88 court of appeals of maryland

1805 and 1806; and it was incidental to a decentral-
ization and localization of the administration of
justice, or, more exactly, of trials at law. Since
near the beginning of the settlement of the province
its population had been provided with one chief
trial court, sitting first at St. Mary's, and thereafter
for over a hundred years at Annapolis. It was an
institution which in 1805 was approaching two
hundred years of age, and seemed of remote an-
tiquity. It had figured largely in the lives of each
generation and had been the stage of some of the
most important and dramatic of the activities of
the people back as far as tradition could reach, and
farther. Notwithstanding the fact that there was
a right of appeal from its judgments in its cases of
first instance, it was the great court of the people
of Maryland while it existed. After the Revolu-
.tion the Chancellor was regarded as the most im-
portant dignitary on the bench, and as has been
seen his salary was far higher than that of any
other judge during the existence of his office,⁴³
but he had little contact with litigants or witnesses,
cases before him were heard on the papers and on
depositions only, and his court did not figure so
largely in the minds of the people; and its loca-
tion at Annapolis caused them little or no incon-
venience. That the General Court and the Court
of Chancery could both be regarded, even during
a short period, as of more importance than the
Court of Appeals with its superior jurisdiction on
review, is difficult for modern men to understand,
but the evidence that they were so regarded seems
conclusive. In answers to queries of the Lords of

43. See 1 Bland, Chancery, 678 note.