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the law to be the most certain and direct path to distinction and influence.

On the study of this profession he entered with his usual industry and ardour, under the direction and auspices of Andrew Hamilton, Esq. of Philadelphia, one of the most eminent characters at the American bar. And such was the effect of his unwearied application, engaging manners, and propriety of deportment, that the able preceptor was soon converted into the intimate companion and the generous friend. In consequence of his splendid talents and commanding popularity, Mr. Hamilton was pressed with an unwieldy load of professional business. But in a short time it was his good fortune to have this load not a little lightened by the aid he received from his favourite pupil. For I am authorized to assert that he frequently confided to Mr. Chew, while yet a student, the investigation and arrangement of cases both intricate in their nature and important in their object-cases, in the issue of which his own interest and reputation were essentially concerned. If my information be correct (and considering the source from whence it is derived there is no cause to doubt it) there has seldom existed between a preceptor and a pupil an intercourse more friendly, a confidence more unlimited, or a reciprocity of services more conspicuously useful. It will not be deemed an unwarrantable digression to remark, that the confidence with which a pupil inspires his preceptor, and the satisfaction he affords him in the discharge of the offices and duties entrusted to his care, may be, and generally are, regarded as an earnest of the attention and fidelity with which he will acquit himself of his subsequent duties and offices in life. Did this truth stand in need of illustration or proof, it might well receive it from the fair example now under consideration.

But the relationship and intercourse between Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Chew were doomed to be as short-lived as they were pleasing and honourable. For before the latter had completed the term of his pupilage, the former had filled up the measure of his days. Yet even that event, melancholy and mournful as it was, afforded decisive evidence of the strength and immutability of their attachment and regard. Mr. Chew felt and mani

fested the affliction of a son at the death of his preceptor, while Mr. Hamilton employed some of his last accents in expressions of esteem and paternal affection for his youthful friend.

From the pressure of this heavy and unlooked for loss in friendship, connected with an application to business and to study too unremitting and too severe for the strength of his constitution, Mr. Chew soon began to suffer materially in his health. For the re-establishment of this he was advised to change his climate and habits, by making a voyage to a foreign country. With this advice he readily complied, determining at the same time, to render his visit abroad subservient to the completion of his education in the science of law. He accordingly set sail for England in the autumn of 1743, and soon after his arrival in London, entered himself of the middle Temple.

To a mind ardent and aspiring as his, this could not fail to be an arrangement fraught with the highest degree of interest and delight. For he was now in a situation to which his ambition and his love of knowledge had long taught him to look with the proudest anticipation. In relation to sources of knowledge, all he had hitherto desired and fancied, appeared to be now realized. With regard to the cultivation of professional science in particular, he found himself in the midst of advantages equal to the utmost his imagination could conceive. From the fatigues of ransacking libraries rich in the experience, learning, and wisdom of ages, he could now turn and receive at once instruction and delight from the pleadings of counsellors the most eloquent, and the decisions of judges the most enlightened and profound, the world could at that time produce. Even his common recreations and amusements could be rendered tributary to the object of his ambition-I mean his advancement in the knowledge of law.

Nor did it comport with his inextinguishable and praiseworthy thirst after eminence in his profession, to suffer these opportunities to pass unimproved. On the other hand, with such assiduity did he cultivate them, and with such effect did he treasure up the information they were calculated to impart, as to acquire, in a short time, the most flattering distinction among his associates in science. He was regarded as a young American whose talents, acquirements, and exemplary deportment were alike honourable to himself and to his native country. The proudest and most prejudiced of the European philosophers could have derived from his character and standing no evidence (nor even any supposed evidence) of the deterioration of man in the western hemisphere. They must have been forced to acknowledge, however reluctantly, that in all the higher attributes of our nature, he was fully equal to their own countrymen; and, what, no doubt, appeared still more extraordinary to them and more humiliating to their self-conceit, not inferior even to themselves.

During his residence abroad, Mr. Chew had the good fortune to become known to, and to contract intimacies with, some of the most distinguished characters of the day; characters who both then and subsequently acted a very conspicuous part in the affairs of Europe. These intimacies continued to be afterwards fostered and kept alive by such an uninterrupted series of letters, kind offices, and courteous civilities, as can be reciprocated only by liberal and elevated minds. But of all his European intimacies and friendships, those contracted with the Penns, the proprietary family of Pennsylvania, proved to himself the most honourable and useful. Theywere honourable to him, because they furnished evidence of the high confidence and esteem his manners and character were calculated to inspire; and they were useful, because they became instrumental in his future promotions, by procuring for him several office and appointments of profit and trust.

Before the expiration of the term which Mr. Chew had contemplated spending in his studies and travels abroad, he was prematurely recalled to his native country by the melancholy occurrence of the death of his father. In this event he experienced a double loss-a deep wound in his filial affections, and a check to the pleasing and highly profitable career of improvement he had promised himself from a longer residence in Europe. But he submitted with resignation and fortitude to the stroke, and instead of repining at what he could not remedy, thought only of turning to the best account the attainments of which he was already possessed. In this he manifested a resolu

tion and temper of mind equally becoming the christian and the

man.

Though Mr. Chew had, at this time, but little more than emerged from a state of minority, yet had he already acquired a distinction and a maturity of reputation, which very soon raised him into public life. His first appointment was to a seat in the legislature of what was then known by the name of the three lower counties, but is now denominated the State of Delaware. At that peaceful and happy period, party feuds and rivalships were in a great measure unknown, and places of distinction and public trust, not yet become the prescriptive inheritance of charlatans and demagogues, were bestowed almost exclusively on superior eminence and worth. Under these circumstancesit was peculiarly honourable to so young a man as Mr. Chew, that he was elected speaker of the house of representatives. To this station he was successively preferred, as long as he chose to accept of a seat in the house.

In the year 1754, yielding to the impetus of that vortex which draws men of talents into large cities, Mr. Chew removed to the city of Philadelphia. His high reputation having long preceded him, as herald to his entry, it was here that his public career may be more emphatically said to have begun. If he did not immediately become himself the most popular and influential character in the [then) province of Pennsylvania, he certainly took rank with those that were so. From this period public honours and appointments were conferred on him in profusion so great, and with such rapidity of succession, that to enumerate them all might look like ostentation. Nor were these places of honour and trust either offered as bribes orgiven in commutation for an exclusive devotion to any political sect or party. They were bestowed as the high rewards of high personal and public deservings.

Some of the principal appointments conferred on Mr. Chew it cannot be deemed inadmissible to mention. They were, attorney general of the province of Pennsylvania, the arduous and important duties of which he discharged with ability and applause, during a period of more than seventeen years-Member of the governor's council for the province of Pennsylvania, a station which introduced him to an active and conspicuous part in most of the leading occurrences of the day-Recorder of the city of Philadelphia. On this office he conferred dignity, reputation and effect, from the year 1755 to the year 1772-Register general of wills for the province of Pennsylvania. To this office he was appointed in the year 1765, and continued in the discharge of the duties and functions appertaining to it, till it was merged in the new order of things that arose out of our revolutionary commotions. Chief justice of the supreme court of Pennsylvania. This appointment he received in the year 1774, and held it till the year 1776, when it also sunk in the revolutionary tempest. During this short, but highly responsible period of his life, his judicial proceedings were marked by an enlightened wisdom, and his general conduct was patriotic and exemplary. In his official intercourse with the gentlemen of the bar, dignity was mingled with courteous affability, and despatch of business and strictness of rule were made compatible with a spirit of accommodation and indulgence. In relation to suitors and criminals, justice was blended with lenity and mercy, for the unbending firmness of the judge, was happily tempered by the clemency of the man. all his measures,and in all his decisions, the cynosure of his actions was the principle of right, combined with a most sacred Jegard for the public good.

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On the first commencement of our revolutionary struggles, it did not comport with the character of Mr. Chew to balance between principle and interest, nor did he pause for a moment as to the party he should join. A decided enemy to oppression in every form; and actuated by an unconquerable love of freedom, he promptly enrolled himself with the patriots of the day, and was second to none of them in his firm and manly opposition to the lawless encroachments of the British ministry. Though not himself called to a seat in the supreme council of the nation, yet from his intimacy with, and his influence over, several of the leading members of the first and second congress, his sentiments and advice on public affairs, were mingled liberally and without concealment with the deliberations of that august and patriotic body. He not only approved of the manly and dignified measures they pursued, but had, on sundry occasions,

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