1874.] ^*^ [Price. 



security of title, under our modern acts of limitation, in holding when' 

 sitting alone, that a purchaser will be compelled in equity to take a title 

 dependent upon the statutes of limitation for its validity. (6 Pha. R. 185.) 

 One of these statutes removed all exceptions on account of the disability 

 of the claimant, after thirty years' adverse possession. That decision 

 was followed by corresponding decisions by the Supreme Court. (17 St. 

 R. 396; 65 St. R. 55.) 



When Pittsburgh City and Allegheny County made default in the pay- 

 ment of their bonds. Judge Read united heartily with his brethren of the 

 Supreme Court to compel those municipalities to meet their obligations, 

 requiring them to lay taxes for that purpose. In his opinion on one of 

 those cases, he says, "Whatever may be said as to the individuality of 

 acts of officers and agents outside of their authority is wide of the mark, 

 when attempted to be applied to defective execution within the sphere 

 of authority. The one may be void, but every principle of justice, as 

 every presumption, forbids such conclusion in the other case." Those 

 dealing with officials are not to suffer by their irregularity. "Public 

 business could never be done under such a system. There must be faith 

 in public servants within the scope of their authority, or public business 

 must stop. For defective execution, the public, whose servants they are, 

 must suffer, not innocent pai'ties." (37 St. R. 287-8.) 



Judge Read is entitled to especial praise for the part he took in saving 

 special trusts to the jurisprudence of Pennsylvania. Since 1829 a series 

 of decisions made by the Supreme Court had established the law giving 

 validity to special trusts to protect the improvident, helpless, or inca- 

 pable, by the interposition of trustees. In 1856 there was commenced a 

 counter course of decisions that threatened to deprive parents and bene- 

 factors of the power of safely making provision for the unfortunate and 

 helpless. This is a power that all considerate persons would be likely to 

 consider an indispensable one for the welfare of civilized society ; yet its 

 existence in our law was threatened. In 1864 the Supreme Court had the 

 opportunity of arresting the downward course of decision, in the case of 

 Barnett's Appeal (46 St. R. 892.), and to Judge Read was assigned the 

 duty of writing the opinion of the Court. He says: " The principal error 

 is in laying down as the law of Pennsylvania, that a trust to receive rents 

 and pay them to another is executed, although not an use executed by 

 the Statute of Uses, but ai-ising from some general principle inherent in 

 the common law of the State. This is not supported by authority." 

 The Judge then proceeds to review the course of decisions prior to the 

 innovations, and restores them into authority ; and, with slight modifi- 

 cation or exception, these remain in authority down to the latest decision 

 of the Supreme Court. The opinion concludes : "The question then is, 

 shall the settled law of Pennsylvania, as to trusts, remain as it was un- 

 derstood by all our tribunals and the Bar, and had been received since 

 the foundation of the Province to within the last eight years, or are we, 

 without the sanction of the Legislature, entirely to uproot it, and substi- 



