389 



may be true in England or other States, but is a downright falsehood 

 here, that he has no remedy or an inadequate one at law. 



About the period when his labors as commissioner came to an end, 

 — in 1835, — he was appointed by Governor Wolf one of the Judges 

 of the District Court for the City and County of Philadelphia. He 

 held this place for ten years, when, upon the renewal of the court in 

 1845, Judge Thomas M. Pettit having declined a reappointment as 

 President of the Court, Judge Jones succeeded to his place. He 

 continued to act as president for three years, when he resigned upon 

 his election as President of the Girard College for Orphans. As a 

 judge he was remarkable for great courtesy, immovable patience, 

 and unwearied attention. He was therefore a safe though, it must 

 be confessed, a slow judge. When he had once formed and expressed 

 an opinion at Nisi Prius, which was after great deliberation, he was 

 hardly ever known to change it. His law learning was very con- 

 siderable, but it lay more among the ancient than the modern books ; 

 and it was with much diflGiculty that he could turn the current of his 

 ideas upon legal subjects into new channels. Hence his decisions 

 often seemed grounded upon mere technicalities, yet while it was 

 certainly only the justice of the law which he aimed to administer, 

 as every judge ought, yet it was evidently his great desire suum 

 cuique trihuere whenever it could lawfully be done. He occupied 

 the post of President of Girard College only eighteen months. His 

 views and those of the Board of Directors not according on certain 

 points connected with the institution, he resigned his post, and in 

 the succeeding autumn was elected Mayor of Philadelphia, which 

 place he filled for one year. 



After this he returned to the bar in this city, at which he con- 

 tinued till his death, which took place February 8d, 1860, in the 

 sixty-fourth year of his age. He always was and continued a bard 

 student. After his return to the bar, he revised and enlarged Bou- 

 vier's Law Dictionary, and published a small volume entitled, " A 

 Syllabus of the Law of Land Office Titles in Pennsylvania." He 

 contributed to the American Law Register, and wrote a series of 

 articles on American jurisprudence and the moulding of common- 

 law forms to equitable doctrines, for several English law periodicals. 

 He was an excellent Hebrew and Greek scholar, and an earnest 

 student of the Bible in the original tongues. He published a vo- 

 lume entitled, '' The Patriarchal Age, or the Story of Joseph," in 

 which much critical acuteness as well as extensive Oriental erudi- 

 tion was exhibited. It has received hio-h commendations from the 



