40 



LIFE OF 



what had a previous existence, but had been per- 

 verted or obscured. 



In some particulars of great interest to the profes- 

 sion, the late Chief Justice had the merit of relieving: 

 our code from perversion and obscurity of this des- 

 cription. He has certainly reinstated a statute of in- 

 dispensable use, and which was imperceptibly giving 

 way to judicial legislation here, as it has thoroughly 

 done in England, the Statute of Limitations in ac- 

 tions of assumpsit. On this subject he distinctly led 

 the way in Pennsylvania; and in every particular in 

 which he was not restrained by authority, he has 

 brought our Courts back to the true interpretation. 

 He has, as it were, reclaimed this resting place for 

 the unfortunate, from an irruption of the ocean. 



He led the way also, and has resolutely persever- 

 ed, in opening the large rivers of this Commonwealth; 

 to the great work of public improvement, by rejecting 

 the inapplicable definitions of the English common 

 law, which would have subjected them to the claim 

 of the riparian owners. 



He has followed up that work which his father is 

 said to have begun, by giving the force of his mind 

 and influence to the establishment of such rules, as 

 make the Land Office system harmonize with every 

 other part of our code. 



But his great work, that at which he laboured with 

 constant solicitude, but with scarcely a passing hint 

 that he was engaged in it, is the thorough incorpora- 

 tion of the principles of scientific equity, with the 



