328 MARYLAND MANUAL [Art. 4, Sec. 6]

or the Laws of the State; or on the address of the General
Assembly, two-thirds of each House concurring in such
address, and the accused having been notified of the charges
against him, and having had opportunity of making his
defence.

SEC. 5. Upon every occurrence or recurrence of a va-
cancy through death, resignation, removal, disqualification
by reason of age or otherwise, or expiration of the term
of fifteen years of any judge, or creation of the office of any
judge, or in any other way, the Governor shall appoint a
person duly qualified to fill said office, who shall hold the
same until the election and qualification of his successor;

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

' Thus amended by Chapter 703, Act» of 1945, ratified November 5, 1946.