Price.] ^74 [Dec. 18, 



State Reports. In tlie first of them we find the evidence of his ardent 

 love of justice, in the severe reprobation of anyone being removed from 

 of6.ce without notice of the charges made against him, and an oppor- 

 tunity of being heard in his defence. (32 St. R. 478.) In the sec md of 

 them he delivers the opinion of the Court on the will of Stephen Girard, 

 which decides the city of two square miles to be that preferred in the 

 admission of boys to the College, and that a fatherless child is an orphan 

 within the intent of the will, though the mother be living. It gives the 

 early history of Philadelphia ; refers to the customs of London ; with a 

 brief biography of Girard, and then he interprets his will, with the aid 

 of lexicons, and Biblical and legal authorities. 



Judge Read was always strict iq^his requirements that trustees should 

 faithfully execute their trusts, both as respects the selection of the proper 

 objects of investment, and as to proper care in making them. (34 St. R. 

 100.) While he favored the creation of trusts for proper purposes, he 

 was stern in the protection of trust property from insecurity and loss. 

 (46 St R. 494 ; 41 St. R. 505 ; 51 St. R. 292.) 



As to the power of the United States to levy troops, he held that 

 "Every citizen is bound to serve and defend the State as far as he is 

 capable. No person is naturally exempted from taking up arms in 

 defence of the State ; the obligation of every member of society being 

 the same. Those alone are exempted who are incapable of handling 

 .arms, or supporting the fatigues of war. This is the reason why old 

 anen, children, and women are exempted." (45 St. R. 285.) 



His opinion was potential with members of Congress to induce the pas- 

 .sage of the act of Congress of March 3d, 1863, authorizing the President, 

 iduring the rebellion, to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. A letter 

 from Senator Sumner declared his argu.ment conclusive, and it was effec- 

 itive in passing the act . 



The labors of the Judge were mostly in the well trodden highways of 

 tire law, and his merit consists mainly in knowing well, and keeping to 

 that beaten track. The charm of novelty and new discovery are seldom to 

 reward the industry of the Judge. The merit of adherence to precedents 

 will be easily understood by the layman who has invested the earnings of 

 his life on the opinion of counsel, which opinion must be based on judicial 

 decisions, if succeeding judges can declare the law to be otherwise than it 

 had been held ; for such decision pronounces the law for the past as well as 

 for the future, and the citizen may thus lose the law that protected his title 

 by the decision of a cause in which he was not heard. Judge Read was a 

 faithful adherent to established precedent, and hence was an eminently 

 safe and conservative judge. 



This is not the place to enumerate the many contributions made by 

 him from the great treasury of British and American law, to the body of 

 the law of Pennsylvania. A notice of a few of these must suffice for an 

 estimate of the value of the judicial services of Judge Read. The pro- 

 fession and the public are indebted to him for the first step made for the 



