48                 The Maryland Constitution of 1851.             [426

public debt. It was also claimed that the appointive power
was abused and that the governor and Senate were in-
fluenced more by political considerations than by public
interest.

The majority of the committee on the judicial depart-
ment, Mr. Bowie, of Prince George's county, chairman,
submitted a report providing for an elective judiciary.
The term of office was to be ten years, and the judges re-
eligible. The State was to be divided into three judicial
districts; one on the Eastern and two on the Western
Shore. The report also provided for the election by pop-
ular vote of all clerks, registers of will, justices of the
peace, etc.³¹ All of these officers heretofore were ap-
pointed by the governor.

Mr. Bowie, in presenting the report of the majority said
that in his judgment, the reform in the judicial system of
the State was the most important question that could be
submitted to the convention. He claimed that southern
Maryland and the Eastern Shore would have never con-
sented to the calling of that convention, save for the reform
desired in the judiciary, and for the reduction in govern-
mental expenses.³²

On the 18th of March, Mr. Crisfield, of Somerset county,
one of the most distinguished lawyers of the State, from
the minority of the same committee, submitted a report,
providing for an appointive judiciary; with a tenure for
good behavior. The State was to be divided into eight
judicial districts. The estimate of the probable cost was
placed at sixty-three thousand dollars per annum.
Twenty-nine thousand dollars more than the estimate of
the majority's report.⁸³

The contest in the judicial organization was over an
elective and an appointive judiciary. Public sentiment in
the State was strongly in favor of the former, though some

³¹ Debates, vol. i, p. 239.

³² Debates, vol, ii, p. 460.                  ³³ Debates, vol. i, p. 516-519.