1867 and after 195

years, at least, has been predominantly agricul-
tural. In the provincial period the judicial offices,
as well as others, were filled by leading figures
in the population, who took pride in their posi-
tions and made the court sessions serious and dig-
nified proceedings. The conditions of life were
not changed by the Revolution, and through a
large part of the nineteenth century, too, the judges
were in the main country gentlemen who con-
tinued to be officers of dignity and distinction in
their jurisdictions. In Baltimore City, where
there have been influences tending more strongly
to weaken old conceptions and attitudes, and the
greater business and earnings of the profession
have long been outside of the courts, the relative
position of judges may be not the same, but in the
counties today the judges occupy the highest po-
sitions in the eyes of the people. And inheritance
of this older view may have been a considerable
factor in the present sentiment in the state. But
whatever the reason for it, the sentiment has been
and still is strong in judges and attorneys, and
in laymen, too, and the resulting conventions of
judicature in the state have been exacting; and
they are controlling.

It is commonly assumed " by thoughtful men
that under a system of choosing judges by popu-
lar election there must be a falling off in
quality of those chosen, and consequently in
respect for the courts and the law which the
judges administer; but whatever variation in
ability there may have been, there seems to

14. See James Bryce, Macmillan's Mag. XXI, 425 (1872) ; American
Commonwealth, Chap. XLII; Modern Democracies, II, 86.