330 TRAVELS THROUGH" NORTH AMERICA: 
On entering into the courts, a stranger is 
apt to smile at the grotesque appearance of the 
judges who preside in them, and at their man¬ 
ners on the bench ; but this smile must be sup¬ 
pressed when it is recollected* that there is ho 
country, perhaps, in the work], where justice is 
more impartially administered, or more easily 
obtained by those who have been injured. The 
judges in the country parts of Pennsylvania 
are no more than plain fanners, who from their 
infancy, have, been accustomed to little else 
than following the plough. The laws ex¬ 
pressly declare that there must be, at least, 
three judges resident in every county; now as 
'the salary .allowed is but a mere trifle, no law¬ 
yer would accept of the office, which of course 
must be filled from amongst the inhabitants,* 
who are all in a happy state of mediocrity, 
and on a perfect equality with each other. The 
district judge, however, who presides in the 
dishict or circuit, has a larger salary, and is 
a man of a different cast. The district or cir¬ 
cuit consists of-.at least three, but not more than 
six counties. The county judges, which I 
have mentioned, are 44 judges of the court of 
common pleas, and by virtue of their offices' 
44 also justices of oyer and terminer, and ge- 
* This is also the case in Philadelphia, where we find 
practising physicians and surgeons sitting on the bench as 
judges in a court ot justice. 
