changes therein as the legislature may pre-
scribe; and in addition to the jurisdiction
now exercised by the said courts, they shall
have and exercise in relation to the real estate
of deceased persons, not to exceed the value
of one thousand dollars, concurrent juris-
diction with the circuit courts sitting as
courts of equity, and it shall be the duty of
the legislature to make such modifications of
existing laws as may be requisite to give full
power and effect to this provision."
The pending question was upon a substi-
tute for the section, submitted by Mr. RIDGE-
LY, as follows:
"See. 25. The said orphans' courts shall
have all the powers now vested by law in the
orphans' courts of this State, subject to such
changes as the general assembly may pre-
scribe, and shall have such other jurisdiction
as may from time to time be provided by
law."
Upon this question, Mr. PUSH called for
the yeas and nays, and they were ordered,
Tile question was then taken, by yeas and
nays, and resulted—yeas 43, nays 28—as fol-
lows :
Yeas—Messrs. Goldsborough, President;
Billingsley, Blackiston, Bond, Briscoe, Cham-
bers, Cushing, Daniel, Dent, Duvall, Edelen,
Farrow, Galloway, Greene, Hebb, Henkle,
Hodson, Hoffman', Hollyday, Hopkins, Hor-
sey, Kennard, King, Lansdale, Larsh, Lee,
Mitchell, Miller, Morgan, Murray, Negley,
Parker, Parran, Peter, Purnell, Ridgely,
Smith, of Worcester, Stirling, Stockbridge,
Thomas, Turner, Valliant, Wilmer—43.
Yays—Messrs. Abbott, Annan, Audoun,
Brooks, Crawford, Cunningham, Davis, of
Washington, Dellinger, Ecker, Hopper, Keefer,
Markey, McComas, Mullikin, Nyman,
Pugh, Russell, Sands, Schley, Schlosser,
Smith, of Carroll, Smith, of Dorchester,
Sneary, Swope, Sykes, Todd, Wickard,
Wooden—28.
The substitute was accordingly adopted.
No further amendment was offered to this
section.
Section twenty-six was then read as fol-
lows :
" Sec. 26. There shall be a register of wills
in each county of the State, and in the city
of Baltimore, to be elected by the legal and
qualified voters of said counties "and city re-
spectively, who shall hold his office for six
years from the time of his election, and until
his successor is elected and qualified; he
shall be re-eligible, and subject atall times to
removal for wilful neglect of duty, or misde-
meanor in office, in the same manner that
clerks of courts are removable. In the event
of any vacancy in the office of register of
wills, said vacancy shall be filled by the
judges of the orphans' court in which such
vacancy occurs, until the next general elec-
tion of delegates to the general assembly, |
when a register shall be elected to serve for
six years thereafter."
Mr. MILLER. There ought to be some pro-
vision here fixing the time of election.
Mr. STIRLING, There will be some diffi-
culty in fixing the day of election. I do not
think the registers of wills all go out at the
same time. Our register of wills was elected
last fall, and holds his office for six years.
No election for register of wills will there-
fore be held in Baltimore for six years longer.
Mr. AUDOUN. I move to amend this sec-
tion by inserting after the words " counties
and city respectively," the words "on the
Tuesday next after the first Monday in No-
vember, 1869."
Mr. TODD. There would appear to be
some difficulty in adopting that amendment.
The terms of some registers of wills expire
before that time.
The PRESIDENT. The latter part of the
section provides that the judges of the or-
phans' court shall be authorized to fill va-
cancies,
Mr. HEBB. There will he a general provi-
sion in the schedule that all these officers
shall continue in office until their terms ex-
pire. This section provides that when a va-
cancy occurs it shall be filled by the judges
of the orphans' court until the next election.
I think the section is perfect as it is.
Mr. DANIEL. I do not think this amend-
ment is necessary, as this matter is covered
by the general provision.
Mr. STIRLING. If that amendment is adopt-
ed then the words " for delegates to the gen-
eral assembly" ought to be stricken out near
the close of the section, because there will be
no election for members of the general as-
sembly in any year which is parallel in point
of enumeration to 1869. The elections for
members to the general assembly will be
held on even years. The section ought to
be amended so as to read "the next general
election for county officers." I make no ob-
jection to this amendment, but if adopted the
change should be made I have suggested.
Tire question being taken upon the amend-
ment of Mr. AUDOUN, it was rejected.
Mr. STIRLING. I now move to strike out
the words "delegates to the general assem-
bly," near the close of the section, and to in-
sert the words '' county officers." That will
make this section conform to the action of
the convention yesterday in regard to the or-
phans' court and clerks.
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE I trust the gentleman
will modify his amendment so as merely to
strike out the words he has indicated, and
insert none in their place.
Mr. STIRLING. That will not fix the day of
election.
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. It will be the next gen-
eral election, whether for State or county
officers..
Mr. STIRLING. I understand the coven |
