year. The subject of instruction of law was again permitted to pass into oblivion, until, on April 2, 1850, the Hon. George Sharswood, then President Judge of the District Court of Philadelphia, was elected Professor of Law; and on September 30 of that year, he delivered his introductory lecture. On May 4, 1852, the Trustees of the University established a Faculty of Law, and appointed Judge Sharswood Professor of International, Constitutional, Commercial, and Civil law; Peter McCall, Esq., Professor of Practice, Pleading, and Evidence at Law and in Equity; and E. Spencer Miller, Esq., Profes sor of the Law of Real Estate, Conveyan cing, and Equity Jurisprudence. From that day down to the present time the Law School has been in active operation. Pro fessor McCall having resigned on June 5, i860, P. Pemberton Morris, Esq., was, in November, 1862, chosen as his successor. In 1868, Judge Sharswood having been promoted to the Bench of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the Hon. J. I. Clark Hare, his successor as President Judge of the District Court of Philadelphia (now the Court of Common Pleas, No. 2), was also appointed his successor in the Faculty of the Law School. Professor Miller hav ing resigned his professorship in 1872, E. Coppee Mitchell, Esq., was, in 1873, elected to the Chair of Real Estate and Equity Jurisprudence. In February, 1874, James Parsons, Esq., was elected Professor of the Law of Personal Relations and Personal Property. Professor Morris having resigned in 1880, George Tucker Bispham, Esq., was elected the Professor of Equity Pleading and Practice. Professor Mitchell having died in 1887, C. Stuart Patterson was elected Professor of Real Estate and Con veyancing; and A. Sydney Biddle, Esq., was elected Professor of Practice, Plead ing, and Evidence at Law, and Criminal Law. To the great loss of the school, and to the great regret of his colleagues, and of all who have ever had the benefit of his instruction in the law, Judge Hare has re
cently resigned his professorship, and his successor is to be elected in the month of May of this year; but, fortunately for the ad ministration of justice, he remains upon the bench of the Court of Common Pleas over which he has presided since 1868. In addi tion to the changes in the personnel of the Faculty, changes have been from time to time made in the division and arrangement of the subjects of instruction in the school; and at the present time the titles of the sev eral chairs in the Faculty are as follows: — 1. A Professorship of Commercial Law, Practice and Decedents' Estates; incum bent, Prof. James Parsons. 2. A Professorship of Equity Jurispru dence, including the Principles of and Plead ing in Equity and Orphans' Court Practice; incumbent, Prof. George Tucker Bispham. 3. A Professorship of Constitutional Law, and the Law of Real Property and Con veyancing; incumbent, 'Prof. C. Stuart Patterson. 4. A Professorship of the Law of Torts, Evidence, and Practice at Law; incumbent, Prof. A. Sydney Biddle. 5. A Professorship of the Law of Con tracts, Corporations, and Pleading at Law, to be filled by election. 6. A Professorship of Criminal Law, to be filled by election. The present prosperity of the school is due to the intelligent and self-sacrificing la bors of those who have heretofore been its professors and those who were associated with them. It is fitting, therefore, that those who have succeeded them should gratefully record their appreciation of the virtues and abilities of their predecessors. George Sharswood, the first of the profes sors, was born in Philadelphia on July 7, 1810. He was graduated from the Univer sity in 1828. Having studied law with the Hon. Joseph R. Ingersoll, he was admitted to the bar on Sept. 5,. 1831. On April 18, 1845, he was raised to the bench of the District Court of Philadelphia. In 1848 he became by seniority the presiding judge of
