Murray, Nyman, Parker, Pugh, Ridgely, Rus-
sell, Sands, Schley, Scott, Stirling, Stock
bridge, Wickard, Wooden—33.
Nays—Messrs. Belt, Chambers, Dail, Da
vis, of Charles, Dennis, Dent, Edelen, Henkle
Hollyday, Johnson, Jones, of Somerset, Lee
Mace, Mitchell, Miller, Morgan, Smith, of
Dorchester—17.
On motion of Mr. MORGAN,
It was ordered to be entered on the journal
that Chapman Billingsley, member from St
Mary's county, is detained from his seat in
the Convention in consequence of indisposi-
tion.
LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT.
The Convention resumed the considera-
tion of the report of the Committee on the
Legislative Department, which wag on its
second reading.
The following section was under consideration:
"Section 16. Any bill may originate in
either house of the General Assembly, and be
altered, amended or rejected by the other;
but no bill shall originate in either house
during the last ten days of the session, or
become a law, until it be read on three dif-
ferent days of the session of each house, un-
less three-fourths of the members of the house,
where such bill is pending, shall so deter-
mine.''
The pending question was upon the motion
of Mr SCOTT to amend the section by insert-
ing after the words "amended or rejected
by the other," the following :
"and public general laws shall always
have precedence over local laws, and the
latter shall have precedence over all private
bills."
Mr. STIRLING. I wish to say one word
upon this subject. It struck me, when this
amendment was last under consideration,
that there seemed to be a disposition on the
part of the Convention to adopt it, in conse-
quence of the abuse to which it relates. And
as I reward the adoption of this amendment
as fatal, I must say a word or two which I
think will throw some little light upon it. I
think it is easily demonstrable that this
amendment is impracticable. In the first
place there is great danger in endeavoring to
fetter the Legislature on this subject at all.
If this amendment is adopted there will not
be a private or local bill ever passed by the
Legislature of Maryland, It provides that
public bills shall always have precedence
over private bills. Just as long as there is a
public bill upon the calendar, it must have
precedence over all private bills. And as
there will always be one or more public
bills pending until the very close of the ses-
sion. then the whole session will be used to
transact public business. That I think is
mathematically demonstrable. It matters
not whether the public bill be important or |
not, it will keep its place on the calendar,
and will take precedence of all private bills,
however important those private hills may
be. It is not a general rule that all local and
private business is unimportant; it so hap-
pens that it is often very important. If a
citizen of this State comes here to get justice
done to him, it is just as much due to the
credit and honor of this State to do him jus-
tice, as it is to transact public business. And
it is a great mistake to suppose that private
bills are not a matter of public interest. And
it seems to me that the best way is to let
the Legislature regulate its own docket, and
transact its business in such order as it may
deem proper. If you allow a judge of a
court to regulate his docket and try his cases
as he pleases, it seems to me that the highest
legislative body in the State should have
equal control over the management of its
business.
Mr. PUGH. My only answer to the objec-
tions of the gentleman from Baltimore city
(Mr. Stirling) is this—that a body represent-
ing the people of Maryland here every win-
ter, is a body representing the public interests
of the State. And all that we propose to
declare by this amendment is simply that the
public interests of the State should rightfully
have precedence over all private interests of
any particular portion of the State. That is
all that we wish to declare; that the general
good of the whole State, and of all the peo-
ple of the State, shall have precedence over
any particular private good, while we admit
that certain citizens of the State have private
rights, and that they ought to he protected,
yet we declare that the public welfare is su-
perior to all private welfare.
The question being taken, the amendment
was not adopted.
No further amendment was offered to sec-
tion sixteen.
Sections seventeen and eighteen were then
read, and no amendments offered thereto.
Section nineteen was then read as follows :
"No divorce shall be granted by the Gen-
eral Assembly."
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. I desire to remark, in
offering the amendment which I shall pro-
pose to this section, that the restriction as it
at present stands here is aimed at but a single
class of cases; the trial of causes of a particu-
lar kind before the Legislature, which is not
a tribunal for the trial of causes. It is a
part of the same abuse aimed at by the amend-
ment to the sixteenth section. I propose an
amendment which shall give the section a
very much broader range, add a much larger
class of subjects to the scope of the restric-
tions imposed upon the Legislature.
I offer the following amendment; strikeout
the section and insert the following :
"The Legislature shall not pass local or
special laws in any of the following enumer-
ated cases, viz: |
