AF AAG INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS JDI OF THE SESSION OF 1878-9 OF THE LAW DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. BY HON. DANIEL AGNEW LL. D. CHIEF JUSTICE OF PENNSYLVANIA. PRINTED BY REQUEST OF THE CLASS. PHILADELPHIA: LEGAL INTELLIGENCER OFFICE, 132 S. SIXTH STREET, CORRESPONDENCE. PHILADELPHIA, October 6, 1878. To the Hon. DANIEL AGNEW, LL. D. DEAR SIR:-At a meeting of the students of the Law Department of the University of Pennsylvania, held Thursday, October 3d, remarks were made expressive of the interest, pleasure, and profit experienced from listening to your Introductory Lecture, and a Committee was appointed to ask your permission to have printed, in pamphlet form, for distribution among the students and friends of the Department, your very admirable Address. Hoping for a favorable reply, we remain, Respectfully, your obedient and thankful servants, H. LAUSSAT GEYELIN, Chairman. LINCOLN L. EYRE, WILLIAM J. SMYTH, GEO. STANLEY PHILLER, FRANCIS A. LEWIS, JR. PITTSBURGH, October 10, 1878. GENTLEMEN :-Yours of the 7th inst. has been forwarded to me at this place. I take pleasure in acquiescing in your request for publication. I delivered the MSS. to Professor Mitchell, and considered it then at his disposal. With great respect, H. LAUSSAT GEYELIN, and others, Committee, Philadelphia, Pa. Yours Truly, DANIEL AGNEW. ADDRESS. I SHALL not speak to-day upon any special topic, but shall rather attempt to impart my own thoughts on various subjects germane to the experience of a lawyer. Of topics and books a student will have enough, but of the every-day knowledge of a lawyer he can have none, unless he draws it from those who have trodden the professional pathway before him. The fact that this is a Department of the University of Pennsylvania suggests my first thought. The University is an old institution of the State, and its Law Department leads our minds to the contemplation of Pennsylvania jurisprudence. The founder of the colony, though the subject of a king, brought with him the sentiments and notions of a republican. In all his great acts as a leader he mingled the spirit of freedom, justice, personal rights, and public good. The common law of England, as a system of principles, and the statute, so far as applicable to the new situation, became the basis of the colonial law, yet these were so modified as to maintain the fundamental rights of men, and to partake of the qualities which inspired his mind. When independence came, they entered into the texture of the Constitution, forming the framework of the State government. This love of justice, untrammeled by harsh law, and |