“ At a subsequent day, the CHIEF JUSTICE announced briefly the court's opinion, that independently of the record's not showing a proper certificate,-this itself being a sufficient ground for dismissal,-the amount in controversy was insignificant, and that the court was satisfied, on an inspection of the papers, that the allocatur was inadvertently sanctioned. There was, he said, no principle involved of such extensive application as to bring the case within the act of Congress giving jurisdiction on a judge's allocatur when the amount in controversy is less than $1000. ”

“ Her claim was opposed by the executor in virtue of an act regulating such matters in the District, and which declares that 'every bequest of personal estate to the wife of a testator shall be construed to be intended in bar of her share of the per sonal estate, unless it be otherwise expressed in the will.' Her right depended, therefore, upon a construction of this statute, and the point before this court was, whether this question was a question of law of such extensive interest and operation as to render the final decision of it, in a case like the present one, by this court, desirable. ”