ITILLIAH TILGHMAN. 27 



plan which the genius of his great predecessor had 

 conceived. His philosophical mind perceived at 

 once how equity could be combined with law; how 

 two sysiems, apparently discordant coukl be amal- 

 gamated into an homogeneous whole ^ he found in 

 the common law itself, principles analogous to those 

 which courts of equity enforce ; principles too long 

 obscured by the unmeaning distiiictions and frivolous 

 niceties of scholastic men ; he wiped off the dust from 

 the diamond and restored it to its pristine splendor. 

 And though he did not entirely complete that im- 

 mense work, which still wants the aid of wise legis- 

 lators and liberal judges, he brought it to that degree 

 of perfection which defies all attempts to destroy it 

 in future, and Pennsylvania boasts of a code of laws 

 which her ordinary courts may safely administer with- 

 out the fear of doing injustice^ and without needing to 

 be checked by an extraordinary tribunal professing a 

 ilifferent system of jurisprudence. 



With the same enlightened and philosophical spirit, 

 Judge Tilghman always gave a fair and liberal con- 

 struction to the statutes which the legislature made 

 from time to time for the amendment of the law and 

 simplifying the forms of proceeding, which, however 

 they might be suited to the meridian of England, 

 w^ere not well calculuted for this country. If those 

 statutes were not always drawn with the requisite 

 skill, he would supply it by their spirit, and would, 

 as much as indeed he could, carry into effect the iu- 

 ientions of the legislator. Thus, by hii interpretatioa 



