offer its services to President Buchanan for the suppression of " the John Brown Raid" at Harper's Ferry. The offer of services was accepted, and the company marched to Harper's Ferry, and assisted in surrounding the Engine House during the storming of that retreat by the United States Marines. In 1860, Mr. Ritchie was one of the Democratic electors on the Breckenridge ticket in Maryland. Some years afterwards, he was elected State's At torney for Frederick County, and was re elected at end of his four years' term. He was elected to Congress a little later from the sixth district by a majority of over eighteen hundrejl. He was the Democratic candi date, and his personal popularity was strongly attested by the size of his majority in a district Republican under normal con ditions by a good many hundreds of votes. In the Democratic convention of 1875, he represented the " Hamilton," or reform element of the Democratic party, but did not succeed in his strenuous endeavors to secure the nomination of Mr. Hamilton for the governorship. In 1877, he was more successful, and secured Mr. Hamilton's nomination, as the Democratic candidate, after a most able and eloquent speech. Mr. Hamilton was in due course elected, and appointed Mr. Ritchie to the post of Chief Judge of the Sixth Judicial Circuit of Mary land, thereby, of course, making him a member of the Court of Appeals. The Sixth Circuit comprises the counties of Frederick and Cumberland. Judge Ritchie died in 1887, having served only ten years of the term for which he was elected. Next in seniority to Chief Justice Robin son is Associate Justice William SHEPARD Bryan. Judge Bryan is a native of New Berne, N.C. He comes of an old and dis tinguished family which lived in that town for four generations. His father, Hon. John H. Bryan, was a member of Congress from North Carolina when John Quincy Adams
was President of the United States. He practiced law for forty years, and it was in his office that his son studied after graduat ing at the University of North Carolina. Judge Bryan removed to Baltimore in De cember, 1850, and for thirty-two years devoted himself exclusively to the practice of his profession. During all this time, he resolutely refrained from all participation in politics, except in 1876, when he was in duced to become a presidental elector on the Tilden ticket. In 1883, when Judge Bartol retired from the Court of Appeals, Mr. Bryan, without any solicitation on his part, was nominated for the vacant judge ship, and triumphantly elected, although his nomination was made only ten days before the election. Judge Bryan represents the city of Balti more on the Bench of the Court of Appeals, and has no circuit duties to perform. He is most regular in his attendance, and assid uous in the performance of his duties. He has delivered the opinion of the court in many interesting and important cases, among others, Linthicum vs. Coan, in 64th Mary land, involving the riparian rights on the Potomac River; the case of Tragascr Gray, in which the high license law was decided to be constitutional, and the case of the Lake Roland Elevated Railway Co., in which it was decided that the Mayor and City Coun cil of Baltimore had the power to repeal an ordinance which granted the use of the public streets to a railway company when ever in their judgment the public interest required the repeal. Judge Bryan is a delightful companion. His wide range of reading in history and general literature has stored his mind with many interesting facts with which he en riches his conversation. He resides at Annapolis during the sessions of the Court of Appeals, and spends his vacation at Staunton, Va. Hon. James McSherry, who represents
