how he proposes lo get rid of special judges
by electing one judge from each county,
Mr. MILLER. I will tell the gentleman.
Under the present system there is only one
judge in the circuit, and the court is com-
posed of one judge only. Under this system
the court is composed of three judges,
and it is almost impossible that all three of
the judges should be engaged in the same
case or related to the same parties, so that
there could still be enough to hear the case.
That is the way in which it is possible to get
rid of the special judges, and that is the way
it will be done.
Mr. THOMAS. Does the gentleman prefend
to say that when some of the judges may get
sick, and there is a proposition put in this
very bill that a man is entitled to two judges
to try his case? And then you must con-
sider that you deprive the people of the
election of one of the people as one
of the judge's of the orphans' court,
because tine chief justice of the orphans'
court is to be a man learned in the law,
a professional gentleman, a member of the
bar, which is not as it is at present, for
now the judges of the orphans' court all
come right from the people. Knowing as
well as I do the people, I am perfectly satis-
fied that they are not willing to give up the
system of electing their own orphans' court.
So far as I understood the remarks of the
gentleman he places to the credit, side of his
system the speedy trial of criminal case?
and then he goes lo work and calculates the
number of jail-birds that will be released by
this system. How can this system try any
more men with three judges than with one
judge?
Mr. MILLER. I made no such calculation.
I spoke of the cost in criminal cases of keep-
ing them before their trial. I made no such ar-
gument as to the number of jail birds released.
Mr. THOMAS How does he arrive at that ?
How does he know how many will be tried
under the new system more than are now
tried under the present system?
Mr. MILLER. It was the keeping before
trial that I spoke of.
Mr. THRUSTON. Will the gentleman from
Baltimore city allow me to ask him a ques-
tion. If you have a 'case belore the orphans'
court for trial would you go as one of the
people to try it?
Mr. THOMAS. I would go before the judge
of the orphans' court. I do not understand
the question.
Mr. THRUSTON. Would you employ a law-
yer or one of the people to take charge of
the case ?
Mr. THOMAS. That would depend very
much on the case. If I was one of the peo-
ple and not a lawyer, whether I would em-
ploy a lawyer or not. There are a great
many men in the counties that never employ
lawyers. |
Mr. THRUSTON. Try their own cases, do
you mean?
Mr. THOMAS. Yes, sir. A great many
go there and plead their own cases and have
their own accounts passed in the orphans'
court.
Mr. NEGLEY. Will the gentleman allow
me lo ask him another question? Is not
the circuit court of the district as much
the production of the people as the orphans'
court?
Mr. THOMAS. No, sir.
Mr. NEGLEY. Have not they as much in-
terest in it?
Mr. THOMAS. Yes; they have as much in-
terest in it; but they do not take the same in-
terest in it.
Mr. NEGLEY. Does it not belong to the
people as much as the orphans' court?
Mr. THOMAS. Certainly it dees; but they
are a different kind of people. Lawyers are
a very different kind of men from farmers.
According to the present system you can take
three farmers and put them on the orphans'
court bench, but according to the proposed
system you must take one lawyer and give
him the same salary as one of the judges of
the circuit court. Suppose your circuit
court is in session, and your orphans' court
wants to be in session. You have got to
take the chief justice of the orphans' court
and put him on the orphans' court bench,
and leave the two associate judges of the circuit
court to try the cases there.
Mr. BELT, How often do you suppose that
will occur?
Mr. THOMAS. I do not know bow often it
will occur. But suppose you have two
terms a year, and now have two terms a
year, how can you do more business in your
circuit court with three judges than you now
do with one? And as to this matter of in-
junctions, the gentleman coming from Cal-
vert. county to Anne Arundel fur a judge,
and finding that he is attending a court in
Montgomery or Howard, that is their own
fault. As lawyers they ought to know where
to find the judge, if they come down here
after Judge Brewer when he is in Montgom-
ery county, they ought to know that the
court is in session in Montgomery county,
and that it is Judge Brewer's business to be
there, and they ought to have gone there in
the first place instead of coming down to
Anne Arundel.
Besides, in the matter of issuing injunc-
tions three judges will be just as liable to be
out of the county when gentlemen want
injunctions as one judge. You cannot tie a
circuit judge down to the county where he
resides for the purpose of being there to
issue injunctions whenever you want one.
You cannot tie the man to his house or the
court room. Very frequently with our four
courts in Baltimore city when we want in-
junctions we go and find both of our |
