county shall be the
sixth; Harford, Cecil and Kent shall be the
seventh; Queen Anne's, Talbot and Caroline
shall be the eighth; Dorchester, Somerset
and Worcester shall be the ninth; and there
shall be elected as hereinafter directed for
each of said judicial circuits, except the fifth, |
one person from among those learned in the
law, and shall have been a citizen of the State
at least five years, and above the age of thir-
ty years, at the time of his election, and a
resident of the judicial circuit, to be judge
thereof, and the said judges shall be styled
circuit judges, and shall respectively hold a
term of their courts at least twice in each year,
or oftener if required by law, in each county
composing their respective circuits, and said
courts shall be called circuit courts for the
county in which they may be held, and shall
have and exercise in the counties of this State,
all power, authority and jurisdiction which
the circuit courts of this State now have and
exercise, or which may hereafter be prescrib-
ed by law, and the said judges in their re-
spective circuits shall have and exercise all
the power, authority and jurisdiction of a
court of chancery.' '
Mr. MILLER, I propose mine as a substi-
tute for the whole section.
The PRESIDENT. The chair first recognized
the gentleman from Anne Arundel (Mr. Mil-
ler, ) whose amendment is first in order.
The amendment submitted by Mr. MILLER,
of which notice bad been given by Mr, CLARKE,
was read as follows :
Strike out section 19, and insert:
"Sec. 19. There shall be a judge for each
county in the State, who shall be elected by
the legal and qualified voters of the several
counties. He shall be a resident for one year
in the county for which he may be elected
next before the time of his election, and shall
reside in the county for which he is elected,
while be continues to act as judge."
Mr. THOMAS. That brings up the question
whether there • shall be one judge in each
county in the State. I have no remarks to
submit on that subject, with the exception of
this, that I am opposed to the election of one
judge in each county. I think the system
will be too expensive, and I do not think the
counties want one judge in each county. In
some counties I do not think there is busi-
ness enough for one judge. I think it is bet-
ter to break up the State into circuits. Some
circuits may be too large and others too
small; but we can enlarge those that are not
large enough, and contract those that are too
large.
Mr. BERRY, of Prince George's, lam in
favor of the amendments proposed by my col-
league (Mr. Clarke.) I understand that it
is proposed to have one judge in each county,
who shall be chief judge of the orphans' court
and shall have equity jurisdiction in the coun-
ty, and preside with three other judges of his
district to discharge the common law busi-
ness of the several counties composing the
circuit. I think it would be highly proper
that we should have this change. It would
be the means of facilitating the business in the
various counties of the State. As to the cost,
1 will state to gentlemen that if Baltimore |
