[265]. A Law Professorship was instituted in the College of Philadelphia, in the year 1790, and the Hon. James Wilson, LL.D. (late one of the associate judges of the supreme court of the United States,) was appointed the first professor: the first course of lectures, under this appointment, was delivered in the winter of 1790-1. In April, 1792, when the College and University became united into one seminary, under the latter title, a Professorship of Law was erected in the new seminary; when Judge Wilson was again appointed to fill that chair: but no Law-lectures were afterwards delivered.
The lectures composed by the able and very learned Judge, for this department of the institution, are given entire in his works, published in three volumes octavo, in the year 1804, by his son Bird Wilson, Esq. president of the seventh judicial district of Pennsylvania.
It is much to be regretted, that this important chair in the University has remained unoccupied, since the death of its late eminent incumbent: For, as he has justly observed, in his Introductory Lecture, “The science of Law should, in some measure and in some degree, be the study of every free citizen, and of every free man. Every free citizen and every free man has duties to perform, and rights to claim. Unless, in some measure, and in some degree, he knows those duties and those rights, he can never act a just and an independent part.”
[266]. In an Account of Dr. Smith, prefixed to his posthumous works, the respectable Editor observes—that “Dr. Smith was actuated by a “zeal bordering on enthusiasm” (as he himself expressed it), in his devotion to the dissemination of literature and science.”
[267]. This University was founded in the year 1480; it consists of two colleges, called the Marischal and the King’s College, under the name of the University of King Charles. The library belonging to this ancient university is large; and in both the colleges, the languages, mathematics, natural philosophy, divinity, &c. are taught by able professors.
[268]. These prelates were, respectively, the Doctors—Secker, Trevor, Thomas, Hume, and Egerton.
[269]. See his Eulogium on Rittenhouse.
[270]. His salary was two thousand dollars per annum.
[271]. A particular instance, of a similar kind, occurred within the knowledge of the Memorialist. Mr. Peter Getz was, lately, a self-taught mechanic of singular ingenuity, in the borough of Lancaster; where he many years exercised the trade of a silver-smith and jeweller, and was remarkable for the extraordinary accuracy, elegance, and beauty of the workmanship he executed. This person was a candidate for the place of chief coiner or engraver in the mint; and, on that occasion, he offered to present to Dr. Rittenhouse, in the summer of 1792, a small pair of scales—such as are commonly called gold-scales—of exquisite workmanship as well as great exactness, as a specimen of his skill as an artist. The Director conceived, that an instrument equally well suited to the use for which this was designed, though less ornamental, could be procured for the mint, if desirable, for less money than this was worth as a matter of curiosity; he would not, therefore, purchase it for the mint: but being determined not to accept it as a present, and desirous at the same time to make compensation to the artist for his work, he insisted on his receiving twenty dollars for the instrument; on payment of which, he retained it himself.
[272]. “Coinage is peculiarly an attribute of sovereignty: to transfer its exercise into another country, is to submit it to another sovereign.” See a Report made to congress, in the year 1790, by Thomas Jefferson, Esq. then secretary of state, on certain Proposals for supplying the United States with Copper Coinage, offered by Mr. John H. Mitchell, a foreign artist.