The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-09-20

Slone' Du' WIEN its tehuency is to paralyZe the
efforts of good citizens in the cause of decencv and
honest government; when it is brandshed as
menace in the face of the community and men
are gravey told, that if they step beyond it they
are neutrality-suspicious. as it may be, it re-
qulres to be denounced. few words will suffice
to expose its utter emptiness.
Over and above the power granted by the city
charter to the corporation, ITO establish night
watches or patrols" the privilege of appointing
bailiffs, conferred by the Act of 1872, Oh. 1914
upon the MAYOR and City Council, was the earliest
legislative recognition of separate municipal
policeorganzation. By the terms of the Act ofIsl2
the MAYOR was authorized to appoint, during
pleasure, not less than twenty-five, and not ex-
feeding one hundred bailiffs for the purpose of
fading in the preservation of the peace the
maintenance of the laws and the advancement
''of the police and good government" of the city.
The MAYOR and Councils were clothed, by the
same act, with the authority and obligation to
prescribe the duties, designate the badges and
weapons, and provide for the compensation of
''said bailiffs." By the Act of 1917, oh. l68, it
was provided further, ''for the purpose of accom-
'plishing more effectually the objects intended by
''the Act' of 1872, that the city-bailiffs should
exercise the powers, perform the duties and enjoy
the emoluments of constables within the ctv
limits, provided that they should first take the
oaths and execute the bonds required from con-
stables. Under these two Acts, the police organ-
cation remained, until the Act of 1853, oh. 49,
from which the present system derives its existence
By the Act of 1853 it was provided Gin order to
preserve the peace and better to secure the safety
ofpersons and property" in the city, that the day
and night police should be increased strengthened
and armed, and that the Act of 1912, limiting
the number to one hundred, should be re-
pealed. Within the compass of these
enactments lies the whole police power of
the corporation. The MAYOR, by the char
ter, is personally endowed, in virtue of his
office, with Gall the jurisdiction and powers of a
"Justice of the Peace, except as to the recovery
"of small debts' By the act of 1928, oh. 1873,
sec. 20, he may call out the militia, by applica-
ton in writing to the proper officer 'for the sup
preston or preventing of an instruction or
opposition to the laws'' within the city limits;
and by that of 1885, ch IA, he may, in like case,
make similar requsition upon the commanding
N-N-NNA VI
ordinary powers granted by these last mentioned
acts were, however, conferred on the MAYOR in
common with the Chief Justices of the then CITY
and County Courts, and, under the substitution
of functions designated by the present Constitu-
ton, are now shared with him by the Judges of
the Superior and Criminal Courts. 1t will be
seen, therefore, from this simple review of the
legislation upon the matter, that so far rs the
MAYOR has any power TO call for the interposition
OF the military arm, in preservation of the public
peace he is only one of three officers to whom
that power IS entrusted. Whether he has now
any powers at all, as a Justice of the Peace is n
matter of the gravest doubt under the provisions
OF the present Constitution, which of course over
rides the charter, and does not name the MAyon
as among the Justices for whose annoint-
ment it provides. We ourselves think it clear
that he has, now, no such powers; but even
II he has, they are powers which do not exceed
those of any other Justice of the Peace in
Baltimore, and are shared by the MAYOR with
'ne whole number of those officers in the
commission. Nothing, therefore, is left to
him, OF seemingly undivided police power or
responsibility, except that which he possesses
as the head of the police-department. and we
have already shown, by the very language of the
Act OF Assembly, on which that department rests
as foundation, that the police power of the mu
cipal government was conferred-not TO the eycu
sion of the other and familiar sources from which
the common law derives the security of person and
properly, against violence and outrage-but mere
lof the purpose OF aiding in the preservation of
tine peace, the maintenance of the laws and the
advancement of police and good government,
The MAYOR and the Police, which he rules. are
therefore, not the sole repositories of police an
thority. They are but ''aids'' TO the constituted
authorities, to which the public TRANQUILITY is CON-
hded, in every State of whose Jurisprudence tbe
common law is the fountain These authorities
are the Sheriff, the Justices of the Peace, and the
Constabes, selected as the law provides. OF these
the chlet OF course is the Sheriff. who by virtue of
his office, is the conservator of the public peace
bound to prevent its invasion, if it is threatened
bound to rescue and re-estabsh it. if it is broken
Of the ample powers with which the law clothes
HIM to those great ends, we shall proceed here
after to speak. For the present we have said
enough to demonstrate that, happily, neither the
lives, nor the property, the franchises of the
people are IN any one mans hands, and that the
refusal of any one public functionary TO perform
his trust leaves still open to the hopes and the
rights of the community more than one door.
which does not lead to helplessness or desperation
We have said enough to furnish food for reflection
TO our readers in connection with the extraordinary
letter OF Mr.. SWAMI, to the Reform Committee
which we have not time nor room to consider
In this connection, with the fulness which it de-
mands.