1866.] 211 [Price. 



Mr. Eli K. Price read the following obituary notice: 



Oswald Thompson was born in Philadelphia, on the 17th day of 

 December, 1809. His parents were highly respectable. His father, 

 John Wallace Thompson, came here early in life from the north of 

 Ireland, and pursued a mercantile business successfully in the south- 

 ern part of the city. He took an active interest in public affairs, 

 was a member of city councils, conservative in his political opinions, 

 and enjoyed through life a reputation for probity. To his son he 

 afforded good opportunities of education ; sent him to Willy and 

 Ingell's school, and, at the age of fourteen years, to Princeton College. 

 The son profited well by these advantages, and graduated in 1828, 

 with the first honor. 



Oswald Thompson entered the office of the Hon. Joseph R. Inger- 

 soll, on the '26th day of March, 1829, who was then engaged in a 

 large practice, having then, as before and since, numerous students, 

 who have become distinguished at the bar and on the bench. Here 

 young Thompson formed valuable friendships which he never lost. 

 He was admitted to the Philadelphia bar on the 27th of March, 1832. 

 His success in practice was early, respectable, and remunerative. 

 His clear judgment, ample learning, and reliable integrity, secured 

 him fast friends and clients; some of them of wealth and influence, 

 who were wise enough to appoint him executor of their wills. It 

 cannot be doubted, had he remained at the bar, that he would have 

 been the recipient of professional business and trusts sufficient fully 

 to occupy his time, and to secure for him independence and wealth. 



But Mr. Thompson was not a stranger to the impulses of an honor- 

 able ambition, and the desire to be usefully distinguished. He listened 

 to the solicitation of friends to permit bis name to be offered to the 

 public as a candidate for President Judge of the Court of Common 

 Pleas of the County of Philadelphia; was nominated and elected to 

 that office ; and with his legal friends, William D. Kelley and Joseph 

 Allison, as his associates, took his seat in that Court on the 1st day 

 of December, 1851. It was an office of high importance and respon- 

 sibility, demanding for the fulfilment of its duties not only great and 

 diversified professional learning, but a fearless independence and 

 courage. The arbiter between human life and death must be a firm 

 man, and should be eminently good; for he must decide upon that 

 life with the fearful responsibility that he shall never sacrifice the 

 innocent, nor suffer the guilty to escape to I'epeat his murders; and 

 must judge as he knows he must be adjudged before a higher tribunal. 

 VOL. X. — 2c 



