the police commissioners from holding the election, and on the 2d of April a hearing was granted, but the court held that it had no jurisdiction in the case.

The Republican State Central Committee called another convention, to meet in Baltimore on the 14th of May, a few days after the opening of the Constitutional Convention at Annapolis. The object of this meeting is thus expressed in the call of the committee:

Resolved, That all male citizens of Maryland, who are opposed to the organized conspiracy about to assemble at Annapolis on the 8th day of May, are requested to meet in primary assemblages in the various counties and the city of Baltimore, at such

time as may be most convenient, to elect delegates to a State Republican Convention, which shall assemble in Baltimore City on Tuesday, May 14th, at 12 o'clock M.

Resolved, That the State Convention will be expected to take into consideration the present condition of political affairs in the State, and to deliberate upon the best method of guaranteeing to the people a republican form of government.

The convention, which met in accordance with this call, consisted of numerous delegates, both white and colored, who discussed the principles which they held with vigor and earnestness. These principles were embodied in the following language:

Resolved by the Republicans of Maryland, assembled in Convention, That we reaffirm our demand, heretofore made, for the recognition by law over all the country of the entire equality of all American citizens in all civil and political rights, without regard to color.

Resolved, That we call upon the Congress of the United States to carry out the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the power given by the

Constitution and its recent amendments to abolish all legal distinction on account of color, and to give the suffrage to the colored classes of this and all the States by the passage of the Sumner-Wilson Bill, at the earliest practicable moment.

Resolved, That we reaffirm the declaration of the past Republican conventions of Maryland that the body now assembled in Annapolis, called a Constitutional Convention, is in violation and subversion of the legal government of Maryland, and that any constitution it may form without impartial suffrage ought to be defeated by the people and not recognized by Congress.

Resolved, That if the convention called under the act of Assembly shall submit a constitution to a vote of the people which does not provide for impartial suffrage, that in that event the Republicans of Mary land are called on to take all practical steps to defeat it, and that it is our duty to go to the polls and use every exertion to have it defeated at the ballot-box by the voters of the State.

A portion of the convention was in favor of submitting to a vote of the people of the State, irrespective of color, the question of holding a general convention to frame a constitution for that State, with the intention, in case of a favorable vote, to appeal to Congress to recognize the constitution thereupon prepared as the valid instrument, in opposition to that framed by the convention called by legislative enactment; but this proposition was never carried into effect.

The Constitutional Convention met, in accordance with the proclamation of Governor

Swan, on the 8th of May, and organized for action. Judge Richard B. Carmichael was chosen president by a unanimous vote.

The Bill of Rights which was reported contained the usual provisions of such à document, together with two or three articles of special interest. The declaration that slavery should not be permitted within the State, and that no person should be deemed incompetent as a witness on account of race or color, called forth a minority report from Mr. J. Montgomery Peters, in which he expressed his dissent from those articles of the Bill of Rights as reported by the majority of the committee. The 24th article originally stood, "Slavery shall not be permitted in this State; " but after some discussion with regard to the right which former slave owners had to compensation for the loss of their property, the following was adopted as a substitute: "Slavery shall not be reëstablished in this State, but having been abolished under the policy and authority of the United States, compensation in consideration thereof is due from the United States."

The declaration that no person shall be deemed incompetent as a witness on account of race or color, called forth an animated debate. Mr. Peters opposed it on the ground of the inferiority of the African race, and the intrinsic impropriety of allowing him to testify in cases where the interests of white men were concerned; but the main ground of difference on the subject among the delegates related to the propriety of fixing the matter by a provision of the constitution. Many considered it better to leave it to the future discretion of the Legislature. Mr. Nelson argued that it should properly find no place in the Declaration of Rights, because it was rather a privilege to be granted by the white man, who was master of the political regulations of the States, than a right to be recognized as existing independently of legislative action. He did not question the propriety of granting the privilege in an appropriate manner, but believed that a document which set forth the natural and admitted rights of citizens of the State was no place for embodying such a grant. Mr. Barnes did not consider a convention of this character the place in which to settle such disputed questions, and believed that the people had given them no power to inaugurate experiments. The Legislative Assembly had a better opportunity of knowing the will of the people, and all questions which properly depended on their will should be left to that body. The privilege of the State to avail itself of the testimony of the white man, he said, had stood upon no higher authority then statutory enactments since the first days of the Republic, and he saw no reason for changing the rule for the benefit of the negro. Mr. Farnandis proposed to transfer the provision from the Bill of Rights to the Legislative article, and then leave to the Legislature the power to pronounce colored persons incompetent to bear testimony, if that body should

see fit so to do. Mr. Jones, who had reported the original article, believed the right to be one of absolute and unqualified justice, guaranteed to the black man as well as to the white by the common law. He thought the fear that there would be antagonism created between the two races was groundless. The discussion was kept up for some days, and the provision was finally transferred to the Legislative article in these words: "No person shall be deemed incompetent as a witness on account of race or color, except hereafter so declared by the act of the General Assembly."

The following article was adopted in the Bill of Rights, with very little opposition:

ART. 44. That the provisions of the Constitution of the United States and of this State apply as well in time of war as in time of peace, and any departure therefrom or violation thereof under the plea of necessity, or any other plea, is subversive of good government, and tends to anarchy and despotism.

The only changes of importance in the Executive Department of the Government were, conferring the power of veto on the Governor, and abolishing the office of Lieutenant-Governor.

The Legislative article limits the regular sessions of the General Assembly to ninety days, and any extra session which may be called, to thirty days. Clergymen are made ineligible for members of the Assembly, which restores the provision on that point of the old constitution, which was superseded in 1864. The credit of the State cannot be employed for the benefit of internal improvements, and county and municipal corporations are prohibited from embarking their credit in any enterprise of the like kind. The General Assembly is

forbidden to make any compensation for emancipated slaves, but is empowered to receive and distribute any funds for that purpose which may be granted by the Federal Government. A new clause was inserted relating to bribery,

which runs as follows:

SEC. 46. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly, at its first session held after the adoption of this constitution, to provide by law for the punishment by fine, or imprisonment in the penitentiary, or both, in the discretion of the court, of any person who shall bribe, or attempt to bribe, any executive or judicial officer of the State of Maryland, or any member or officer of the General Assembly of the State of Maryland, or any municipal officer in the State of Maryland, or any executive officer of such corporation, in order to influence him in the performance of any of his official duties; and also to provide by law for the punishment by fine, or imprisonment in the penitentiary, or both, in the discretion of the court, of any of said officers or members who shall demand or receive any bribe, fee, reward, or testimonial for the performance of his official duties, or for neglecting or failing to perform the same; and also to provide by law for compelling any person so bribing or attempting to bribe, or so demanding or receiving a bribe, fee, reward, or testimonial, to testify against any person or persons who may have committed any of said of fences: Provided, That any person so compelled to testify shall be exempted from trial and punishment

for the offence of which he may have been guilty; and any person convicted of such offence shall, as part of the punishment thereof, be forever disfranchised and

disqualified from holding any office of trust or profit in this State.

The article on the elective franchise bestows that right on every white male citizen of the age of twenty-one and upward who has resided in the State one year and in the county in which he designs to vote, six months, thus removing the test-oath of the constitution of 1864, which disfranchised a large number of persons for being more or less concerned in the late Confederacy. The usual disabilities are imposed upon idiots, lunatics, and criminals, and the necessary regulations made for the punishment of fraudulent practices at elections; and the General Assembly is required to provide by law for a uniform system of registration.

The apportionment of the representation is to be based on the entire population, instead of being reckoned according to the number of white inhabitants, as was the case under the old constitution. The school system was entirely done away, and the next Assembly required to establish a new one in its place, all the details of which were left to the discretion of that body. The article on the judiciary makes very complete arrangements to control that important department of government, fixing the number and salary of the judges. The State is to be divided into eighteen judicial circuits, each with a chief justice, whose salary is fixed at $3,500; and two associate justices, each with a salary of $2,800. The provisions relating to the city of Baltimore fix the term of office of the mayor at four years, while one branch of the city council is to be changed each year, and the other branch every two years.

The members of the convention finally came to a vote on the constitution, as reported by the various committees to whom the preparation of different portions had been intrusted. the Assembly, on the 16th of August, more than and modified by the protracted deliberations of three months after they first came together. The 18th of September was appointed as the day on which the vote of the people should be taken on the adoption of the instrument as framed by their delegates; and if adopted, it was to go into operation on the 5th of October. The vote resulted in the adoption of the constitution, the whole number of votes cast being 71,088; majority for the new constitution, 24,

116.

The fiscal year, in the financial operations of the State of Maryland, ends on the 30th of September. At the beginning of the last fiscal year there were $367.816.36 remaining in the Treasury from the unexpended resources of the previous year. The total receipts for the year 1867 amounted to $2,362,876.88: the year's expenditures reached the sum of $2,578,855.24; leaving a balance in the Treasury, on the 30th of September last, of $156,838. The last report of the Comptroller states the whole amount of the war loan, which had assumed the form of a permanent indebtedness, at little more than $500,