three sitting in bank, where they would review each
others decisions on appeal.

When the state was admitted into the Union the judiciary was made to
consist of a chief justice and two associate justices, who constituted
the supreme court, with a jurisdiction exclusively appellate, and a
district judge for each district. As the state has grown in population
and business, the supreme court judges have been increased to five and
the judicial districts to eighteen in number, two of which, the second
and the fourth, have six judges each, the eleventh three, the first and
seventh two each, and the remainder one each.

The practice adopted by the territorial legislature was generally
similar to that of the New York code, with such differences as were
necessary to conform it to a very new country. From a residence in the
territory and state of forty-seven years, nearly all of which has been
spent either in practice at the bar or as a judge on the bench, I take
pride in saying that the judiciary of Minnesota, in all its branches,
both territorial and state, has, during its fifty years of existence,
equalled in ability, learning and integrity that of any state in the
West, which is well attested by the seventy-seven well filled volumes of
its reported decisions.

Nearly all of the old lawyers of Minnesota were admitted to practice at
the first term held at Stillwater, among whom were Morton S. Wilkinson,
Henry L. Moss, Edmund Rice, Lorenzo A. Babcock, Alexander Wilkin,
Bushrod W. Lott, and many others. Of the whole list, Mr. Moss is the
sole survivor.

FIRST TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE.

The first legislature convened at St. Paul on Monday, the 3d of
September, 1849, in the Central House, which for the occasion served for
both capitol and hotel. The quarters were limited, but the legislature
was small. The council had nine members and the house of representatives
eighteen. The usual officers were elected, and on Tuesday afternoon both
houses assembled in the dining-room of the hotel. Prayer was offered by
the Rev. E. D. Neill, and Governor Ramsey delivered his message, which
was well received both at home and abroad.

It may be interesting to give the names of the men constituting this
body, and the places of their nativity. The councillors were:

James S. Norris, Maine.
Samuel Burkleo, Delaware.
William H. Forbes, Montreal.
James McBoal, Pennsylvania.