94 court of appeals of maryland

Baltimore. But the court was maintained by the confidence the
people entertained in the ability and impartiality of the tribunal,
and their fear that, if a change was made, and courts for each
county constituted in its place, that injustice, and not justice,
would be brought to their doors. They would have been
shocked beyond measure in that day, at the idea of trying a case,
civil or criminal, out of doors, or in the newspapers, before it
was tried in court, or while it was under trial, or after it had
been there decided. Young America was not then born.

An idea of the time consumed in going to and fro,
may be gained from a rule adopted by the General
Court of the Western Shore at the October term,
1788.

Ordered, That the following itinerant charges be allowed to
witnesses, but if such witnesses reside under twenty miles,
above ninety miles, out of the State, or on the Eastern Shore,
application is to be made to the court, viz :

For every 20 miles and under 30 miles, two days.⁵⁴
For every 30 miles' and under 45 miles, three days.
For every 45 miles and under 60 miles, four days.
For every 60 miles and under 70 miles, five days.
For every 70 miles and under 80 miles, six days.
For every 80 miles and under 90 miles, seven days.

And elaborate provisions were made by rules
adapting time limits and allowances to the dif-
ferent journeys. And the reason for the con-
sumption of so much time on journeys that now
seem so short is illustrated by a passage in a letter
of Harrison Gray Otis, quoted by Senator Bever-
idge, describing a journey over the important road
between Baltimore and Washington, even as late
as 1815:

54. Twenty miles a day seems to have been since ancient times some-
thing more than an ordinary day's journey.
Portia: * * * and, therefore, haste away,

For we must measure twenty miles today.

Merchant of Venice, III, 4.