WILLIAM TILGHMAN. 49 



was lo satisfy thein both ; and by attention to the re- 

 searches of others, patient inquiry for himself, and a 

 judgment singularly free from disturbance of every 

 mind, lie rarely failed to attain his object. Other 

 Judges may have had more learning at immediate 

 command, — none have had their learning under better 

 discipline, or in a condition more eifective for the 

 duty on which it was employed. His mind did not 

 flow through his opinions in a stream of exuberant 

 richness, but its current was transparently clear, and 

 its depth was never less than the subject required, 

 however profound. He was moreover equal to all the 

 exigencies of his office, and many of them were great, 

 without any such exertion as appeared to disturb the 

 harmony, or even the repose, of his faculties ; and he 

 has finally laid down his great charge, with the praise 

 of being second to none who have preceded him in it, 

 and of leaving his countrymen without the expecta- 

 tion or the desire of seeing him surpassed by those 

 who shall follow him. 



The judicial faculties and virtues which are 

 here described, could never have been the com- 

 panions of disorder in the mind, the affections, 

 or the life of the individual. Lord Coke has made 

 to the aspiring student of the Law, this striking 

 appeal, too flattering perhaps, except while the 

 venerable portrait of the late Chief Justice is still 

 before us : " Cast thine eye upon the sages of the law 

 '•that have been before thee, and never shalt thou 

 "find any one that hath excelled in the knowledge 



