the authority of the said 7th section of the act aforesaid. That nothing was done in the said premises on the said 6th of March and no adjournment at that time took place, as the record of their proceedings shows. That at a meeting of the said commissioners on the 20th of the same month, they, towit, Levi Cook and James Williams, "by virtue of the authority vested in them by the 7th section of the act aforesaid, directed the said road to be laid out through its whole extent described as aforesaid. Against this measure your petitioners protest for the following reasons:

First. Because the said 7th section of the said act is unconstitutional and void, inasmuch as no such section can be found in any law of either of the States of New York, Pennsylvania or Ohio, whence it purports to be adopted, and because it contravenes the other provisions of the act to regulate highways of which it is a part, and the governor and judges were prohibited by the ordinance from adopted any partial law, but only such as should be necessary and suited to the circumstances of the district.

Secondly. Because it was not in the power of the governor and judges to deprive your petitioners of their property unless the public exigencies made it necessary, and then they had a right to the judgment of the laws: that it cannot be pretended that in the present time, the public exigencies required this appropriation of your petitioners' property, but private and individual cupidity.

Thirdly. Because the commissioners were determining upon establishing roads not in the judicial capacity, and, therefore, ought not only to be free from bias, but all sorts of interest; but in the present instance, Levi Cook, one of the two commissioners, not only signed before he became such, a petition to lay out this road; but has the legal title to a large estate which will greatly enhance in value by the opening of this road.

Fourthly. Because the said commissioners had no authority to meet after the 6th of March, until their term on the first Monday of June, as it is not apparent by their records on the 6th of March, that any adjournment took place to an earlier day.

Fifthly. Because the 7th section of the act to regulate highways before referred to, and under which the county commissioners assume to exercise their power in the case, is virtually repealed by "An act to extend Jefferson avenue in the city of Detroit, to the intersection of the river Detroit, inasmuch as the first section of this act makes it necessary that the payment of the damages should be provided for by the city of Detroit or by the inhabitants thereof," which act was passed on the 26th day of April, 1821. Whereas a venire facias is awarded by the commissioners, directed to the sheriff of the county of Wayne, to summon twelve respectable residents to assess the dam

age which should accrue to the respective proprietors who should be indemnified by the passage of the said road through their several farms, according to the directions of the fifth section of the "Act to regulate highways" which also provides that any damages, as assessed, shall be paid out of the county treasury, a provision wholly inconsistent with the act of the 26th of April, 1821.

That by the 7th section of "An act concerning appeals and writs of error, certiorari and habeas corpus," these several writs are declared "writs of right" by which salutary law your petitioners hope to be relieved from an illegal, unconstitutional and oppressive measure, by bringing their case before the highest tribunal for revision and adjudication. Whereupon your petitioners pray your honor to grant a writ of certiorari to remove the said proceedings from before the said commissioners to the Supreme Court of the Territory in order that complete justice may be done to your petitioners and the illegal and unjust acts of the said commissioners be corrected.

For Genevieve Beaubien, for J. B. Beaubien, and for himself and the heir of the late Beaubien and representative.

ANTOINE DEQUINDRE.

B. CAMPEAU.

ANTOINE RIVARD.

CHAS. MORAN.

JOHN WILLIAMS, pour JACQUIS CAMPEAU.

JACQUIS CAMPEAU, FILS.

his

FRANCIS X ST. OBIEN. (FRANCIS ST. AUBIN).

mark

JOHN L. LEIB, for himself

and the heirs of George Meldrum, decd.

and for Gabriel Chene, Benoit Chapaton,
and Morris Moran.

LOUIS BENFAIT,

his

DOMINIQUE X RIOPEL

mark

Jos. CAMPEAU.

Territory of Michigan, 15 April, 1826, the writ is allowed, provided bail be given to the county commissioners to prosecute the same to effect in the sum of one hundred dollars.

J. WITHERELL.

MICHIGAN TERRITORY

COUNTY OF WAYNE

Personally made oath before me, the undersigned, a justice of the peace, Jean Bapt. Beaubien deposeth and saith that he has carefully examined the foregoing writing with the signatures subscribed to the same, and that the whole substance thereof is correct in all its parts, so far as the facts come within deponent's knowledge.

Sworn and subscribed before me this 13th April, 1826.

J. B. BEAUBIEN.

JOHN DANIELS, J. Peace.

PROBATE OFFICE IN THE "OLDEN TIME"

FORT SMITH, ARK'S., March 12, 1872.

Hon. Charles I. Walker, Detroit, Michigan:

DEAR SIR:-Knowing the interest you have always taken in everything pertaining to the early history of Detroit, especially that relating to the old lawyers composing its bar, I send you a description of the office of the Judge of Probate under the administration of that most eccentric and singular of all men, Geo. A. O'Keife [O'Keefe]. It was written by John L. Talbot, a man almost as odd and peculiar as O'Keife [O'Keefe], in 1841, and is worthy of preservation in the archives of the Historical Society. I do not know whether you remember O'Keife [O'Keefe], having perhaps, come to Detroit after his day, but the Hon. A. D. Frazer and Theo. Romyn, Esq., do, and they will at once recognize the correctness of the description.

How will the present Probate Office in the new city hall compare with this? Is it as neatly and systematically kept and is the present incumbent as odd a genius as O'Keife [O'Keefe]?

Yours very truly,

J. C. W. SEYMOUR.

Went into a seven-cornered room and saw a man in slippers, with a night gown and muffy looking face, presiding over sundry fragments of books and papers and personating the Judge of Probate for Wayne county.

In the middle of the floor was a neat stove, into which two sticks, twice as long as the stove, were fumigating in quiet glee; on one side was a wood box marked "Erie & Land Line," evidently newly transferred from a hat box into a ligneous appendage to this judicial sanctorium. On the floor lay two shoes, not fellows and made at different eras, neither of which could have

been more modern than that of the owner's birth. In the rear stood a paper case, born at various times, the originally brown color of which appears thro' a thin coat of priming of white paint. Over one of the doors-for there are five to the apartment-are numerous pentagons, formed of variegated tape of blue, through which memoranda of "Hudson & Lyon," "1000," "October 3," "forty-one," "called to-day," etc., are stuck, to refresh the owner's memory. On a nail close by is suspended a brown paper book, labelled 122, Register of Land Office; and in the corner a shingle is suspended, across whose face twined strings in the shape of Job's coffins are drawn, as hiding places for Sybilline news. While over and around the side door papers of every hue of the rainbow and of as various textures are suspended upon a nail ready to be wafted by the first breeze. On the top of the paper case an extensive remnant of a mantua maker's establishment in the way of boxes appear to have been received from one of the Judge's tablets into a safety vault for the papers and records to be, which strew the apartment. On a table close by stands a broken wine glass as an ink stand, a pair of large shears as a folder and cutter, while a few much abused chicken feathers stick up in the cracks of the table as pens. The place for the records seems to have been an old commission merchant's desk, over the apartments of which mystical labels are placed, and as the books of the office are either too long or too short, they are stuck in either end-wise, side-wise or any other way; the majority, however, are outside. Over the short books pieces of pasteboard are crowded in, the interstices between the top of the book and case serving as pigeon holes to odds and ends, such as nails, awls, tape, twine, pins, paper, and all the salmagundi of an odd old bachelor who saves and never uses everything. Amid all this trumpery sits enthroned upon carpet, seemingly made of Joseph's coats, the eccentric, witty and erratic Judge of Probate, administering upon the fortunes of widows, the estate of heirs, and speculating with curious truth upon the motives of every suitor. You will generally find a few wine-face pleaders of the cause in deep black clothes and with deeper black faces surrounding the Judge, and looking as if while seeking the administration of law, they were fast following the deceased whose estates they were managing. The Judge is a native of Erin's isle; has seen better days and figured as a gay and fashionable man amid the gayest and most fashionable of his day. Misfortune and too generous a heart transplanted him from the scenes of his early gayety to the wilds of Michigan, and with the ready unreality of his countrymen, he leaped from the pedestal where his convivial talents entitled him to stand, into the position of a barrister in the northern counties of and, in the lapse of time, has at last so far forgotten the former ties and tournure of youth as to be without

doubt, the greatest sloven in the State; handsome, and possessing a decidedly aristocratic air, he is nevertheless wholly indifferent to his appearance and seems as if palsied by what he has been, to seek the most outre locations and habiliments; notwithstanding this he is a great favorite, and his bon mots, sagacity of character, strict integrity and the Je ne sais quoi, of a gentleman, redeem all his oddities and make him, to use one of his own phrases, "the most perfect unique, within the confines of the most extended scope of speculation."

ADDRESS

April 26, 1825.

TO THE PUBLIC:-The undersigned, former supporters of A. G. Whitney, Esq., and appointed members of a committee at a late meeting at Mr. Holly's, have to regret that the recent appearance of an indecent hand-bill, (authorized by the names of five persons who profess to have been formerly the supporters of Mr. Whitney) has made it incumbent on them to address their fellow-citizens.

We shall not be so uncharitable as to attribute the untruths or the inconsistences which the handbill alluded to contains, to the persons who have been induced to suffer their signatures to go abroad with it, for we know the author of it is wholly unacquainted with the motives which first operated upon the independent mechanics of Detroit to unite them in the support of Mr. Whitney. Our reasons for uniting in an endeavor to elevate Mr. Whitney, were not only to reward him for his exertions for the good of the Territory, but to check the growing power of a party whose dictation and ability for office began to be too disgusting to be longer patiently endured, a party, the leaders of which held Mr. Whitney in dread, in consequence of his superior talents, and who seized upon every opportunity to lessen him in the public estimation.

It is true that a meeting was held at Mr. Woodworth's at which several of the former supporters of Mr. Whitney attended. It is also true that certain resolutions which had been prepared for those who took the lead at that meeting, were passed. But it is ridiculous in the extreme to say that those individuals who attended the meeting and who had no part or lot in the nomination of Mr. Wing, were bound by the proceedings of its managers. Those who were displeased with the proceedings remained silent, and this number composed a good proportion of those present. They perceived that it was preconcerted matter, and held themselves free to act as a sense of contingency and duty should dictate.