the foreign minister. The office is the oldest of the departments, beginning with a Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Second Continental Congress in 1775.

18. The Department of the Treasury. This department dates its beginning from the appointment of a Treasury Board by the Second Continental Congress in 1775. It is the most complicated of all the Executive Departments. The Secretary of the Treasury has under him the Comptrollers, the Auditors who examine all government accounts, the Treasurer, the Register, who keeps record of government receipts and expenditures, the Commissioners of Navigation and of Internal Revenue, the Directors of the Mint, of Statistics, and of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The Secretary must not be a person engaged in trade or commerce. He suggests plans for raising the public revenues and supporting the public credit, and makes annual and special reports of the state of the finances, pays out the money appropriated by Congress, and directs the form of keeping the public accounts.

19. The Department of War. This department also was first established by the Continental Congress. The Military Academy at West Point is under the control of the War Department. The Secretary of War directs military affairs and the purchase of military supplies. He controls transportation of troops, the distribution of stores, the improvement of rivers and harbors, and the supply of arms and munitions of war. He has custody of military records.

20. The Department of Justice. The head of this department is called the Attorney-General. The first

one was appointed under Washington in 1789. He is the chief law adviser of the Nation, and with his assistants prosecutes and defends all suits brought by or against the United States.

21. The Department of the Post-Office. The head of the Post-Office Department is the Postmaster-General. The first one was Benjamin Franklin, appointed by the Second Continental Congress in July, 1775. In 1794 the management of the Post-Office was made an executive department. More than half of the persons employed by the United States are in the service of this department. It controls the mail and money-order service.

22. The Department of the Navy. Until 1798 the War Department administered the Navy, since which time a special Executive Department has had charge of it. The Naval Academy at Annapolis is also under the Secretary of the Navy, as are the National shipyards and docks.

23. The Department of the Interior. This department was established in 1849 by Congress. It brought together various bureaus which had been scattered among the other Departments. It deals in general with internal affairs, and includes Patent, Census, Land, Pension, Indian, Education, and Public Building offices.

24. The Department of Agriculture. This was made a full Executive Department in 1889. It is different from the other Departments in that it does not perform any duties indispensable to the government, but spreads among the people useful information on agricultural subjects, and distributes new and valuable seeds and plants.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE FEDERAL JUDICIARY.

1. The Need of the Federal Judiciary.

It is essential that there should be some one court which should have the authority to say what the Constitution and laws of the United States mean. If there were no Federal court, and each State decided questions of Federal law in its courts without an appeal, there would be different opinions, and the Constitution of the United States would mean one thing in one State and another in another. There is also needed a Federal court to decide disputes between States and to try maritime cases and crimes committed on the high seas.

2. Organization Left to Congress. The Federal Constitution establishes three departments of Government and organizes two of them. It does not organize the judicial department, but leaves that to Congress. The names and jurisdiction of all the courts, save the highest, and the number of judges in them all, are to be determined by Congress. Congress has changed the number of justices in the Supreme Court, and increased the number of courts, as there seemed to be need. (U. S. Const. Art. III., Sec. 1.)

3. Judiciary Act of 1789.- The very first Congress, at its first session, passed an act, drawn up by Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, for the organization of the

judiciary. This act was so wise and well drawn that it is the basis of the Federal court system to this day.

4. The Tenure of Office and Salary of Federal Judges. -Federal judges are appointed to hold office for life or during good behavior. If they are over seventy years of age and resign, they receive a pension. The judges of the court of claims and of the territorial courts are not considered as forming a part of the regular judicial system, and are appointed for a term of years. A Federal judge can be removed by impeachment only. Federal judges receive at stated times for their services a salary, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office. This provision is placed in the Constitution that the judges may not be influenced to please Congress through any fear of losing their salaries. It is necessary that the judges should be independent of all improper influence. Their salaries may be increased at any time if Congress sees fit. (U. S. Const. Art. III., Sec. 1.)

5. The Federal Courts. (a) District Courts: In each State there must be at least one Federal court to try criminal suits brought by the United States, as the Constitution secures each man a right to trial by jury in the State where the crime was committed. (U. S. Const. Amend't Art. VI.) This court is known as the District Court. A State may be divided into two or more districts, if there is enough business. In Maryland there is only one district court. District Courts are presided over by one judge, known as the District Judge. They have some civil jurisdiction, and try admiralty cases, which deal with vessels

and maritime matters. The District Courts sit four

times a year.

(b) Circuit Courts: The United States is divided into nine groups of States, each of which is known as a circuit. In each circuit there is a Circuit Court, which sits once a year at least, in each of the districts contained in it. These courts are held by one or more of the following persons as judges: a justice of the Supreme Court assigned to the circuit, two circuit judges, and the district judge. The justice of the Supreme Court must visit the circuit at least once in two years. The Circuit Courts have original jurisdiction in copyright and patent-right cases, and in civil cases where more than $5000 are in dispute, as well as in the graver criminal cases. This circuit is composed of Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

(c) Circuit Courts of Appeals: These courts hold one term a year in some fixed place in the circuit. In this circuit the court meets at Richmond, Va. These courts are composed of three judges, two of whom constitute a quorum. The Justice of the Supreme Court assigned to the Circuit, and the Circuit Judges are the regular members, but in the absence of any of them one of the District Judges in the Circuit may take his place. These courts have no original jurisdiction. They hear appeals from Circuit and District Courts, and in many cases their decisions are final. They were established in 1891, and are intended to relieve the Supreme Court of much business that formerly went to it.

(d) The Supreme Court. (U. S. Const. Art. III.,