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The Court of Appeals of Kentucky. Judge Bibb expressed his own views of the standard a judge should have before him in these words taken from the dedication of the first volume of his reports : "Judges should be learned, in theory and in practice — in abstract principles and in matters of fact — in books of letters and in the book of human nature — in morality and

in the ways of men and their modes of trans acting business. They should be of an in dependent cast of mind and of solid in tegrity. . . . When judges are studious out of court, diligent in court and capable of imparting infor mation to the bar, lawyers will speak less from choice or compulsion, justice will be administered without favor or af fection to the poor and to the rich, order and the reign of laws will be established and equal liberty and general confidence in the rights of prop erty and of industry will be the necessary consequence." born Judge in Prince Bibb was Ed GEORGE ward County, Virginia, in 1776. He was the son of Richard Bibb, a gentleman of wealth who had been educated for the Episcopal min istry. His father had two brothers one of whom removed to Alabama and the other to Georgia. Each became governor of the State of his adoption and also United States senator and each State has a county named for them. In his youth, George M. Bibb had rare opportunities of pursuing his studies. He was a graduate of Hampden-Sidney College

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and also of William and Mary College, the two oldest institutions of learning in Vir ginia. Having taken up the study of the law, he removed with his father in 1799 to Kentucky and he finally located in Frankfort for the practice of his profession. The time of his coming to Kentucky was most auspicious. The dangers that hourly threatened the pioneers of the State had for the most part been dispelled and the wonder ful resources of the new western com monwealth attracted to its borders the best young talent of the east. These formed the bone and sinew of Kentucky's greatness and gave to its- early civiliza tion both chivalry and power. For fifty years after he came to Kentucky, no State in the Union could boast of abler law yers or more accom plished jurists. The enduring value of his own labors is at tested to this day by the courts of м. BIBB. every State. appointed first official reporter In 1815 of theheCourt was of Appeals. Until then no systematic at tempt had been made to report the decisions of that tribunal, although three volumes of reports had been issued by private enterprise. Judge Bibb with his own hand and largely as a labor of love took time from a large prac tice to edit and publish the four volumes of reports bearing his name. The opinions contained in them cover a period from 1808 to 1817 and are a part of the horn-book law of this country.