flexibility, discretion without timidity, knowledge without conceit, and judgment without presumption. (One cannot refrain from thinking that he was reading a lecture to his own associates.) These qualities blended with that skill of the law which the president is supposed to have acquired from study and practice in his profession, and which the associate justices are supposed to acquire, by their future attention and experience, may, it is presumed, constitute a tribunal from which the benefits of a court of justice may be expected and in which the powers of a county court may be lodged.

"That these courts are composed of a fixed and small number is a matter of greater consequence than may at first appear. There is a delay attending the deliberations of many and a difficulty in reconciling their various sentiments and bringing them to unite in one point. But delay and difficulty are not the only inconveniences. The business committed to many is often done in a careless and slovenly manner. A trite maxim that 'What is the business of every man becomes the business of no man,' has seldom been better verified than in our county courts.

"The judges being ten, twelve, or twenty in number, any three of whom could constitute a court; being appointed only for seven years; and receiving no compensation for their attendance at court, each thought himself at liberty to pursue his own amusement or avocation, because there was a sufficient number without him to compose a court. If a court was composed, those, who by accident were on duty, thought themselves entitled to a similar relief and laid hold of the first opportunity. to enjoy that relief.

"Thus they acquired not that skill which might have resulted from a constant attendance; the business was delayed by each endeavoring to throw it on another, and, strange as it may seem, it sometimes happened that after several sets of justices at the hearing of a cause it was, at last, decided by those, not one of whom had heard the whole.

"Uncertainty, too, was the natural result of the former constitution of our county courts. The justices continually changing could not acquire a knowledge of the law, and therefore could not make it the rule of their decisions, the same persons seldom sitting together in the same court, and different courts having no

mutual communications, their decisions could not operate as precedents, to establish any fixed rule to each other or to themselves.

"Thus left like mariners on the ocean, without compass, star, or landmark, they steered at hazard; and there might be a different law on the same subject in every county in the State, and in the same county at different times."

Such were the views of one who was eminently qualified to speak.

OUR FIRST JUDGE

"Who wants

A sequel, may read on."

ROGERS, Italy.

LEAR the way for the Honorable Court!"

"CLE

So cried the tipstaff on a bleak day in November, 1791, as he and a companion both armed with long poles—the insignia of officeescorted President Judge Atlee and his associates from their lodgings to the new courthouse.

The new court-house, in which Judge Atlee held his sessions, stood with its gable end to High street, with an entrance on the south side. The first floor was used for the court-room. At its north side was a raised platform which when first constructed extended the entire length of the building, but with the reduction in the number of judges a portion of the platform was cut off and a railing added, thus affording more room for the audience and giving more dignity to the court.

At the time of his appointment Judge Atlee was fifty-six years of age.

The appointment of William Augustus Atlee to the Presidency of the Second Judicial District, composed of the counties of Chester, Lancaster, York and Dauphin, was not so much of an honor to him as it was to the Governor who made it and to the people of the district whose issues he was called upon to decide.

Judge Atlee could hardly hope for any greater distinction throughout the State than he already enjoyed as citizen, lawyer, patriot, and judge.

A glance at his career, as set forth in compact form in the Biographical Annals of Lancaster County, or a minute examination of some features of his official life in the dust-covered Colonial Reports and Pennsylvania Archives, will satisfy any candid inquirer that Judge Atlee was no ordinary character.

In the language of the Annals referred to, "He came of ancient and honorable lineage." He was one of three (some accounts say five) children born to William Atlee, of Fordbrook House, England, who, contrary to the wishes of his family, married Jane Alcock, a cousin of William Pitt and maid of honor to the