The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1867-07-19

of kind, liberal, and honorable feelings,
just such a man as you might suppose
was born to be Judge; and if he holds
out as he begun, and Heaven and his
constituents continue him to his "three-
score years and ten," we are mistaken,
or he will furnish the best practical
proofof the folly of legislating judges
out of Office, at the expiration of sixty
years.
Since his presidency in the District
Court, Judge Sharswood has been cho-
sen Professor of Law in the Pennsylva-
MIA University, where he is an invalu-
bic acquisition. Apart from this duty
he is engaged in delivering a course of
elaborate lectures before the COmmerci-
al Institute. And when it is remem-
bered that the court in which he pre-
sides sits ten months in year, and is
continuously and laboriously occupied
duringal that time, in every diversity
oftrials, certainly no better commenta-
ry can be required upon his eXhaustless
patience and energy of character.
But to glance from the mental to the
personal, Judge SharsWood is about five
feet ten inches high, with slight stoop
of the shoulders, attributable, probably
to his studious pursuits throughout life.
He has patience, and that-without
which every thing else is nothing
uncompromising honesty. The hon
esty of Judge, however, is hardly ne
cessary to be referred to, as without it,
no man is to be considered a judge
He is only pageant in the temple of
justice.
Judge Sharswood, may be cited in
support of our theory, that Judges
other qualifications being equal-taken
from the bar before they have been eX-
tensively engaged in practice, general
ly discharge their duties more satisfac-
torily than those who are hackneyed in
litigation, and therefore take partial or
prejudiced views OF a case. Unless op-
posite sides ofthe issue exhibit great in
equality in merit and strength, we de-
fly any man to preceive, from the de
pertinent of thejudge, to what result
his mind inclines. This is a great vir-
tue in a judicial officer-nothing is so
unbecoming in authority, as to descend
from its high calling into the arena of
professional degradation, and advance
gratuitous opinions, and join in con-
fiict between out-posts, before the mind
entirely grasps the merits of the contro-
versy. Counsel may be less observant
of what they say or do, but a judge
should permit no word to escape his
lips during the progress Of trial, that
may tend to bias the jury, Or throw re-
proach upon one party or the other.
Words, as we have elsewhere said, are
things, ,and judicial words are very oper-
tive, if not controlling things, upon
the minds of the ''sWorn twelve" who,
having for the most part but little
lightin themselves, look anxiously for
the least glimmering of it that may be
shed from the bench, and sometimes e.
ven convert that light into darkness.
Judge Sharswood puts his cases, OF
course, very fairly to ajury; he seldom
intrenches upon their rights to deter.
mine upon the Jaw, but when he does
he does it with great clearness, preci.
sion, and cogency, and so as to be COM
pretended by any man of the most or
dinary intelligence. His thoughts are
not only perspicuous, but the language
in which they are clothed is so plain
and unaffected as to prevent all equiv
ocation or misapprehensiOn.