188 court of appeals of maryland

ing most of the day has never been satisfactorily
provided.

At the October term, 1914, the judges returned
to the wearing of special judicial dress, the con-
ventional black silk gowns.

The perceptible changes in the work of the
court since 1867 have come not so much through
changes in the rules of practice as through
changes in the work of lawyers: There have been
few changes in the rules. The successive reductions
of the time allowed for arguments, until the regu-
lar maximum is now forty-five minutes, constitute
a familiar one, and one which, of course, demands
of counsel the increased effort required for brev-
ity and succinctness.

In 1869, by rule of court, enacted as section 4
of article 5 of the State code, it was provided that:

Formal writs of error shall, in all cases, be dispensed with, and
the party applying to have the record removed, as upon writ
of error, in cases where by law writs of error are allowable,
shall, by brief petition, addressed to the court in which the case
was tried, plainly designate the points or questions of law by
the decision of which he feels aggrieved; which application so
to remove the record, shall be allowed as of right; and no point
or question not thus plainly designated in such application shall
be heard or determined by the Court of Appeals.

On its face, this seems to have been designed to
put an end to the use of the old writ, and is much
like the seventeenth century statutes on the sub-
ject ⁷ except that it is prohibitory in form; but it
has not been treated as abolishing the writ com-
pletely. In 1892, a statute⁸ confirmed the right
of appeal in the ordinary manner, without writ of

7. Supra, page 24.

8. Act 1892, Ch. 506. Code Art. 5, sec. 86.