606 THE CHANCELLOR'S CASE.—1 BLAND.

declared, "that the Chancellor shall be entitled to receive, for all
duties and services whatever, prescribed, or to be prescribed by law,
an annual salary of nine hundred and fifty pounds current money,
during the continuance of his commission, to be paid quarterly."
By the four last sections of this Act, an appropriation or provision was
made for the payment of that salary out of a particular fund, to
be raised by taxes on proceedings in Chancery and the land office,
and money arising from the sale of vacant land; which was to
be specially set apart for that purpose. This appropriation, or
special fund was temporary, and limited to five years, was con-
tinued, by the Act of 1797, ch. 51, for seven years longer; and was
then virtually applied to general purposes, by operation of the
Act of 1798, ch. 86, and expressly so applied bj the Acts of 1804,
eh. 64 and 108. By a resolution passed at November Session,
1796, an addition of two hundred dollars was made to the
Chancellor's salary for the ensuing year, (r) * This appropri-

647 ation for the payment of this sum was general without speci-

(r) On running the eye over the Acts and titles of Acts passed by the
General Assembly under the Provincial Government of Maryland, in Bacon's
revision, it cannot but strike the attention of every one how large a propor-
tion of them, even those of the most important character, were limited in
their operation to a specified period of time, and that too, of a very short
duration. This temporary mode of legislation must have been attended

with very considerable inconvenience. But it appears to have been resorted
to by the colonists as the only means of defending their rights and interests
against the undue exercise of the royal and proprietary prerogatives. It
will be recollected, that any Act, after it had been passed by the General
Assembly, however beneficial or necessary to the people, might be annulled
by being dissented from by the Lord Proprietary or by the King; and there-
fore, to keep the Proprietary or the King within reach of the people and de-
pendent upon them by rendering it necessary to convene their representa-
tives at short intervals to re-enact or continue laws necessary for the sup-
port of the Government; (7 Mass. His. Soci. 139;) and to extract from the
Proprietary or King the assent to new laws which might be called for by
the people, it was deemed expedient, by the General Assembly, to limit
their legislative enactments to a very short duration. Indeed it is said, that
some of the colonial General Assemblies, in order to preserve their indepen-
dence of the King, had done almost every Act of legislation, by votes or
orders, even to the repealing the effects of Acts, suspending establishments
of pay, paying services, doing Chancery and other judicatory business, &c.
having their effect without heing reduced to the form of Acts, or being sub-
mitted for the allowance or disallowance of the Crown. (Pown. Adm. Col.
75.) This practice of the Colonial Legislatures, of passing temporary laws
and special orders was strongly condemned in England as a pernicious eva-
sion of the King's prerogative of approving or disapproving of all their
legislative enactments; and the Governors were accordingly positively in-
structed to give their assent to no such Acts or orders, (2 Chal. Opin. Em.
Law, 58; Pown. Adm. Colo. 75; 1 Chal. Opin. Em. Law, 350.) But, it seems,
this inconvenient practice had become so much a habit in Maryland, that it
has been too long continued; since the Revolution, by which the causes that
had suggested and rendered it expedient, have been completely removed.