tories depending thereon, and maritime parts of the same, and thereto adjacent whatsoever.

Saving always the right of our High Court of Admiralty of England, and also of the Judge and Register of the said Court, from whom or either of them, it is not our intention in any thing to derogate by these presents; and saving to every one who shall be wronged or grieved by any definitive sentence or interlocutory decree, which shall be given in the Vice Admiralty Court of our province of F aforesaid, and the territories depending thereon, the right of appealing to our aforesaid High Court of Admiralty of England.

Provided nevertheless, and under this express condition, that if you, the aforesaid A. B. our Captain General and Governor in Chief, shall not yearly, to wit, at the end of every year, between the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel and All Saints duly certify, and cause to be effectually certified (if you shall be thereunto required) to us, and our Lieutenant Official, Principals, and Commissary-General and Special, and Judge and President of the High Court of our Admiralty of England aforesaid, all that which from time to time, by virtue of these presents, you shall do and execute, collect, or receive in the premises, or any of them, together with your full and faithful account thereupon, to be made in an authentic form, and sealed with the Seal of our Office, remaining in your custody, that from thence, and after default therein, these our Letters Patent of the Office of Vice Admiralty aforesaid, as above granted, shall be null and void, and of no force or effect.

Further we do, in our name, command all and singular our Governors, Justices, Mayors, Sheriffs, Captains, Marshals, Bailiffs, Keepers of all our Goals and Prisons, Constables, and all other our Officers and faithful liege subjects whatsoever, and every of them, as well within liberties and franchises as without, that in and about the execution of the premises, and every of them, they be aiding, favouring, assisting, submissive, and yield obedience, in all things as is

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fitting to you, the aforesaid A. B. our Captain-General and Governor in Chief of our province of F aforesaid, and to your Deputy whomsoever, and to all other Officers by you appointed, and to be appointed, of our said Vice Admiraity of F aforesaid, and the territories depending thereon, and maritime parts of the same, and thereto adjoining, under pain of the law, and the peril which will fall thereon.

Given at London, in the High Court of our Admiralty of England aforesaid, under the Great Seal thereof, &c.

II.

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE OPENING OF THE

LAW ACADEMY OF PHILADELPHIA, BEFORE THE TRUSTEES AND MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF LEGAL KNOWLEDGE. IN THE HALL OF THE SUPREME COURT, ON WEDNESDAY. THE 21ST OF FEBRUARY, 1821. BY PETER S. DUPONCEAU, LL. D. PROVOST OF THE ACADEMY.

Mr. President. Gentlemen,

You are assembled for the purpose of witnessing and encouraging by your presence, the incipient efforts of the Law Academy of Philadelphia. Under your patronage we may indulge reasonable hopes of succeeding at least in the attainment of the primary object of its institution, which is no other than to stimulate the exertions of youth, towards acquiring an enlarged and liberal knowledge of the laws of our country. If this honest desire should alone be fulfilled, we shall not have laboured and you will not have bestowed your countenance and your support in vain. But our views extend much farther. We have conceived the ambitious hope of being able, with your powerful assistance, to raise from this humble seed a national school of jurisprudence, worthy of the high reputation which the Pennsylvania bench and bar have justly ac

quired; we are convinced that it is in your power to raise our infant institution, by proper degrees, to this honourable rank, and make it gradually expand, until its beneficial influence shall be felt in the remotest parts of our union. This we believe you can do, because a national seminary of legal knowledge is absolutely wanted in this country; and cannot be much longer dispensed with; because the central situation of this city points it out as the fittest spot for such an establishment, and because there are talents here collected fully adequate to the important task.

And why should not this honourable design meet with success equal to our wishes? What are the mighty obstacles in its way, if we have but the fixed will and a firm determination to persevere in our undertaking? Look at that medical school, the pride of our city and the honour of our country! Look back to the time when it was first instituted, when the population of Philadelphia hardly amounted to twenty thousand souls, when there was but little communication between the thinly populated provinces of the British American Empire, and when it was still fashionable to believe that a regular education in any of the great branches of science could only be acquired in the schools of the mother country. How difficult, how impracticable, how extravagant, I may say, must not the plan have appeared to vulgar and to timid minds? But Shippen and Morgan and Rush, the illustrious founders of that noble institution, thought other