demonstrated, that the great, efficient remedy, was by an attachment to be issued against the delinquent.

"In tracing the antiquity of the process by attachment, he remarked, that, it was admitted to be a part of the common law by the most authoritative writers; and that the common law was a compound of the Danish, Saxon, Norman, Pict, and civil law. 1 Black. Com. 63. As, therefore, the attachment is derived from the civil law, and the civil law was introduced into England by the Romans, early in the first century, he thought it impracticable at this day to ascertain its source; but insisted that enough appeared to prove it to be of immemorial usage, and a part of the law of the land.

"He then adverted to the leading objection made by the advocates for Mr. Oswald, that, however the process of attachment might be legal in England, it was not so in Pennsylvania. From a decision in the time of Judge Kinsey, he showed, that, before the Revolution, an attachment had issued for a contempt, and that the party had, in fact, answered certain interrogatories filed by order of the court; so that, it only remained to inquire, whether any alteration had been introduced by the constitution of the State. In the twenty-fourth section of that instrument, it is declared, that, "the Supreme Court, and the several Courts of Common Pleas of this Commonwealth, shall, besides the powers usually exercised by such courts, have the powers of a Court of chancery, so far as relates, &c." Now, as it appears by the case which occurred while Mr. Kinsey was chief justice, that the power of issuing attachments was usually exercised by the Supreme Court, so far from altering the law, this is a direct confirmation of the jurisdiction of the court; for, the greater naturally includes the less; and if the court is vested with all its former powers, by what possible construction can we deprive it of this? But it is answered, that a section in the bill of rights provides, that, "In all prosecutions for criminal offences the trial shall be by jury, &c." True; but the

whole system must be taken together; or, if we examine a particular part, it must be with a recollection of the immediate subject to which that part relates. For, otherwise, this very section might as properly be brought to prove, that the judges could not be impeached (since surely that is not a trial by jury) as that they have not the power of issuing attachments. All cases proper for a trial by jury, the bill of rights clearly meant to refer to that tribunal; but can anything more explicitly demonstrate that the framers of the constitution were aware of some cases, which required another mode of proceeding, than their declaration, that Trials shall be by jury as heretofore? Who will assert that contempts were ever so tried? who will hazard an opinion, that it is possible so to try them?

"But does not the constitution of Pennsylvania further distinguish between the laws of the land and the judgment of our peers; furnishing a striking alternative, by the disjunctive particle or? This very sentiment, expressed in the same words, appears in the Magna Charta of England; and yet Blackstone unequivocally informs us, that the process of attachment was confirmed by that celebrated instrument. In the fourteenth chapter of Magna Charta it is also said, that no amercement shall be assessed but by lawful men of the vicinage;' and who, that is at all acquainted with the law, or with the reason of the law, can think it possible, in that case, to pursue the generality of the expression?

"From these analogous principles, therefore, and the construction of ages, we may safely argue on the present occasion. But the wild and hypothetical interpretations which some men have offered, would inevitably involve us in a labyrinth of error, and eventually endanger that liberty which they profess, and every honest citizen must wish to preserve."

CHAPTER X.

JARED INGERSOLL, L.L.D.

BORN, NOV., 1750— DIED, OCT., 1822.

JARED INGERSOLL was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on the seventh of November, 1750, and was admitted to practice on the twenty-sixth of April, 1773, having read law with Joseph Reed, the grandfather of W. B. Reed,* the present able district attor

* Mr. William B. Reed, and his lamented brother, Professor Henry Reed, united in the preparation and publication of the memoirs of their paternal grandfather; a work which reflects great credit upon their affection, and scarcely less upon their industry and fine literary taste; a taste possessed in an eminent degree by their ancestor, as every one will admit, even if there remained no other evidence of it, than his celebrated letter to General Gage, in reply to his communication addressed to George Washington, Esq., which, we presume, is familiar to all. If every descendant among us manifested the same reverence for ancestry, or the same grateful family regard, the history of this country, which, at last, is but the history of its men, would at once, be a subject of personal gratification and patriotic pride. But, sad to say, prospect, not retrospect, is the prevailing error of the times; and

ney for the county of Philadelphia. Joseph Reed was a celebrated lawyer, and at one period, president of the executive council.

Mr. Ingersoll, the next year after admission, made a voyage to Europe, and remained abroad for nearly five years, and upon his return, was, in April, 1779, admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Jared Ingersoll, not less eminent than Lewis, was, in every possible way, differently constituted. His great merit was that of persuasion, with nothing boisterous— nothing clamorous—nothing violent or declamatory in his mode of discussion.

Calmness, mildness, and moderation, were his distinguishing and characteristic traits.

"When he spoke, what tender words he used

So softly, that like flakes of feathered snow,
They melted as they fell."

He glided into the affections, and disregarding the passions, he captivated, by the strength and simplicity of his appeals, the reason and the judgment of his hearers. Never excited, never disconcerted, he pursued the even and resistless tenor of his way, and success almost invariably crowned his efforts. His education was far superior to that of his great rival, and in

you would hardly suppose that, at the present day, any man ever had an ancestor. Yet, certainly, of all branches of history, biography is the most interesting and instructive, and we are told by high authority, it is the "proper study of man."

addition to this, he had enjoyed the benefit of foreign travel, and the best society of France and England. He was a student of the Inner Temple, and, after terminating his studies there, had returned to his native land, a refined gentleman and an accomplished lawyer.

Improved by the virtues of Europe, and uncontaminated by its vices, yet Mr. Ingersoll never presumed upon his superior advantages. He was a man of great delicacy, and of course great modesty. The most extraordinary feature of his disposition was, that, unlike Mr. Dallas and most of his other compeers, he avoided participation in almost everything that did not, in some way, appertain to his profession. Eminently fitted to shine in every walk of life, his ruling attachment seemed to be entirely centred in the LAW. To this, he looked through the medium of everything else, and he contemplated everything else through the lens of the law. His ambition was rendered perfectly subordinate to his love for his own peculiar science. Yet he spoke well upon any topic, and was at home wherever he was found. His stateliness, was simplicity; his reserve, modesty. He was unlike Oliver Ellsworth, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who, though a great lawyer, upon being presented at the British Court, seemed somewhat at a loss as to the conventional rules of society, and was observed stalking through the marble halls of the palace, without entering into conversation