to other taxes, either direct or indirect, to ob-
tain a revenue. It has come out in the de-
bate that there are a great many officers in the
city of Baltimore who are receiving a very
much larger sum than three thousand dollars
a year in fees which they ought to pay over
under this provision of the constitution.
Mr. STIRLING demanded the yeas and nays,
and they were ordered.
Mr. HEBB. If this ,'amendment is adopted,
what will become of the fees of State offi-
cers ?
The PRESIDENT. They will go by the board.
The question being taken, the result was
—yeas as 15, nays 36—as follows :
Yeas— Messrs. Audoun, Brooks, Brown,
Clarke, Cunningham, Cushing, Duvall, Hatch,
Kennard, Marbury, Markey, Stilling, Stock-
bridge. Sykes, Thomas—15.
Nays Messrs. Goldsborough, President ;
Abbott, Annan, Baker, Carter. Chambers,
Daniel, Davis, of Washington, Dellinger,
Dent, Ecker, Farrow, Galloway, Greene,
Hebb, Hollyday, Horsey. King, Lansdale, Lee,
McComas, Miller, Mullikin, Negley, Parker,
Purnell, Ridgely, Russell, Scott, Smith, of
Worcester, Sir airy, Swope, Todd, Valliant,
Wickard, Wooden—36
The amendment was accordingly rejected.
No further amendment was offered.
Mr DELLINGER moved that the convention
taken recess.
The motion was rejected—ayes 25, noes 26.
COMMON LAW.
The next section was read as follows :
"Sec. 2. The common law and statute
law now in force, and not repugnant to this
constitution, shall remain in force, until they
expire by their own limitation, or are al-
tered by the' general assembly."
Mr. MILLER. I move to strike out that sec
lien, I doit for this reason: that I never
heard before of a provision of any constitu-
tion, or of any writer on law, or any legal
gentleman making the assertion that the common
law expires by its own limitation. It is
a provision that the common law, as well as
the statute law now in force, and not repug-
to this constitution, shall remain in force un-
til it expires by its own limitation. We have
provided fir all that in the bill of rights —
The way in which it should be put in, if it is
to be put in the constitution at all, is that the
common law, by which is meant the common
law of England, shall prevail in the State of
Maryland, and that the inhabitants of the
State of Maryland shall be entitled to the
benefits of the common law, and of such stat-
utes of England changing their law as existed
at the time of our revolution, and as were
found applicable to our peculiar circumstan-
ces, not having been re-enacted by our legis-
lature. That provision is contained .in our
bill of rights. The third article is:
" Art. 3, That the inhabitants of Mary- |
land are entitled to the common law of Eng-
land, and the trial by jury according to the
course of that law, and to the benefit of such
of the English statutes as existed on the
fourth day of July, seventeen hundred and
seventy-six, and which, 103- experience, have
been found applicable to their local and other
circumstances, and have been introduced
used and practiced by the courts of law or
equity, and also of acts of assembly in force
on the first day of June, eighteen hundred
and sixty-four, except such as may have
since expired or may be inconsistent with the
provisions of this constitution, subject never-
theless, to the revision of and amendment or
repeal by the legislature of this State; and
the inhabitants of Maryland are also entitled
to all property derived to them from or un-
der the charter granted by his Majesty,
Charles the First, to Cecilius Calvert, Baron
of Baltimore."
Does this mean anything more than that ".
if it means that, it ought to have been ex-
pressed in such language. To say that the
common law shall continue in force until it
shall expire by its own limitation, appears to
my mind a proposition that does not sound
very proper to toe expressed in aconstitution.
The common law continues inforce, it is
one of our birthright?, that we have inherited
and received from our ancestors. It is prop-
erly expressed as among the rights of the
people of the State of Maryland, it is not
something to be provided fur as something
that shall continue, implying that it would
not continue unless we declared by a special
provision that it should continue. I think
the section is altogether unnecessary.
Mr. RIDGELY. The gentleman has taken
the ground that this is already provided for
in the bill of rights. I shall not take any
issue with him there. Then he expressed sur-
prise that anybody should undertake to assert
such a proposition as is implied in the lan-
guage employed in this section, and says
that nobody ever heard of such a proposi-
tion. Now I will take up this book of con-
stitutions, and open to one of them, I find
in the schedule, attached to the constitution
of Michigan this very language, and in all
probability I took it from there. I have no
recollection now whether I did or not—the
only difference being that in that schedule
the language is " the common law and the
statute laws," putting the word in the plural,
and that the final clause is, "or are altered
or repealed by the legislature," from which
1 omitted the word "repealed." It is cer-
tainly not ii very extraordinary provision.
it is simply to declare that it shall continue
until the legislature shall! change it. If there is
any harm in that proposition I cannot see if.
Mr. CHAMBERS. The gentleman will admit
that to speak of the common law expiring is
not a proper expression. You might as well
talk about immortality coming to an »end. |
