WILLIAM TILGHMAN. 67 



April, 1827, he closed his eyes forever. Tt ivill be 

 long J very long before we shall o^eii ours, upon a 

 wiser Judge, a sounder lawyer, a riper scholar, a 

 purer man, or a truer gentleman. 



The private life of this eminent man, was the re- 

 flection of an unclouded mind, and of a conscience 

 void of off'ence ; and sucli external vicissitudes as 

 marked it, did but ripen his virtues for tlicir appro- 

 priate scene hereafter. The praise of his public ca- 

 reer is, that it has been barren of those incidents 

 which arrest tlic attention, by agitating the passions, 

 of mankind. If it has grown into an unquestioned 

 truth, that the poorest annals belong to those epochs 

 whicli have been the richest in virtue and happi 

 ness, it may well be admitted that the best Judge for 

 the people, is he v/ho imperceptibly maintains them 

 in their rights, and leaves few striking events for bi- 

 ography. 



His course does not exhibit the magnificent variety 

 of the ocean, sometimes uplifted to the skies, at others 

 retiring into its darkest caves, — at one moment gay 

 with the ensigns of power and wealih, and at another 

 strewing its shores with the melauchoiy fragments of 

 shipwreck ; — but it is the equal current of a majes- 

 tic river, which safely bears upon its bosom the riches 

 of the land, and reads its history in the smiling cities 

 and villages, that are reflected from its unvarying 

 surface. 



Such is the praise of the late Chief Justice Tilgh 

 man, lie merited, by hi;^ public works and by hh 



