114 VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS, NOVEMBER SESSION, 1807.

On motion, Leave given to bring in a bill, entitled, An act to establish a board of agriculture for Charles
county. ORDERED, That Mr. C. Dorsey,. Mr. Stone and Mr. W. H. Brown, be a Committe to prepare and
bring in the same.

Mr. C. Dorsey, from the committee, delivers to the speaker the said bill; which was read the first and second
time by especial order, passed, and sent to the senate by the clerk.

Mr. T. Dorsey, from the committee, delivers to the speaker the following report:

THE committee to whom was referred the petition of the Falls turnpike road company, report that they
have taken the prayer of said petition into their serious consideration, and are of opinion that the prayer of the
petitioners ought never to be granted, and that the petitioners have leave to withdraw their petition.

By order, D. L. JACOB, clk.

Which was read the first and second time by especial order, and the question was put, That the house concur
therewith? Determined in the negative.

The house resumed the consideration of the resolutions relative to the investment of the public money in the
treasury, and the question was put, That the whole of the first resolution be stricken out? Determined in the
negative.

The question was then put, That the words "under the direction of the governor and council" be stricken
out? Resolved in the affirmative.

The. question was then put, That the blank after the words "Mechanics Bank of Baltimore" be filled up
with the words "forty thousand?" Resolved in the affirmative.

The question was then put, That the blank after the words " Farmers Bank of Maryland" be filled up with
the words " eighty thousand?" Resolved in the affirmative.

The question was then put, That the blank after the words "Hagar's-town Bank" be filled up with the words

" twenty thousand ?" Resolved in the affirmative.

The question was then put, That the last resolution be stricken out? Resolved in the affirmative.
The question was then put, That the house assent to the first resolution? The yeas and nays being required,
appeared as follow:

AFFIRMATIVE.

W. H. Brown, Grahame, M. Brown, Dennis, Callis, Sturgis, Ayres, Tabbs,
Gardiner, Reynolds, Kerr, Ennalls, B Hodges, Robins, Holbrook, Gabby,
Belt, Stone, Seth, Henry, Muir, Dashiell, Bayard, Carroll,
C. D. Hodges, C. Dorsey, Stevens, Cox, Shaaff, Hawkins, Jump, Darne,
O. Williams, Green, Jackson, T. Moffit, J. E. Spencer, Kuhn, Boon, Bruce,
Merriken, Rogerson, Winder, Page, Sudler, Forwood, Steuart, Tomlinson,

Blake, Little, King, Hall, J. Williams, Streett, Bowles, Briscoe. 57.
Emerson,

NEGATIVE.
Messieurs Welch, Brice, Mitchell, Porter, Davis, T. Dorsey. 6.

So it was resolved in the affirmative.

A petition from Mable Barnes, of Talbot county, praying a divorce, was preferred, 'read, and referred to
"Mr. Stevens, Mr. Kerr and Mr. Seth, to consider and report thereon.

A petition from Jacob Gibson, of Talbot county, security for Daniel P. Cox and John Thomas, praying to be
released from the additional nine per cent, imposed on him by law, was preferred, read, and referred to Mr.
Stevens, Mr. Seth and Mr. Kerr, to consider and report thereon.

Mr. Tabbs, from the committee, delivers to the speaker the following report:

THE committee to whom was referred the memorial of the committee appointed by sundry inhabitants of the

city of Baltimore, charging Walter Dorsey, chief justice of the court of oyer and terminer and gaol delivery

for Baltimore county, with high judicial misdemeanors, viewing with an eye of jealousy every invasion of the

rights of the people of Maryland by its judiciary, and regarding the constitutional independence of the judges

as the palladium of the liberties of the state, have taken into their most serious consideration the charges con-

tained in the memorial, and beg leave to submit the following report as the result of their deliberations.

The memorial prefers against Judge Dorsey two specific charges of mal-conduct in office, the first, that he,
together with the mayor of the said city, made application to brigadier-general John Stricker for a body of vo-
lunteer militia, to hold themselves in readiness to quell any disorder, or suppress any riot, which might occur
in consequence of the numerous assemblage of the inhabitants of Baltimore to burn the effigies of Aaron Burr,
and others, and thereby violated the 35th section of the supplement to the militia law, passed in the year 1798,
which prohibits the ordering out by a major or brigadier-general any part of the militia of this state, unless re-
quired so to do, for the causes in said section mentioned, by three justices of the peace, in writing, under their
hands and seals. It dots not appear by the said memorial, or the documents accompanying the same, that Judge
Dorsey made any further application or exertion for calling out the militia; can it then be pretended that an ap-
plication by Judge Dorsey to General Stricker, to direct a body of militia to hold themselves in readiness to be
ordered out to quell a riot, which might or might not happen, was a violation of the said act of assembly? If
the militia were ordered out in consequence of this application, the terms of the application did not require it,
and any responsibility therefor should rest on the brigadier, and not be imposed on Judge Dorsey. But even ad-

mit for a moment, that Judge Dorsey had applied for the ordering out of the militia, and also that such ap-