at annapolis before revolution 55

of Appeals should not be deprived of the judg-
ment of two members in cases appealed. The
Chancellor withdrew from sitting on appeals from
the Chancery Court, until, by the middle of the
century, it became a regular practice for him to
do so. The Maryland Gazette of October 28,
1773, contains a broad criticism of a system in
which,

the same gentlemen are members of the Upper House,
Councillors, and judges in the Provincial Court and the Court
of Appeals, and looks forward at a time when the judges of

our supreme court hold their commissions during good behavior,
and are declared incapable of holding any place from govern-
ment but their judicial stations, the income of which to be
liberal.

The Governor had complete control over the ten-
ure of office of judges, all holding office at his
pleasure, and they came by reason of that fact to be
spoken of sometimes as "minions of power," or
"satellites". About the middle of the eighteenth
century, however, it became the practice to con-
tinue the judges indefinitely, so that they did in
fact, though not by legal right, hold office dur-
ing good behavior. And during Governor
Sharpe's administration, 1753 to 1769, efforts were
made to insure bringing to the bench the strongest
men possible. In 1768, a bill was prepared in
the lower House, upon the recommendation of a .
committee, providing a high salaried Provincial
Court of a chief justice and two associate justices,
but the bill seems to have been crowded out from
full consideration during the years intervening
before the Constitution of 1776.⁴⁷ During those

47. Archives, Proc. Assembly, May 30 to June 1, 1768.
Mereness, 252.