except that when a vacancy shall exist in the office of Chief
Judge of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City, the Gover-
nor may designate an Associate Judge of said Supreme
Bench as Chief Judge of said Supreme Bench, and such
appointee as Chief Judge shall hold such office for the
residue of the term for which he was last elected an Asso-
ciate Judge of said Supreme Bench. His successor shall be
elected at the first biennial general election for Representa-
tives in Congress after the expiration of the term of fifteen
years (if the vacancy occurred in that way) or the first
such general election after one year after the occurrence of
the vacancy in any other way than through expiration of
such term. Except in case of reappointment of a judge
upon expiration of his term of fifteen years, no person shall
be appointed who will become disqualified by reason of age
and thereby unable to continue to hold office until the pre-
scribed time when his successor would have been elected. 1.

SEC. 6. All judges shall by virtue of their offices be
conservators of the peace throughout the State; and no
fees, or perquisites, commission or reward of any kind,
shall be allowed to any judge in this State, besides his an-
nual salary, for the discharge of any judicial duty..

SEC. 7. No judge shall sit in any case wherein he may
be interested, or where either of the parties may be con-
nected with him by affinity or consanguinity within such
degrees as now are or may hereafter be prescribed by law,
or where he shall have been of counsel in the case..

SEC. 8. The parties to any cause may submit the same
to the court for determination without the aid of a jury
and in all suits or actions at law, issues from the Orphans'
Court or from any court sitting in equity, and in all cases of
presentments or indictments for offences which are or may
be punishable by death pending in any of the courts of law
of this State having jurisdiction thereof, upon suggestion in
writing under oath of either of the parties to said proceed-
ings, that such party can not have a fair and impartial trial
in the court in which the same may be pending, the said
court shall order and direct the record of proceedings in
such suit or action, issue, presentment or indictment, to be
transmitted to some other court having jurisdiction in such
case, for trial; but in all other cases of presentment or in-
dictment pending in any of the courts of law in this State
having jurisdiction thereof, in addition to the suggestion
in writing of either of the parties to such presentment or.

i This amended by Ch. 703 of 1945, and ratified at November election, 1946..