397]              Constitutional Reform Agitation.                  19

a life tenure, were considered to be, as the phrase went,
" contrary to the spirit of American institutions." In 1842
there were in commission twenty-one common law judges
and a chancellor at an expense for their salaries of $36,000
per annum. Governor Thomas in his message to the
General Assembly in the same year declared that there was
not a state in the whole Union, notwithstanding the fact
that the population of several of the states was four times
as great as that of Maryland, where the number of the law
judges, and the amount of their salaries, were not less
than those of Maryland. " Besides these objections," Gov-
ernor Thomas continues, " another is that there are no
effectual means provided for in the constitution to get rid
of judges once commissioned as promptly as public interest
may demand."

In 1844 the House of Delegates appointed a committee
to take into consideration the advisability of reducing the
expenses of the judicial system of the State, and of chang-
ing the tenure of office. In their report they showed that
Maryland in 1840 paid for her judiciary the sum of $41,500¹⁵

¹⁵ The State paid in 1840 in salaries the sum of $36,100, as follows:

Chancellor .......................................$ 3,400

Twelve associate judges of county courts.......... 16,800

Five chief judges .........."......"............ 11,000

Chief judge of Court of Appeals.................... 2,500

Chief judge of Baltimore City Criminal Court...... 2,400

$36,100

In addition to the salaries thus paid from the treas-
ury, the two associate judges of Baltimore City

Court were paid by the city ($1500 each)......... 3,000

The judges of the sixth district (including Baltimore
and Harford counties) received in addition to their
salaries, in equal shares the amount of certain
taxes on proceedings in the court, amounting to
($800 each)..................................... 2,400

$5,400

Making a total of............................$41,500

See Report of Committee on Grievances and Courts of Justice,
House Journal, March 5, 1844.