the cross-bill was filed; and Justice Nelson, in the opinion, observes that the bill could be filed in no other court.

In Jones v. Andrews, 10 Wall. 327, it was held that a bill for an injunction to restrain proceedings of garnishment against the complainant's property, instituted in the circuit court, and also praying the benefit of a set-off against the garnishing creditor's demand, is not an original suit, but is a defensive or supplementary suit, in which the jurisdiction of the court does not depend on the citizenship of the parties but on the cognizance of the original case.

If a judgment at law be recovered in a circuit court the defendant in the judgment may file a bill in that court to enjoin the judgment against the representative of the plaintiff in the judgment, though that representative be a citizen of the same state as the defendant in the judgment; it is but a continuation, in substance, of the original suit. Dunn v. Clarke, 8 Pet. 1.

A creditor's bill is held to be a mere continuation of the suit at law, as it merely seeks to obtain the fruits of the judgment, or to remove obstacles to the remedy at law; and since, therefore, it is not an original suit, but rather the extension of a former controversy, a change of residence of the plaintiff to the state where the defendant resides will not affect the jurisdiction of the court. Hatch v. Dorr, 4 McLean, 112. See, also, Hatfield v. Bushnell, 1 Blatchf. 393.

In all the cases thus far cited it will be observed that jurisdiction was supported on the ground that the suit in which the question of jurisdiction arose was auxiliary or supplementary to the original suit, and it is further observable of the cases that, without exception, both suits were brought in the same court. Other authorities, showing when creditors' bills, cross-bills, bills of review, and other dependent or auxiliary suits may be maintained between citizens of the same state, are collected and cited by the learned judge of the eastern district of Michigan in In re Sabin, 18 N. B. R. 151.

On the argument, attention was called to Noyes v. Willard, 1 Woods, 187, which was a case where an assignee in bankruptcy recovered a fraudulent judgment in the district court against an alleged debtor of the bankrupt, and the judgment debtor filed a bill in the circuit court to enjoin execution upon the judgment; and it was held that the fact that all the parties were citizens of the same state did not oust the court of jurisdiction. But I do not regard this case as sustaining the argument in favor of jurisdiction in the case at bar; because, in the case cited, the jurisdiction of the circuit court was clearly maintainable under that provision of the bankrupt

law which expressly gives to circuit courts concurrent jurisdiction with the district courts of all suits at law or in equity brought by an assignee in bankruptcy against any person claiming an adverse interest, or by such person against such assignee touching any property or right of property of the bankrupt transferable to or vested in the assignee, and it was by virtue of this provision of the law that the jurisdiction was maintained.

U. S. v. Stiner, 8 Blatchf. 544, is also cited. This was a creditor's bill filed in the circuit court and founded on a judgment recovered by the United States in the district court, and the question was whether the circuit court had jurisdiction of the case. It was held without hesitation, by Judge Blatchford, that jurisdiction was plainly conferred by the eleventh section of the act of September 24, 1789, (1 St. at Large, 78,) which gave to the circuit courts original cognizance of all suits of a civil nature at law or in equity where the matter in dispute exceeded, exclusive of costs, $500, and in which the United States were plaintiffs. Nothing could be clearer than that, under this express statutory authority, a creditor's bill could be prosecuted by the United States in the circuit court to enforce payment of the judgment recovered in the district court.

Since direct adjudication of the precise question involved is wanting, we are left to deal with it in the light of such general principles as may be applicable. And, first, it may be remarked that the circuit court has no general supervisory jurisdiction over the proceedings of the district court in admiralty. Its exercise of any supervisory control whatever is limited to the case of an appeal or other equivalent and direct mode of procedure where in a particular controversy it is made the subject of review. In other words, a general jurisdiction of the sort invoked here cannot be borrowed by the circuit court from the inferior court on the ground that the original proceeding in the latter court was one in admiralty. The final judgment in the district court was a judgment in personam, and became a simple money demand, enforceable as such by suitable proceedings in a court having authority to entertain such methods of procedure as the case might require. The circuit and district courts of the United States are distinct and separate courts, each having, so to speak, its own sphere of jurisdiction. In some classes of cases their jurisdiction is by statute made concurrent; otherwise, it is as distinct as is the subject-matter of the controversies with which they may have to deal. As we have seen from the authorities, the theory of ancillary bills, except as special statutes may govern particular cases, presupposes

an original action in the same court in which the ancillary bill is filed. It was asked on the argument if the circuit court had only common-law jurisdiction; and if, as part of the federal judicial system, there was a separate court having only chancery jurisdiction, whether the latter court might not entertain a creditor's bill to enforce a judgment recovered in the court of law. Undoubtedly, that would depend upon the constitutional and statutory authority conferred upon the court having exclusive chancery powers.

But as a more effectual test, suppose, for example, the case in the district court, upon which the present bill is based, had been one between two citizens of Michigan, and there had been an appeal to the circuit court, followed by affirmance of the judgment of the district court. Could it be claimed that the libellant could file a creditor's bill, in the circuit court of Michigan, to enforce satisfaction of the judgment or decree in the circuit court of Wisconsin? Obviously not; and yet the jurisdiction of circuit courts of different circuits is scarcely more distinct than that of the circuit and district courts of the same district. The fact that the same judge may hold both the circuit and district courts does not, of course, make them the same court, nor give them any nearer connection than they would have if held by different judges in different localities in the same district; and therefore it will not do to say that the judgment of the district court was the judgment of a federal court, and that the present bill filed in the circuit court is a bill pending in a federal court, and so that the two proceedings are in the same court. The two courts, it is true, exist under one system, but they are none the less distinct and separate courts in the exercise of their respective powers and jurisdictions. Indispensable to the exercise of original jurisdiction by the circuit courts, except in certain enumerated cases, is the requisite citizenship of the parties; and the argument, ab inconvenienti, strongly as it was urged by counsel, is not sufficiently potent to overcome the fact that, in view of the considerations already suggested, the present bill must be regarded as an original bill in the circuit court, and that the jurisdiction of that court is absolutely dependent upon such citizenship of the parties as does not exist here.

A good deal of stress was laid by counsel on the language used by Judge Blatchford in his opinion in the case of The Blanche Page, 16 Blatchf. 6, wherein he held that a court of admiralty of the United States has no power to enforce a final decree for the payment of money, against sureties, by the sequestration of their property accord

ing to the practice of courts of equity. In his opinion the learned

judge says:

"There is no statute which confers on a court of admiralty of the United States those powers of sequestering property which appertain to a court of equity, nor is there any rule which does so. The libellants have judgments, and, after executions have been issued and returned unsatisfied, they can resort to the proper court to reach any property which the debtors may have. But this court, sitting in admiralty, is not such court. The fact that the libellants could not recover judgments on the stipulations or bonds in any other court than the admiralty court, does not prevent their resorting to other courts, where they have obtained judgments in the admiralty court, to enforce such judgments."

From this language the inference is drawn that by "resort to the proper court" was meant by the judge resort to the proper federal court, i. e., the circuit court. But the language of the opinion does not, I think, warrant that conclusion. Its meaning simply is that proceedings in such a case to reach the property of the debtors must be taken in the proper court; whether it be the state court or the federal court must necessarily depend upon jurisdictional right.

But it is further urged that jurisdiction of the present bill may be derived from the first clause of the first section of the removal act of March 3, 1875, which provides that—

"The circuit courts of the United States shall have original cognizance, concurrent with the courts of the several states, of all suits of a civil nature, at common law or in equity, where the matter in dispute exceeds, exclusive of costs, the sum or value of $500, and arising under the constitution or laws of the United States."

The argument is that the matter in dispute here arises under the constitution and laws of the United States; that the decree in admiralty, which is the foundation of this suit, is the creature of the federal laws and constitution, and that as this is a suit in equity for enforcement of such a decree, it is a suit within the meaning of the provision of the statute above quoted. I cannot concur in this view, and do not think it is supported by the adjudged cases bearing on the point. To uphold jurisdiction under the clause referred to in the act of 1875, I am of the opinion that it is not sufficient for the party merely to trace title or right through undisputed proceedings which may have been previously had by virtue of laws of the United States. The construction of the constitution or of a federal statute must be involved, or the right to present relief must be based upon the constition or a statute, to make a case arising under the constitution or

laws of the United States within the meaning of the act. Here there is is no dispute over the original suit in admiralty. The decree in that suit and the complainants' right to it are admitted: they are not even sought to be avoided; and, upon the point under consideration, there is analogy between the present case and Ex parte Smith, 94 U. S. 455. In that case certain parties brought an action of ejectment in the federal court of Tennessee. The plaintiffs claimed title through certain proceedings under which the lands in suit were sold by the United States tax commissioners, by virtue of an act of congress providing for the collection of direct taxes in insurrectionary districts. All the parties to the suit were citizens of Tennessee, and jurisdiction was claimed on account of the subject-matter of the action; but the supreme court held that, to sustain the jurisdiction, it was incumbent on the plaintiffs to show that the action arose under the revenue laws of the United States, and that this was not shown by merely claiming a title through such laws when the title in that respect was not disputed.

The subject is also discussed in Hartelle v. Tilghman, 99 U. S. 547, where it was held that suits between citizens of the same state cannot be sustained in the circuit court, as arising under the patent laws, where the defendant admits the validity and his use of the plaintiff's letters patent, and a subsisting contract is shown governing the rights of the parties in the use of the invention. In analogy to what is said by the court in that case, it may be said of the case at bar that the relief sought by the present bill is not founded on nor does it arise from the laws of the United States authorizing or regulating proceedings in admiralty. There is no controversy here that requires for its decision a reference to those laws or a construction of them. There is no denial of the force or validity of the decree in the district court, nor of complainant's right to that decree. In no phase of the. case is any federal question involved, and therefore if this were a cause pending in the state court it could not be removed from the court of last resort of the state to the supreme court of the United States. Bolling v. Lersner, 91 U. S. 594.

But it is supposed that Seymour v. The Phillips & Colby Const. Co. 7 Biss. 460, is an authority which supports jurisdiction in the case at bar, under the act of 1875. I think, however, the cases are distinguishable, although my first impression was otherwise. In the case cited the facts were that the plaintiffs recovered a judgment in the circuit court against the construction company, and thereupon