Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-05-02
COURTS AND LAWYERS.
In the Early Days of Georgetown Legal
Business Was Light.

In the Early Days of Georgetown Legal
Business Was Light.
The mayors court Of Georgetown was the
first court established in the District Of Column
bia, writes Mr.. Hugh T. Taggart. By the act of
incorporation Of 1889 the mayor, recorder and
aldermen, or any three or more of them, were
authorized to hold court in said town, to be
called the mayors corut, and to appoint proper
officers therefor and settle reasonable fees.
The mayors court had the same jurisdiction as
to debts that the justices of the peace of any
county of the state then had or should there
after have by law. 1t also had concurrent juris-
diction with the county court of Montgomery
county in all criminal cases except such as
affected life or member, if the crime or offense
were committed in the town or any of its pre-
cincts by any inhabitant of it or by any person
not citizen Of the state, and appeals lay from
Its Judgments to the county court. This
court continued in existence from the time of
its establishment down to the time when the
town passed under the jurisdiction of the
United States as part of the federal district.
That its sessions were not held with satisfac-
tory degree of regularity may be fairly inferred
from the fact that in the year 1898 the corpora
ton passed an ordinance establishing regular
meetings for it.
THE GRANTING OF LIQUOR LIcEN sEs.
Prior to the year 1899 the power of granting
licenses to ordinary keepers and retailers of
spirituous liquors was vested in the county
courts of the different counties of the state,
and the manner in which the county court of
Montgomery county made such appointments
In Georgetown seems to have given offense. for
in the year 1898 the corporation resolved to
present remonstrance to that court, setting
forth the injury and inconvenience arising to
the citizens from the indiscriminate way in
which tavern licenses had been granted. The
complaints were felt at Annapolis, for in that
year the power of granting licenses vested
in the mayors court
The mayors court after administering JUS
tice for twelve years legislated out of ex-
istence by the act of Congress passed Feb
ruary 81, 1901. which provided for the estab-
lishment Of tribunal with jurisdiction over
the whole district to be called the Circuit
Court Of the District of Columbia" The act
poration court Of Georgetown to the new
court
LEGAL BUSINESS DULL.
Although the judicial machinery was set in
motion in the colony by acts passed by the as
sembly of 1899 creating a court Of admiralty,
a county court. a court Of chancery, court
praetorial and justices Of the peace, yet there
was long dearth Of legal business and the
services of the lawyer were not in demand. A
person writing from the colony about the year
1860 says: ''Here. if the lawyer had nothing
else to maintain him but his bawling, he might
button up his chops and burn his buckram bag
or else hang it upon a pin until its antiquity
had eaten it up with dirt and dust; then. with
a spade like his grandsire Adam. turn up the
face of creation, purchasing his bread by the
sweat of his brows that before got
by the emotionated water works of
his jaws" In the course of time things
sep IN have chaOOa6 for ha haitian
so far as the profession was concerned at least,
for in the year 1772 another person writing
from the colony said: "a litigous spirit is very
apparent in this country. The assizes are held
twice in the year in the city Of Annapolis and
the number of cases then brought forward is
really incredible" That the LAWYERS, however.
had become troublesome as early as 1715 is
evident from an act passed by the colonial as
sembly in that year for rectifying the ill prac-
tices of attorneys in this province. BY this act
their fees, payable in tobacco. were prescribed,
and it was provided that if they should pre-
greater or larger fee they should be incapable
OF practicing law In any court Of the province.
TO REGULATE LAWYERS FEES.
This law being found to be Intellectual another
one was passed in 1925 for the same purpose. 1t
recited complaints 'of the exorbitant fees taken
by councillors at law, chamber counsellors,
and advisers in the law, to the great dam
age and grievance of the good people OF this
province and impoverishing of themselves and
families" This act again established a scale of
fees. and further provided forms of oaths to be
taken by lawyer and client before the insttu-
ton of the suit. the one that he had not received
any greater fee than that allowed by the act,
and the other that he had not paid any such fee.
In 1717 there was a lawyer In the province
named Mcnamara who was the prosecutor of
the suits of the crown and such an exception
ally troublesome fellow that a special act of the
legislature was passed in that year to disbar
him from practicing in all other suits than
those Of the crown. According to the recitals
in the act he had once been suspended for his
but had been restored again upon
the late queens order. Claiming that the order
exempted him from the application of the pow
ers of the courts he treated them in an indecent
manner when he pleaded before them, despis-
ing their authority and even threatening their
persons.
TOUGH CUSTOMER.
He is described in the act as "a man of
htigous and revengeful temper"
who had at length arrived at $50 intolerable a
degree of pride and arrogance as even to
threaten the governors" and it was declared
that his insolence had resulted in a declaration
by several Of the judges that they would not
longer continue in their stations if SO turbu-
lent u ptTsCu WAS dlOWtu 10 praCtlce before
which actions and many others
(some whereof he has been convicted and others
been acquitted from by his management of
juries and subtlety in the law to tedious to
are of so naughty and daring ma
ture that the honor of the government cannot
be supported nor the magistrates be safe and
easy in the execution of justice nor the peace
of the province preserved unless some remedy
be provided, not only for the encouragement
of him, the said Thomas Mcnamara but all
others of like demeanor."
Whether Georgetown had arrived at that de-
gree of eminence in good works prior to the
year 1872. when the support of lawyer could
be credited to her, cannot be determined, but
that she was doing her duty in that respect in
the year 1918 would seem to be reasonably well
established. For among the subscribers to an
edition of Blackstone printed in Philadelphia in
that year we find the name of George Earle a
Georgetown lawyer. The book was issued in
four volumes, and the subscription price was
considerable, so that may reasonably infer
that the professional gentleman was fairly pros
porous.
Which-Garlic or Cholera?
From the North China Herald.
In connection with the employment of garlic