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bear his name. They are among the earliest of American reports, and are regarded as ahnost per- fect models of legal reporting. Soon after 1830 Mr. Binney's health began to be impaired, and he de- sired to withdraw from the courts and throw off the business that op- pressed him. It was this, in part, that made him willing to accept a nomination for congress; butthere was doubtless an- other reason that influenced him — the hostility of President Jack- son to the United States bank. The veto of the bill for its recharter aroused the deep-

feeling of almost the entire

business community of Philadelphia, and with that community Mr. Binney was closely associated, while his ability, com- bined with his well-known knowledge of the con- dition and operations of the bank, pointed him out as the fittest man to defend the institution in con- gress. He accepted a nomination, and was elected to the 23d congress. In the consideration of great subjects, notably that of the removal of the public deposits from the United States bank, he proved himself to be a statesman of high rank and an ac- complished debater. But official life was distaste- ful to him, and he declined a re-election. On his return to Philadelphia he refused all professional engagements in the courts, though he continued to give written opinions iipon legal questions until 1850. Many of these opinions are still preserved. They relate to titles to real estate, to commercial questions, to trusts, and to the most abstruse sub- jects in every department of the law. They are model exhibitions of profound and accurate knowl- edge, of extensive research, of nice discrimination, and wise conclusion, and they were generally ac- cepted as of almost equal authority with judicial decision. Once only after 1836 did Mr. Binney appear in the courts. In 1844, by appointment of the city councils of Philadelphia, he argued in the supreme court of the United States the case of Bidal vs. Girard's executors, in which was involved the validity of the trust created by Mr. Girard's will for the establishment and maintenance of a college for orphans. The argument is in print, a,nd it is still the subject of admiration by the legal profession in this country, and almost equally so by the profession in Great i3ritain. It lifted the law of charities out of the depths of confusion and obscurity that had covered it, and while the ful- ness of its research and the vigor of its reasoning were masterly, it was clothed with a precision and & beauty of language never surpassed. The argu- ment was a fitting close to a long and illustrious professional life. Mr. Binney had a fine, com- manding person, an uncommonly handsome face, & dignified and graceful manner, and a most melo- dious voice, perfectly under his control, and modu- lated with unusual skill. In fine, he was in all particulars a most accomplished lawyer. No words can better describe him than those which he ap- plied to a great man, the friend of his early manhood : " He was an advocate of great power ; a master of every question in his causes ; a wary tactician in the management of them ; highly accomplished in language ; a faultless logician"; a man of the purest integrity and the highest honor ; fluent without the least volubility ; concise to a degree that left every one's patience and attention unimpaired, and perspicuous to almost the lowest order of understanding, while he was dealing with almost the highest topics." If it be added to this that his mental power was equal to the comprehension of any legal subject, that his mode of presentation was the best possible, that his rhetoric was faultless, that he had an aptness of illustration that illuminated the most abstruse subjects, and a personal character without a visible flaw, it will be seen that he must have been, as he was, a most persuasive and convincing advocate. In 1827, by invitation of the bar of Philadelphia, he delivered an address on the life and character of Chief-Justice Tilghman ; and in 1835, complying with a request of the select and common councils of the city, an address on the life and character of Chief- Justice Marshall. Until the close of his life he was a constant reader and an indefatigable student. He kept himself well informed of current events, and in regard to all public questions he not only sought information, but matured settled opinions. In 1858 he published a sketch of the life and character of Justice Bushrod Washington, in which he delineated the qualities that make up a perfect nisi prius judge, with singular acuteness. In the same year he published sketches of three leaders of the old Philadelphia bar, which were greatly admired. He also in 1858 gave to the press a more extended discussion, entitled "An Inquiry into the Formation of Washington's Farewell Address," strikingly illustrative of the character of his own mind, and of his habits of investigation and reasoning. And in 1862 and in 1863 he published three pamphlets in support of the power claimed by President Lincoln to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. His argument was not less remarkable than the best of his earlier efforts. Throughout his life Mr. Binney manifested a deep interest in many literary, scientific, and art institu- tions of Philadelphia, and in many of the noblest charities. He was also an earnest Christian, a de- vout member of the Protestant Episcopal church, and often a leading member of its conventions. The activity of his mind remained undiminished until his death. This occurred forty years after the age when most men are at the zenith of their reputation, forty years after he had substantially retired from public view and from participation in all matters that attract public notice, and at the end of a period when public recollection of most lawyers has faded into indistinctness. — His son, Horace, Jr., la^v}'er, b. in Philadelphia, 21 Jan., 1809 ; d. there, 3 Feb., 1870, was graduated at Yale in 1828, studied law with his father, and practised his profession in his native city from his admission to the bar in 1831, confining himself mostly to chamber consultations. In early life he took a deep interest in municipal politics. He was president of the Philadelphia associates of the sani- tary commission, founder of the union league of that city, and president of the association at the time of his death. A memoir of Mr. Binney, read before the American philosophical society, 6 May, 1870, by Charles J. Stille, has been published.

BINNS, John, journalist, b. in Dublin, Ireland, 22 Dec, 1772: d. m Philadelphia, Pa., 16 June, 1860. He received a good education, but, becoming involved in the revolutionary movement in Ireland,