OF THE

AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

HELD AT PHILADELPHIA

FOR

PROMOTING USEFUL KNOWLEDGE

Vol. XVI.

JANUARY 1876 TO MAY 1877.

PHILADELPHIA :

PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY

BY M'CALLA & STAVELY.

Sm 1877.

[Strong.

Jan. 5, 1876.]

A Discourse, illustrative of the life and character of HORACE BINNEY, delivered before the Bar of Philadelphia, the Law Association, and the American Philosophical Society, in the Musical Fund Hall, on the evening of Jan. 5, 1876.

BY JUDGE WILLIAM STRONG.

Forty years ago, in this Hall, on an occasion much like the present, Mr. Binney commenced his eulogy of Chief Justice Marshall with the following remark, "The Providence of God is shown most beneficently to the world, in raising up, from time to time, and in crowning with length of days, men of pre-eminent goodness and wisdom." The thought thus expressed is worthy of recall to-day. At intervals, all along the line of human history, and especially in enlightened communities, men have appeared, who, by their native endowments, their thorough culture, their ceaseless energy, and their moral worth, have raised themselves to a plane above that of their fellows; men who have been in advance of all their cotemporaries, and to whom the rank of leaders has been universally conceded. Such

PROC. AMER. PHILOS. Soc. XVI. 97. A