Horace Binney. a corporation aggregate, composed of citi zens of one State, could sue a citizen of another State in the Federal Courts. By this time his high moral character, — a trait which always distinguished him, and for which in later life he was much revered, — his clearness and force, his persuasive advo cacy, and the thoroughness of his prepara tion were fully recognized. It is curious to note some of the contro versies of that early day. Comm. v. Eberle (3 Serg. & Rawle, 9) grew out of a prose cution for an illegal conspiracy to prevent by means of armed resistance the introduc tion of the English language into the service of the German Lutheran Church, and the principle contended for by Mr. B'mney, — that the government of religious bodies should not be determined by conspiracies to resort to bloodshed and violence, — was fully sustained. In Carson v. Blazer (2 Binney, 272) the English legal definition of a navigable stream, as one in which the tide ebbs and flows, was rejected as being too narrow to apply to the water highways of this country. Several cases relating to the status of slaves arose; while lotteries — then a common means of promoting charitable, social, literary, and religious enterprises — were protected. In Updegraph v. Commonwealth (n Serg. & Rawle, 394), upon an indictment for blas phemy, Christianity was declared to be a part of the common law; while in James v. Commonwealth (12 Serg. & Rawle, 220) an attempt to punish a common scold by the use of the ducking-stool was declared to be illegal, and contrary to the mild and humane principles of American law. It was in the discussion of such questions, as well as those of the law-merchant, and law maritime, prize law and insurance, grow-« ing out of the War of 1812, and also those affecting titles to real estate, both legal and equitable, that Horace Binney gradually at tained the foremost place at the bar. In Lancaster v. Dolan (i Rawle, 231) the court broke away, much to Mr. Binney's regret, from the bonds of English precedents, and
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held that in a settlement for the use of a married woman theferns covert had no powers of disposition or of management except such as were expressly given to her by the settlor •in the instrument of settlement itself. Noth ing was to be taken as granted by implica tion. And in the famous case of Ingersoll v. Sergeant (i Wharton's Rep. 336), which settled in a manner never since doubted the nature of the Pennsylvania ground rent, the admiration of the profession was aroused by the profound learning displayed by Mr. Bin ney in discussing the character and extent of our indebtedness to the feudal system for our titles to land. Before he was fifty years of age he had been twice offered a seat upon the bench of the Supreme Court of the State, but had firmly declined. There can be but little doubt that he would have made a great judge. His written opinions had almost the authority of judicial decisions, and are marked by the most striking features of the best judicial style. Calm, unswerving, and unprejudiced judgment, sagacity, ample learn ing, close and logical reasoning, and language, luminous and exact, predominate. No heat or passion, no sympathy, no delusive imagi nation, no inability to adhere to " the pinch of the case," are discoverable. His utter ances were those of the law, and hence he was consulted as a veritable oracle. But once did he turn to public life, if we disregard a short service in the State Legis lature when a very young man. In 1832 he was elected to Congress, and defended the Charter of the Bank of the United States with a dignity of demeanor and a strength of argument which commanded the admira tion as well as respect of the foes of that doomed institution. " He was very severe upon you, but he spoke like a gentleman and a jurist," was the report of his speech which Andrew Jackson received from a friend whom he had sent into the gallery of the House to note the utterances of this re nowned leader of the Philadelphia Bar. Retiring to private life, after a single term,
