Horace Gray

“ Under the acts of congress, authorizing questions arising on a trial or hearing before two judges in the circuit court, and upon which they are divided in opinion, to be certified to this court for decision, it has always been held that each question certified must be one of law, and not of fact, nor of mixed law and fact, and that it must be a distinct point or proposition, clearly stated, and not the whole case, nor the question whether, upon the evidence, the judgment should be for one party or for the other. ”

“ The third question is equally irregular and insufficient. Instead of being clearly and distinctly stated, it is quite obscure and ambiguous; for it does not show whether the supposed decision of the supreme court of Pennsylvania, 'that there are no banks, nor have there been any such banks, in Pennsylvania, authorized to take and receive interest at a greater rate than six per cent.,' was based upon matter of law, or matter of fact, or both. ”

“ Assuming, what does not appear in the record, that the evidence stated in the bills of exceptions was all the evidence introduced at the trial and referred to in the certificate of division, that certificate is clearly insufficie t to support the jurisdiction of this court. ”