occasion (if apology be needed) for the appearance of his picture among the illustrations of this article.

The influence of the two facts upon the judicature of the State is this. The simplification of procedure, secured by the Act of 1799, was doubtless one of the causes which explains the long satisfaction of the people of the State with the administration of the law by the Superior Courts; for it was not until 1845 that the Supreme Court was organized, though it was authorized by a constitutional amendment in 1835. The influence of the Code has been seen in the decisions of the court. A large body of legal principles is set tied,— formulated in definite shape. A Georgia court need only cite a section of the Code in cases where a judge in another forum would devote several pages to the exposition of the doctrine involved, and reference to authorities support ing the proposition. Doubtless this has diminished the value of Georgia adjudications in other jurisdictions; but it has made the decisions shorter, and has enabled three judges, without committing more than gradual suicide, to keep up term by term with an enormous docket of about six hundred cases per annum.

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THOMAS R. R. COBB

EARLY JUDICIAL HISTORY.

A few words are proper in relation to the judicial system of the State prior to the organization of the Supreme Court. The State was divided into circuits (six in number, afterwards increased to ten), and law and equity was administered by the Superior Courts, presided over by one judge. Fortunately, some of the ablest men in the State held these offices; among others, William H. Crawford, once a cabinet officer and for midable candidate for President; Augustin S. Clayton, afterwards United States Senator; Augustus B. Longstreet, author of the "Georgia Scenes; " Walter T. Colquitt, equally eminent inlaw, politics, and religion, who would argue a case, make a political speech, and preach a sermon all in the same day; John McPherson Berrien, afterwards Attorney-General under President Jackson; Robert M. Charlton, afterwards in the United States Senate; and L. Q C Lamar, the father of the present Justice Lamar of the Supreme Court of the United States. There are no records of the decisions of these courts, except in the Eastern Circuit, from which various decisions made between 1805 and 1811 were reported by T. U. P. Charlton, and from 18 11 to 1837 by R. M. Charlton. To avoid variance between the rulings in different circuits, the judges of the Superior Courts in 1830 "resolved to hold a convention semi-annually for the purpose of advising with each other and discussing freely and fully all questions of a doubtful or complex character, which might arise before each in their respective circuits, and thereby enable each judge to decide such question in the light of the united wisdom of the whole Georgia bench." This was a sort of General Term convened by the voluntary act of the