1892. ] OF THE SENATE. 555

of the salaries of the Judges is interpreted to include
also a prohibition against increasing them.

The deliberate use of in two places of the words
denying to the Legislature the power to diminish the
salaries, and in the same section a prohibition against
both decrease and increase of the sum granted by the
Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, can only be
accounted for by the conclusion that the framers of
the Constitution intended that the Legislature should
be left free to increase, but should not have the power
to diminish their salaries.

It is said that if the Legislature has the power to
increase the salaries why should there be the special
provision for an increase of the salaries of the Judges
of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore city? To this it
must be replied that the special provision is that the
Mayor and City Council of Baltimore city and not the
Legislature are authorized to make this special in-
crease. There are no published debates of the Con-
stitutional Convention of 1867 to throw light on this
Subject, but this special increase may have been pro-
vided for to satisfy the members from Baltimore city
who may have been dissatisfied with the salary to be
paid by the State to the Judges in Baltimore city.

At any rate it is clear in our judgment that it is in-
tended by the Constitution to lodge the power some-
where to increase the salaries of the Judges since it
prohibits only a decrease. The Legislature has all
powers except those prohibited to it, and as it alone
could provide for such increase, it seems to us that to
it was intended to be confided the power to make the
increase.

(2. ) While the construction for which we contend is
amply justified by a consideration of the sections-
above quoted, the construction is strengthened and
confirmed by reference to similar provisions in the
previous Constitutions of the State.

Under the Constitution adopted by the Convention
of 1776, which was in force from November 11th, 1776,
until June 4th, 1851, the amount of the salaries of the
Judges was fixed by the Legislature. The 30th sec-
tion of the Bill of Rights provided, "That salaries
liberal, but not profuse, ought to be secured to the
Chancellor and the Judges during the continuance of