the President Judge was supposed to have gained from study and practice in his profession, the answer must be in the negative.

But, on the other hand, it would be unfair to regard them as mere excrescences upon the judicial system. In passing upon questions of fact, they were at least as competent as the President Judge, whose whole life had been spent in conducting lawsuits. Most of them possessed that commodity so useful to the highest judicial learning-common sense.

In considering this question one does well to remember the observations of Governor Curtin: "Judges learned in the law are just like other men. They are subject to the same prejudices, passions, sympathies, friendships, and dislikes. A judge learned in the law may visit upon his enemy the highest pains and penalties, and he may sometimes require, for the protection of the liberty or the rights of the citizen, either in his person or his property, the common sense of an Associate Judge not learned in the law, because, after all, 'learned in the law' does not make the highest judicial character. It requires integrity, it requires common sense, it requires the absence of all prejudice and passion."

Few well-informed persons will dispute Curtin's conclusions that in appointing road or bridge viewers, in granting licenses, in sentencing the convicted, in hearing motions for new trials, in all the various and complicated duties and powers given to the Courts, the Associate Judges were of great service.

In our own Quarter Sessions I do not doubt that they probably moderated some of the sentences which a President Judge, who by virtue of his office held himself more separate and apart from the common people, might have been inclined to impose.

Then, again, five nods by five grave-looking gentlemen, on any ordinary question of law, would seem to an unsophisticated countryman to be quite conclusive of the matter.

Of course, every President Judge did not appreciate to the full the merits of his associates, or feel the need of their intuitive sense of justice as a mirror to reflect the image of his purely mental or speculative judgment.

Let "the oldest inhabitant" speak:

It was in the days of which Everhart wrote, when the wassail bowl was the symbol of hospitality and the number of lay judges had been reduced to two.

"One morning," says he, "the President Judge entered on the stroke of the hour for the 'Sessions' to begin; but alas! as he attempted to walk up the steps it was apparent to both his Associates that he had obeyed too literally the injunction on his tankard the night before:

'Drink till you cannot stir a foot.'

"With rare presence of mind the lay judges hastily rose and assisted their President to his chair. Upon reaching it he halted and, turning towards them, said most deferentially: 'Gentlemen, I thank you for your kindness. I never knew until now what you were here for. 'Crier, open the Court.'"

But the harshest critic of these Associate Judges must admit that they loved their office.

In a letter to the American Republican, under date of December 22, 1818, the writer observes:

"There have been no less than six different Presidents on the Bench in this county in a period of about twenty-five years, which is a pretty brisk rotation, considering that the tenure of their office is quam diu bene se gesserint or during good behavior.

"The mutations here noticed have not, however, extended themselves in a similar degree to the Associated brethren. They appear generally not only to have behaved themselves well, as the law directs, but also to have felt a degree of attachment to the office. The language of Mr. Jefferson, on another memorable occasion, is strictly applicable here: 'Few die, none resign.'"

The writer overlooked Shippen and Evans.

JUDGE ROSS MAKES SOME CHANGES

IN

"You have done well, and like a gentleman."

TENNYSON, The Princess.

N February, 1818, when Judge Ross assumed the duties of President Judge of the Seventh Judicial District, the American Republican introduced him to the citizens of Chester County in manner and form as

follows:

"A change in so important a branch of government as President Judge of the Courts of Common Pleas is naturally expected to occasion considerable solicitude in the public mind.

"Where the office has been for a number of years filled with so unexceptionable a character as Judge Wilson, it will be readily acknowledged that something more than an ordinary mind is required to fill the place with credit to himself and satisfaction to the people.

"That Judge Ross was fully adequate to answer not only the expectations but the desires