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 The Legal World Pennsylvania Honors Gnat Federal Judges

In the presence of a distinguished gathering of men of national affairs, judges, lawyers, and laymen, the tablet erected to the memory of the late Chief Justice John Marshall, and nine por traits of Associate Justices of the United States Supreme Court and Judges of the minor federal judiciary, were un veiled with appropriate ceremonies in the United States Circuit Court of Appeals at Philadelphia Nov. 25. The ceremonies were opened by Justice Lurton, who presided. The first of the exer cises was the presenting of the Marshall tablet by John Cadwalader on behalf of the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Bar Associations. Appropriate addresses were made by those presenting the other portraits. Afterward an historical address was given by Hon. Hampton L. Car son, former Attorney-General of Pennsyl vania, and historian of the United States Supreme Court, on the subject, "A Historical Review of the Sources of Federal Jurisdiction; the Origin, Organi zation, and History of the Federal Courts Constituting the Third Circuit." Mr. Carson described with the vivid ness of the accomplished historian the part played by the third circuit in the formation and growth of the federal judicial system, and instanced many cases arising in this circuit which have great historical significance. He quoted Chancellor Kent's meaty remark that law reports are worthy of being studied even by scholars of taste and general literature as being authentic memorials of the business and manners of the age in which they were composed. We quote the following paragraph from his ad dress: "I confess to a feeling akin to awe when I contemplate the manner in which for a century and a quarter the Federal Judges have, with rare excep

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tions, upheld the independence of the bench, a doctrine which it cost our Eng lish sires six centuries of struggle to acquire, which is secured by the tenure of good behavior, which is safe from the odium of appointing boards and commissions and licenses and privileges which sullies the ermine by the blight of suspicion, whether just or unjust, and which the State Judges, through no fault of their own, are obliged to face under unwise constitutional provisions, lest the power be abused in other hands; that independence which knows no fear, which is no respecter of persons, which cringes to no Government officer, which quakes at no hurricane of popular clamor, which knows nothing about the parties but everything about the cause, which does nothing for the sov ereign, nothing for a patron, but every thing for justice, which dreads no conse quences save the stings of conscience for violated duty, which pronounces judg ment as it is given to finite human under standings to see the law; that indepen dence which is the most precious jewel in the people's treasure chest, which dissipates by its light the darkness of ignorance, and which gives assurance that never will a sober, righteous, and self-respecting people with a full knowl edge of its value, permit the measureless abomination and the unspeakable sacri lege of the judicial recall." Dean Bruce now on the Bench

Andrew Alexander Bruce was sworn in as Justice of the Supreme Court of North Dakota Nov. 1. As Dean of the law school of the University of North Dakota Justice Bruce has long occupied a prominent position in the law-teaching profession, and his articles contributed to legal journals have shown him to possess unusual powers of keen