8

posse comitatus for protection, and the following order was

addressed to him:

To WILLIAM THOMSON, Sheriff of Baltimore.

SIR. Whereas, in our judgment it becomes necessary that
we should require the authority given to us by the 816th sec-
tion of the 4th Article of the Code of Public Local Laws, for
the preservation of the public peace and quiet in the city of
Baltimore.

You are therefore hereby called upon to act under our con-
trol for the preservation of the public peace and quiet afore-
said, and you are hereby ordered to summons the posse comi-
tatus for that purpose forthwith, to the extent of 100 men
from each ward,* good and true men, of the said city, and
hold and emplov such posse subject to our directions, and this
shall be your warrant, therefor.

Witness our hand this third day of November, 1866.

JAMES YOUNG,

Office of the Board of Police ) W. THOS. VALIANT,
of the City of Baltimore. ) Police Commissioners.

The Sheriff immediately proceeded to execute the order,
when the Commissioners and the Sheriff were arrested on two
Bench Warrants issued by the Hon. H. L. Bond, Judge of
the Criminal Court, who, after a hearing, ordered the parties
to give bail in "five thousand dollars each on the charge of
conspiracy." The following order was also issued by the
Court:

Ordered—That William T. Valiant and James Young give
security in the sum of $20,000 to keep the peace towards the
existing Commissioners and all acting under their authority,
and towards the liege inhabitants of this city, by desisting
from all attempts to act as and exercise the powers of Police
Commissioners so long as they shall not have established their
claims, by law, to be Police Commissioners for the said city,
duly appointed, and the present Commissioners continue in
the de facto exercise of their office.

The Commissioners declined to give the bail, and were each
committed, on two commitments, to Baltimore city Jail,
where they remained until the following Thursday.

With the advice of counsel, who acted for them in the pre-
mises, they applied to the Hon. James L. Bartol, one of the
Judges of the Court of Appeals of Maryland, for writs of
habeas corpus respectively. These writs were made return-
able on the 5th day of November, Monday, when the Warden,
claiming three days in which to make a return, and the Judge
sustaining his claim, the further hearing was postponed until
Thursday, ths 8th of November, when the Warden having
produced the Commissioners and Sheriff, proof was offered on
both sides, in regard to the return, during that day and even-

*This order was subsequently modified, and the number re-
quired to be summoned was reduced to one hundred men in all.