Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 01.pdf/123

 102

which in such cases hamper and impede the pro gress, he not only sustained himself steadily in his upward flight, but cleaving still loftier and purer fields of reason, he steered his way onward with tranquil ease, reaching, without apparent effort, the end always clearly kept in view. "Judge Sharswood was a living exemplar of the highest moral excellence during his whole term of office. To speak of him as simply an impartial

judge is to express his value in this respect very imperfectly. He was subject to no influences of any kind, other than the influences of the law and the justice of the cause. When on the bench he knew, he saw, nothing but the case before him, and the mode of reaching its correct de cision. It would have been impossible for any other motives, direct or indirect, to have reached him while thus engaged, — they could not even have approached him, or played near him. He was above and beyond them as much as if he had lived in another hemisphere. It was the sentence of the law that he was striving to get at peter to be extracted from the only sources known to the law. Nothing exterior to them could by possibility enter into and color them, while he sat as the guardian of the sacred deposit. "And then what was his devotion to the public service! For nearly forty years he gave to it without stint the exercise of the very highest facul ties, for a return when looked at from a pecuniary standpoint of the meagrest kind. The employ ment of a tithe of the ability displayed by him in the discharge of judicial duty, with an expenditure of time inconsiderable, — almost incommensurable, - with that so prodigally bestowed by him upon the public, would have yielded in return all the

material rewards which men usually rate so highly in this practical age. He held himself completely aloof from such influences. He knew no divided allegiance. He served one mistress, and one only, — the common weal. To her he gave, in early manhood, his affections, his faculties, his health, his strength, his life, without reserve, hesitation, or faltering; and he continued on until the days of his age had passed threescore years and ten. What an example in this age of ours for the juniors of the profession, what a complete volume of Professional Ethics, — this simple, singleminded devotion to the public cause; never turning aside from the course of duty; never using office, as others often have, — if not quite properly, at least with customary sanction, — as a stepping-stone to other ends; never seeking pre ferment, but letting it come, and taking it as the natural result of public consideration! This it was which en titled the Bar, speaking for the whole commu nity, to say to him when sitting for the first time as Chief Justice of the State, " Well done, good mccall. and faithful servant! re ceive the just reward of long and close and heavy service." Peter McCall, second of the professors in the order of seniority, was born in New Jersey on August 31, 1809 Having been graduated at the College of New Jersey, he came to the Philadelphia Bar on Nov. 1, 1830. He died on Nov. 2, 1880. He was for many years one of the leaders of the Philadelphia Bar. Profoundly learned in the law, he was, in his intercourse with all who were brought into contact with him, a model of courtesy.