556 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Mar. 8,

their commissions, in such manner and at such times
as the Legislature shall hereafter direct upon con-
sideration of the circumstances of this State. " Under
the authority thus granted to the Legislature the
salaries were provided in the method prescribed,
which continued until the adoption of the Constitu-
tion of 1851.

By the 4th section of Article 4 of the Constitution
of 1851, it was provided "The salary of each of the
Judges of the Court of Appeals shall be $2, 500 an-
nually, and shall not be increased nor diminished
during their continuance in office. " The same phrase-
ology was used in regard to the Circuit Judges. (Art.
4, section 9. )

The Constitution of 1864 prescribed that there
should be no increase or diminution of the salaries
paid to the Judges of the Circuit Courts, and did not
contain any provision in this respect in regard to the
salaries of the Judges of the Court of Appeals.

It will be seen that from the provisions of the Con-
stitutions of 1851 and 1864, the Judicial salaries as
fixed, could neither be increased or diminished by
Legislative action. When the present Constitution
was adopted, the inhibition upon the increase of
salaries was omitted, and that upon a diminution was
alone retained. The natural and reasonable construc-
tion of the provisions of the present Constitution
looking to the prior Constitutional requirements is,
that the General Assembly may increase these salaries
to such sum as it may deem proper, as the only re-
straint imposed upon it is that it shall not make them
less than the sum named in the Constitution.

A reference to the debates upon this subject in the
Convention in 1851, will make it very clear that when
the Legislature is only forbidden to diminish the sal-
ary, it has the power to increase it. When the Con-
vention which formed the Constitution of 1851 met,
the entire subject had been within the control of the
Legislature which could fix, and did fix at different
times the salaries of the Judges. As reported from
the Judiciary Committee, the proposed Article on sal-
aries closed as follows: "And shall not be diminished
during their continuance in office. " (Debates, 1st
Vol., p. 239. )