Opinion of the court. a Supreme or Circuit Court shall bear the teste of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court." The 9th section of the act of Congress organizing the Territory of Montana, approved May 26th, 1864,* provides that "writs of error and appeals from the final decisions of the Supreme Court of said Territory, shall be allowed, and may be taken to the Supreme Court of the United States, in the same manner, and under the same regulations, as from the Circuit Courts of the United States." The present writ of error, as the record showed, was brought to revise the decision of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Montana affirming an order of the District Court of the Third Judicial District of the Territory, by which a motion to set aside a sheriff's return to an execution was allowed, and an alias execution awarded. The writ bore the teste of the clerk of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Montana. Mr. Leech in support of his motion contended, that only "final judgments" could come here, and that what was brought here was not one; and that the teste should have been by the Chief Justice of this court. Mr. F. A. Dick, contra. The CHIEF JUSTICE: We have often held that such orders as that which the Supreme Court of the Territory of Montana affirmed, are within the discretion of the inferior court. They are not final judgments, within the meaning of the Judiciary Act of 1789. Of course they are not within the meaning of the 9th section of the organic act of the Territory. It appears also that the writ of error bears the teste of the clerk of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Montana, and not the teste of the Chief Justice of this court. But the statute * 18 Stat. at Large, 88, 89. † Cook v. Burnley, 11 Wallace, 676 Phillips's Practice, 66. 18 Stat. at Large, 89. Syllabus. makes teste of the Chief Justice indispensable,* and we have no power to change its requirements. On both grounds, therefore, the writ of error must be DISMISSED. PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE CASES. The legislature of Pennsylvania chartered a college "at Canonsburg," by the name of the Jefferson College, "in Canonsburg," giving to it a constitution and declaring that the same should "be and remain the inviolable constitution of the said college forever," and should not be "altered or alterable by any ordinance or law of the said trustees or in any other manner than by an act of the legislature" of Pennsylvania. The college becoming in need of funds put into operation a plan of endowment whereby in virtue of different specific sums named, different sorts of scholarships were created; one, ex. gr., by which on paying $400 a subscriber became entitled to a perpetual scholarship, capable of being sold or bequeathed; and another by which, on payment of $1200, he became entitled to a perpetual scholarship entitling a student to tuition, room-rent, and boarding; this sort of scholarship being capable, by the terms of the subscription, of being disposed of as other property. But nothing was specified in this plan as to where this education, under the scholarships, was to be. On payment of the different subscriptions, certificates were issued by the college, certifying that A. B. had paid $—, which entitled him "to a scholarship as specified in the plan of endowment adopted by the trustees of Jefferson College, Canonsburg," &c. An act of legislature, in 1865, by consent of the trustees of the college at Canonsburg and of the trustees of another college at Washington, Pennsylvania, seven miles from Canonsburg, created a new corporation, consolidating the two corporations, vesting the funds of each in the new one, and in their separate form making them to cease, but providing that all the several liabilities of each, including the scholarships, should be assumed and discharged without diminution or abatement by the new corporation. Notwithstanding the act of Assembly, the collegiate buildings, &c., of Jefferson College were left at Canonsburg, and certain parts of the collegiate course were still pursued there; the residue being pursued at Washington College, Washington. Subsequently, in 1869-the then existing Constitution of Pennsylvania (one adopted in 1857, allowing the legislature of the State "to alter, revoke, or annul any charter of incorporation thereafter granted, whenever in their opinion it may be injurious to the citizens, in such * 1 Stat. at Large, 93. . . Statement of the case. manner, however, that no injustice shall be done to the corporators") ERROR in three different suits to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, there and here, argued and adjudged together; the case being thus: On the 15th of January, 1802, the legislature of Pennsylvania incorporated a college in the western part of Pennsylvania known as Jefferson College. The title of the act "An act for the establishment of a college at Canonsburg, in the county of Washington, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania." was, The preamble set forth that "the establishment of a college at Canonsburg," &c., " for the instruction of youth in the learned languages, in the arts and sciences, and in useful literature, would tend to diffuse information and promote the public good." The statute in its enacting part proceeded: "SECTION 1. That there be erected and hereby is erected and established in Canonsburg, &c., a college, &c., under the management, direction, and government of a number of trustees, not exceeding twenty-one," &c. "SECTION 2. The said trustees and their successors shall forever hereafter be one body politic and corporate, with perpetual succession in deed and in law, to all intents and purposes whatever, by the name, style, and title of 'The Trustees of Jefferson College, in Canonsburg, in the county of Washington.' There was given to the trustees the usual corporate powers, with all other powers, &c., usual in other colleges in the United States. Section 3d provided for meetings of the trustees, "at the Statement of the case. town of Canonsburg," for making by-laws and ordinances for the government of the college, &c., principal and professors, &c. Section 5th provided for the succession in the trustees, how misnomers in gifts or grants by deeds, or in devises or bequests, should be treated; adding, "And the constitution of the said college herein and hereby declared and established, shall be and remain the inviolable constitution of the said college forever, and the same shall not be altered or alterable by any ordinance or law of the said trustees, nor in any other manner than by an act of the legislature of this Commonwealth." In pursuance of this act the Jefferson College was estab lished. Several buildings for a college were erected. The State made donations to the institution from time to time, and from these or other sources a library, as also a chemical and astronomical apparatus, was brought together. In the year 1806, the same legislature incorporated another college, establishing it at the town of Washington, just seven miles from Canonsburg, where the former college had been established. Thus, although in the faculties of both colleges there have been from time to time professors of eminent ability and learning, and though from both colleges have come men who have done honor to the institutions in which they were reared, it yet came to pass-with the multiplicity of colleges throughout the State-that these two, so near to each other, slenderly endowed, and in a part of Pennsylvania until quite late times neither rich nor populous, never thrived; on the contrary, rather labored with existence. Accordingly, in 1853, the trustees of Jefferson College put into operation a plan of endowment whereby ou the payment of $25 the subscriber to the plan became entitled to a single scholarship; on the payment of $50 to a family scholarship; on the payment of $100 to tuition for thirty years; on the payment of $400 to a perpetual scholarship, to be designated by whatever name the subscriber might select; it being provided that such a scholarship might be disposed of by sale or devised by will as any other Statement of the case. property; by the payment of $1200 to a scholarship in full, entitling the holder to the tuition, room-rent, and boarding of one student in perpetuity; it being provided that such a scholarship might be disposed of as any other property. Bat in this "Plan of Endowment," as the paper proposing it was called, nothing was said of education at Canonsburg specifically, though it was declared that when $60,000 were subscribed "the trustees of the college should issue certificates guaranteeing to the subscribers the privileges above enumerated." Of these various scholarships upwards of 1500 were sold. To each of the subscribers to this plan of endowment a certificate in this form was issued under the seal of the corporation: dollars, which en "Endowment Fund of Jefferson College, Pennsylvania. "This certifies that A. B. has paid titles him to the privileges of a scholarship, as specified in the Plan of Endowment adopted by the trustees of Jefferson College, in Canonsburg, in the county of Washington, transferable only on the books of the college, personally or by attorney, on presentation of this certificate. "Witness the seal of said corporation and the signatures of the president and secretary thereof, at Canonsburg, the day A.D. 185. of [CORPORATE SEAL.] "WILLIAM JEFFREY, President. "JAMES MCCULLOUGH, Secretary." But this scheme did not prove an entirely wise one; for though it procured a certain amount of money for an endowment fund, it brought upon the college a large body of students to be educated at rates entirely too low, and the college was deprived of its former resources of tuition fees; always very small, but still much greater than the interest on the sum which now entitled a student, and even a whole family of students, to be educated, without paying anything. Thus it was with the Jefferson College, at Canonsburg. The other college, at Washington, adopted apparently some similar |