after revolution to 1805 61

that session, and another act, chapter 15, desig-
nated the times of opening the courts; the first ses-
sion of the Court of Appeals was to be on the first
Tuesday in October, 1777, and the court was to
hold a term thereafter on the first Tuesday of
every May and October. The lower house, or
House of Delegates, appointed a committee to
consider and report in what manner the judges
of the Court of Appeals should be constituted,
and upon the report of that committee voted, on
March 28, 1777, that the court should be composed
of five judges, three of them to be judges of that
court exclusively and to be selected by joint ballot
of the two houses of the Assembly, and the other
two to be taken from the Chief Justice of the
General Court, the Chancellor, and the Judge of
the Court of Admiralty, eliminating in each case
the officer from whose court the appeal might be
taken. The Senate agreed in all except the asso-
ciation of trial court judges to sit on appeals, and
on the next day proposed that all five judges
should be elected, by joint ballot, to the Court of
Appeals exclusively, stating that it was in their
opinion of the highest importance that the appel-
late court be kept entirely distinct from the trial
courts. The House of Delegates replied on
March 31 that they agreed but that they would
follow strictly the directions of the constitution,
and prepare and submit a list of officers, to be
followed by a joint ballot of both houses if there
was any disagreement on the list. There was no
difficulty, apparently, in preparing a list of all
other officers, but on April 1, 1777, the House of
Delegates sent word to the Senate that it was dif-