Mr. JOHNSON. I am in favor of that amendment. In Maryland we had the provision which will be in this bill if the amendment is not accepted. The judge sat in the court above, and the suspicion of the bar was whether it was well ounded or not well founded I do not know; but the very existenceof such a suspicion was mise hievous in its consequences that the judge who decided below really became a partisan; his opinion was fixed, more by pride of opinion than anything else, and he became an advocate, instead of being, as he should be, strictly, a judge open to conviction and without meaning to name individunl judges at all, I have seen, as I have thought. the same thing in the SCOTUS. The judgesw o decide the cases below think that their reputation isinured by having their judgments reversed; and there sult has lbeen, as I think I have seen over and over again, that they become exceedingl act ive; they pass the bounds, as I think, thats ould limit the judicial function and become advocates merely for the purpose of saving their reputations. Now, as far as relates to any information that the judge may give of the case as itexisted in the court below and his reasons for giving his opinion, the court will consulthim; but to put him upon the bench and make him apart of the court that is to decide that case, has more than once resulted in this, that the judgment below has been affirmed by a divided court, he being one of that court; and frequently when there was not a divided court, because there could not be in consequence of the numbers, it has been affirmed by is vote, when itwonld have been reversed if he had not been a member on the bench. In principle, therefore, I. think the amendment is right. I am satisfied, as far as an experience of some 40 or 50 years can satisfy me upon a question of this sort, that ibis necessary in order to clearaway all doubt about the judo ment which the court above may render, whether it is the result more or less of the arts of the advocate resorted to by the judge whose opinion is in question, or the cool and dispassionate opinion of the rest of the bench.