after revolution to 1805 93

rather disproportionately small achievement, said,
in a criticism of the system in 1802:

But where are the Associates all this while, it may be asked ?
Mute as alabaster busts on each side of a clock over a chimney
piece. The middle machine, it is true, tells the time, but it
may tell it wrong. The silent figures though moulded into the
human face divine, are yet insensible of its errors. * * * But
now the associates absolutely resign themselves and their con-
sciences to the entire disposal of the Chief Justice. He is the
Pope among the Cardinals. As in the Athanasian creed of the
Trinity, although there are three persons, yet they make but
one judge.⁵¹

In 1796, it seems, a proposal for the abandon-
ment of the General Court was made in the Gen-
eral Assembly, but it failed. The members of the
bar were attached to the court, and opposed the
change; and to Pinkney it seemed a "very foolish
affair."⁵² But it was started on its way. The
burden of attendance at each session added weight
to the suggestion, once made. Waterway travel
was slow; the roads were few, and hardly fit for
any but horseback travel. Taney wrote that,⁵³

it was exceedingly inconvenient to suitors who resided in the
distant counties to attend it [the General Court], and the
costs of bringing witnesses to Annapolis and Easton, and keep-
ing them there sometimes for weeks together, was oppressive,
and often ruinous to the parties. There were no railroads or
steamboats at that time, and stages were almost in their infancy
in Maryland; and such as had been established were as rough
as a road wagon, and found only between the principal towns,
and running then only once or twice a week. Almost every-
body came on horseback to Annapolis, except those coming from

51. Memoir of John Leeds Bozman, Md. Hist. Soc. Fun. Publ. No.
26,43.

52. Letter to Ninian Pinkney, July 21, 1801. Bishop Pinkney, Life of

William Pinkney, 41.
_53. Tyler, Memoir of Roger B. Taney, 57.