ter,  under  and  by  which  you  hold  your  offices ;  mark  and  observe  tbe
limits  that  are  traced  round  you."*

We  do  not  pretend  to  analyze  the  leasoning  or  to  do  justice  to  the  elo-
quence  of  a  speech  which,  both  in  argument  and  in  rhetoric,  must  strike
die  obserrer  with  attention  even  in  the  rude  garb  which  a  hasty  report
has  thrown  around  it.  Not  content  with  ezhibitmg  the  utility  of  the
structure  before  him,  and  displaying  the  grounds  on  which  it  was  planted,
he  drew  from  the  stores  of  his  memory  the  history,  not  only  of  its  eiectaon
in  the  state  in  which  he  stood,  but  of  the  formation  in  other  countries  of
those  edifices'  on  whose  model  it  was  built.  The  principle  on  whidi  he
started  was,  the  absolute  independence  of  the  judiciary  of  every  earthly
influence ;  and  though,  tocether  with  the  remaimler  of  those  who  asBUWwd
the  sfune  ground,  he  was  mrced  at  a  subsequent  stage  to  enter  into  a  com*
promise  with  the  more  moderate  of  die  reformers,  he  resolutely  maintained
to  the  close  the  doctrines  he  held  so  essential  to  the  freedom  and  safety  of
the  people.  It  was  found  on  the  meeting  of  the  convention,  that  there  was
a  decided  majority  in  favor  of  a  tenure  l^  term  of  years,  and  as  the  friends
of  the  old  constitutbn  soon  discovered  that  by  themselves  they  would  be
in  an  inefficient  minority,  they  adopted  the  highest  scale  proposed  by  the
opposite  side  of  the  house,  and  with  the  aid  of  a  few  of  the  re&rmers,  estab-
li^ed,  by  a  vote  of  60  to  48,  an  amendment  which  fixed  the  tenure  of  the
judges  of  the  supreme  court  at  fifWn  yeltrs,  and  that  of  all  other  judges
required  to  be  learned  in  the  law,  at  ten.
