this country, still preserved by the Penn sylvania Historical Society, speaks in the highest terms of him. Penn in his letter recommended him as Chief-Justice of his colony, but the people did not take kindly to the English lawyer. They refused to pay him any salary; but as he was appointed ChiefJustice for New York as well as New Jersey, it is presumable that he did not suffer for lack of funds. He became a member of Lord Cornbury's Council, and played a most conspicuous part in the politics as well as in the jurisprudence of the colony. There are no reports of his decisions, but the min utes of the Supreme Court are exceedingly full and minute. There are the records of some indictments presented in his court which may be an index to the manner in which he presided and dispensed justice. Very soon after Lord Cornbury became governor, quarrels originated between him and the citizens of the State and the popu lar branch of the Legislature. The English practice relative to indictments was, at first, adopted by the Chief-Justice. The witnesses were sworn in open court; the bills of indict ment were drawn and presented to the grand jury. At the second term of the court sev eral of these indictments were prepared in this way and given to the grand jury. The charges in these indictments were most pe culiar, — they were all for seditious words spoken of the Governor. In one case these were the words which were deemed so sedi tious as to make the utterer liable to pun ishment : " The Governor had dissolved the Assembly, but they could get another just as good; and if the Governor liked it not, he might go from whence he came." Another indictment was for uttering these words : " I will give you a pot of beer to vote for the old Assemblymen, because they would give Lord Cornbury no more than thirty-five hundred pounds, which his Lordship made a huff at." There were two indictments against the same man; one for saying " that the Assembly could have done their busi ness well enough, but that the Governor dis
solved it, which he was satisfied was because they would not give him money enough;" the other was for these words, "that Colonel Morris was dismissed from being of the Council by my Lord, but that it was more than my Lord had power to do." The grand jury, to their honor be it said, ignored these indictments. The Governor, however, was determined not to be balked. His AttorneyGeneral was instructed to file informations, which was done in all the cases in the very words of the indictments. It was neces sary, before informations could be filed, that leave to file must be obtained from the court. This leave was granted, and the defendants were tried. One of them moved to post pone his trial until the next term of the court. The postponement was granted, but upon terms, — first, that he should plead issuably; second, that he should enter into recognizance to appear at the next term; and third, that he should give security to keep the peace and to be of good behavior. The defendant refused to comply with these conditions. The court, instead of ordering on the trial, committed him for contempt, charg ing him with abusing the queen's witnesses. Another defendant submitted to trial, but refused to swear any witnesses in his own behalf. The jury rendered a verdict of guilty, but the court did not dare pronounce judgment, and sentence was never imposed. At the next term one of the other defendants was tried and acquitted, but the court refused to discharge him until he paid the costs of prosecution. The utter subservience of the Chief-Justice to his master the Gov ernor was fully manifested through all these trials. Very little is known of the private char acter of Mompesson; and he may be dis missed with the remark that he gained no credit as a lawyer, no glory as a judge, by his discharge of the duties of first ChiefJustice of New Jersey. At last Lord Cornbury became so out rageous in his deportment that complaint was made to the queen, and in 1710 he was
