It was the more unfortunate they should have early fallen in a difficulty with the chief justice.

The original ground of this is supposed to be a difference of opinion as to the import of the Berlin Act, on which, as a layman, it would be unbecoming if I were to offer an opinion.

But it must always seem as if the chief justice had suffered himself to be irritated beyond the bounds of discretion.

It must always seem as if his original attempt to deprive the commissioners of the services of a secretary and the use of a safe were even senseless; and his step in printing and posting a proclamation denying their jurisdiction were equally impolitic and undignified.

The dispute had a secondary result worse than itself.