Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1858-09-08


self; for like Byron in many of his char
acters he was probably describing himself
without seeing that the world would rec
ognizo the portrait He chung to the
common law as child 10 its nurse, and
how much he drew from it, may be seen
in his Opinions, which, by their elaborate
ninuteness, remind us Of the overiuluess
Of Coke" The Chief Justice was also an
admirer of our Pennsylvania system of
law, in which the substantial principals of
equity are applied under the forms of the
common law The wonder is that in any
case they should have been separated. To
appoint one Judge to execute the law, and
another to do equity, seems like creating
one man all head, and another all heart.
To execute the law upon q suitor's person
or property, and to allow him in the mean
time to apply to Court of Equity for re-
lief, or to turn him out Of the latter be-
cause his case had no equity init, with the
assurance that he will have no difficulty
in recovering ina court Of law, in other
words, to permit two different rules of le.
gal duty on the same subject, to press on
the same man, Mt the same time,--is q
state of things which the mass of mankind
will never understand, if each invidual
man should rival the patriarchs in the
term Of his natural life From the day
when Lord Erskne uttered his quiet hui
NOR Oh the subject, down to the publica.
ton of Bleak House, the severest sarcasms
on this state of things have been flung in
to the faces Of lawyers, without the possi-
bility of turning the point of one of them.
The Pennsylvania system of law is among
the few that have been measurably free
from the repl caches which the learned
and the unlearned have thus conspired to
hurl at the whole science. II is natural
that the mind of man like Judge Glib
son, who had done so much to advance
this sytem, and who had witnessed the
strides which the legal world seems max.
ing towards it, should feel some pride in
lperpetuateing it. With this spirit, it is
consistent, that when our legislature adopt.
ed certain equity remedies, and provided
for separate equity proceedings, he should
endeavor to carry them fully into practice.
An opposite course, if he could have pur-
sed it, would have caused disquiet and
disaster Besides this, whatever he might
have thought, he was not n man TO set
himself up against what seemed to be a
useful reform. He had seen defects which
some of these remedies seemed to supply,
and he applied Il EN- in the very spirit in
which the profession and the legislature
had called them into being. So success
fully was this done, that with all his at
tachment TO the common law, it has not
been unfrequently TO hear from those
most devoted to the equity system, the adj
mission that he would have made better
chancellor than he was a judge. II is per.
tinent to remark here that he had no un-
due fondness for civil law. His mind was
too liberal--for the mind of a.scholar is al
ways liberal in its appreciation of learn
ing-not to admire the beauty, wisdom
and simplicity of many parts Of that sys-
tenn, and its adoption to the state Of socie
ty in which it has grown up; but it must
be admitted that he ever and anon cast a
suspicious glance on the efforts Of Judge
Story, and the writers of that school, to
infuse its principles into our cherished
common law. He could not have denied
that many ofthe branches of our law have
been enriched in this mode, but he was
alive to the danger of pushing such inn
provements too far | need refer the
reader only to the opinions delivered in
Lvle VS.. Richards, Q S. g. r. 800, and in
Logan VS.. Mason, V. & S. 9, in proof of
the existence of these views in the mind
of their author.
In summing up the personal character
of Judge Gibson, do not mean to present
him as faultless, for then he had been
more than human. Doubtless he had his
defects whatever they may have been,
do not propose to discuss them. To do
so, would be to initiate the conduct of
some visitor to gallery of art, who should
employ himself in tracing rough images
in the dust of the floor, and not in con-
templating the beautiful conceptions of
genius on all sides around him and above
him. speak rather of what Judge Glib.
son was, than Of what he was not. His
case has been removed to that great ap-
pellate Court which, while il administers
perfect justice, is governed also by perfect
mercy. Jurisdiction having vested there,
on the soundest principles of jurispru-
dence no allegation should be permitted
against him here. He certainly had small
faults, which to small eyes were large
enough to shut out a perception of his
great qualities. He despised tho anise
and the cumin, and necessarily lost the re-
spect of those valuable members Of the
Of the State, outside and inside of the bar,
who do the least important things first,
and the most important last. Frank gen
erous and confiding, he spoke on the benz
and elsewhere, of persons and of things,
with that impulse which none but an hon
est heart can know and in doing so, he
occasionally lost in dignity as much as he
gained in the pleasure of giving express
sion to his real sentiments in his own way.
If, as a presiding officer, he had preserved
order more rigidly, his Court would have
been moro solemn place, and il he had
attended more directly to what was pass
| ing before him, the business would have
more efficiently despatched. But enough
of what he was not. The qualities which
he possessed were striking and peculiar
! That which was most impressed those who
knew him best, was the exceeding kind
ness of his heart The knowledge of this,
was key to his character. Any news
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