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of entertaining a thought of any other. ... If I had obtained a Girl with a considerable fortune, no doubt this world would have pronounced me hap pier . . . but ... I must beg here to say I am a better Judge for myself. ... Be pleased, sir, to let me know your sentiments of this affair. ... I am anxious to know my Fate. The impeachment of Chief-Justice Shippen, along with his associates Yeates and

Smith, JJ., is the most interesting event of his history. The re port of their trial and acquittal fills 491 pages. The direct cause of the proceed ings was the court's committing a man for contempt. Chief-Jus tice McKean's view of this power in a court to enforce its dignity has been seen. It was a power peculiarly necessary in the early independence of the nation. An ignorant and ag gressive spirit in the Assembly produced in the mind of that body the hallucination that its enactments could WILLIAM not be weighed by the judges and found wanting on the score of constitutionality. These legislators were slow in learning their place; and were continually galled at feeling the judicial check put upon their raw meas ures. There were members of the Assembly in those days who knew their constituents would like them all the better for taking a fling at decency. Hence, on the 28th of February, 1803, these saloon patriots pre sented a case " pregnant with so many alarm ing consequences to the rights and liberties of the people," that it took some two thousand words to say what it was. A certain Thomas

Passmore, smarting under some exceptions taken in a case he had against one Bayard and another, wrote up a notice on a coffee house in which his opponent was character ized as a liar, etc., and an implication made that by the court's help he was resorting to every "device" to keep him three months more without his money. He was com mitted for contempt for thirty days; upon this there was a clamor about the "odious doctrine of contempt," the " hated and exploded " Eng lish common law, and much else. Several of the reputable lawyers declined to touch the people's case. The justices were defended by Mr. Dallas and Mr. Ingersoll. Dur ing the proceedings, which lasted into 1805, Judge Bracken ridge was appointed to the bench. He had not been included in the impeachment, but sig nified his opinion that the law justified the court's action, and re quested to share the TILGHMAN. fate of his brethren, if they were guilty. The Legislature instantly asked Governor Thomas McKean to remove one so offensive to the people. Promptly getting a refusal to this monstrous demand, they called his attention to the phrase in the Constitution "may remove," informing him that in such cases it meant " must remove." " I 'll have you know," said Thomas McKean, that "may" sometimes means " won't." On Monday, Jan. 28, 18C5, the justices were acquitted. Few anecdotes are told of the Chief-Jus tice; but Mr. Lewis records that Molly Cobb, an ancient housekeeper of the Shippens,