BROWNv. WALLACE. 605

the defendant to these bills, was no more than an agent of this
court, who might have been removed at its pleasure. He had no
interest of his own in the matter. Had he been removed there
would then have been no one against whom that court could have
proceeded with effect; or had he been permitted to remain, no de-
cree against him alone could have bound the rights of the real par-
ties to the original controversy who were no parties to the bills in
Harford County Court. Had James Wallace, as a trustee, collected
any money as the proceeds of the sale he made under the decree
of this court, that court could no more have ordered it to have
been brought in and paid over, than it could have taken money
levied and held officially by a sheriff of an adjacent county under
an execution from his own county court; or money held officially
by the messenger or register of this court, (a) If Harford County
Court could not have exercised powers to the whole of this extent,
it is evident, that the bills which that court allowed to be filed, and
required to be answered by James Wallace, the trustee of this
court, should have been dismissed at once.

These proceedings are not only incompatible with, and calcula-
ted to cross and thwart the proceedings of this court, but they
were absolutely useless, and needlessly troublesome; because it is
manifest, that they could have resulted in no effectual relief; and
because this court could have reached, in the most effectual man-
ner, all the objects aimed at by those bills much more expedi-
tiously, and at a far less expense. Of all this, had this case been
brought to a final hearing before Harford County Court, I am satis-
fied, it might and would have been convinced, and upon that con-
viction would, without hesitation, have dismissed these bills.

Therefore, without revising or reversing any thing which has
been heretofore done by that court, I am of opinion, that in conso-
lidating and dismissing these bills, I do no more than would have
been done by that tribunal, as well upon the merits, as upon the
ground of the incompatibility of the proceeding with the suit now
depending in this court.

Whereupon it is Decreed, that the several bills of complaint filed
in Harford County Court by the late Freeborn Brown and William
Brown be, and the same are hereby consolidated and treated as
parts of the bill fifed on the 5th of March, 1825, as if the same
had been filed on the 8th of May, 1818. And it is further De-

(a) Jones v. Jones, 1 Bland, 461; Alston v. Clay, 2 Hayw. 171.
77 v.2