writing of these Commentaries on the Constitution, three months of his time had been spent in attendance on the Supreme Court at Washington, where he had borne his full part in preparing the judgments of the court; he had also attended all his circuits in Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and written the opinions of that year, reported in the first volume of Sumner's Reports; he had corrected and printed his Commentaries on Bailments, carefully examining every proof and revise; he had lectured from two to three hours, every other day, in the Law School, while he was at Cambridge; he had attended at the moot-courts; and, besides all this, he had written the address at the consecration of Mount Auburn, the notice of Chief Justice Parker, had conducted an extensive correspondence, and had been ill nearly a month. "The secrets by which he was enabled to accomplish so much in so short a time were, systematic industry, variation of labor, and concentration of mind. He was never idle. He knew the value of those odds and ends of time which are so often thrown away as useless, and he turned them all to good account. His time and his work were apportioned, so that there was always something ready for the waste time to be expended upon. He varied his labor, never overworking himself on one subject, never straining his faculties too long in one direction, but recreating himself by change of occupation. Le changement d'étude est toujours relâchement pour moit,' said D'Agueseau of himself; and so my father found it. He never suffered himself to become nervous or excited in his studies; but, the moment that one employment began to irritate him, he abandoned it for another, which should exercise different faculties. When he worked, it was with his whole mind, and with a concentration of all his powers upon the subject in hand. Listlessness and half attention bring little to pass. What was worth doing at all, he thought worth doing well. "And here it may be interesting to state his personal habits during the day. He arose at seven in summer, and at half-past seven in winter, never earlier. If breakfast was not ready, he went at once to his library, and occupied the interval, whether it was five minutes. or fifty, in writing. When the family assembled, he was called, and breakfasted with them. After breakfast, he sat in the drawing-room, and spent from a half to three-quarters of an hour in reading the newspapers of the day. He then returned to his study, and wrote until the bell sounded for his lecture at the Law School. After lec turing for two, and sometimes three hours, he returned to his study, and worked until two o'clock, when he was called to dinner. To his dinner (which, on his part, was always simple) he gave an hour; and then again betook himself to his study, where, in the winter time, he worked as long as the daylight lasted, unless called away by a visiter, or obliged to attend a moot-court. Then he came down and joined the family, and work for the day was over. Tea came in at about seven o'clock, and how lively and gay was he then, chatting over the most familiar topics of the day, or entering into deeper currents of conversation with equal ease! All of his law he left up stairs in his library; he was here the domestic man in his home. During the evening he received his friends, and he was rarely without company; but, if alone, he read some new publication of the day,- the reviews, a novel, an English newspaper; sometimes corrected a proof-sheet, listened to music, or talked with the family, or, what was very common, played a game of backgammon with my mother. This was the only game of the kind that he liked. Cards and chess he never played. "In the summer afternoons he left his library towards twilight, and might always be seen by the passer-by sitting with his family under the portico, talking or reading some light pamphlet or newspaper, often surrounded by friends, and making the air ring with his gay laugh. This, with the interval occupied by tea, would last until nine o'clock. Generally, also, the summer afternoon was varied, three or four times a week, in fair weather, by a drive with my mother of about an hour through the surrounding country, in an open chaise. At about ten or half-past ten he retired for the night, never varying a half-hour from this time." Sir James Mackintosh has said of his Decisions of Admiralty and Prize, that they were justly admired by all cultivators of the Law of Nations. Story's opinions have often been cited as authority in Westminster Hall; and the Chief Justice of England has made the remarkable declaration, with regard to a point on which Story had differed from the Queen's Bench, that his opinion would at least neutralize the effect of the English decision, and induce any one to consider the question as an open one. In a debate in the House of Lords, he was characterized, by Lord Campbell, as greater than any law writer of which England could boast, or which she could bring forward, since the days of Blackstone. At a meeting of the Suffolk bar, Sept. 12, 1845, occasioned by the decease of Hon. Judge Story, which occurred on the 10th instant, Daniel Webster remarked that Justice Story has, in some measure, repaid a debt which America owes to England; and the mother can receive from the daughter, without humiliation and without envy, the reversed hereditary transmission from the child to the parent. By the comprehensiveness of his mind, and by his vast and varied attainments, he was best fitted to compare the codes of different nations, and comprehend the results of such research. And Judge Davis, speaking of his legal opinions and well-digested commentaries, remarked, at this meeting, that they are a treasure for his country, and of civilized man in every region, and will be gratefully admired and cherished so long as the light and love of all good learning shall remain unextinguished. We cannot withhold the warm tribute of Charles Sumner, who was long a devoted student at the feet of our profound jurist, and had cherished towards him a strong affection: "It has been my fortune to see, or to know, the chief jurists of our times, in the classical countries of jurisprudence, France and Germany. I remember well the pointed and effective manner and style of Dupin, in the delivery of one of his masterly opinions in the highest court of France. I recall the pleasant conversation of Pardessus, to whom commercial and maritime law is under a larger debt, perhaps, than to any other mind, while he descanted on his favorite theme. I wander, in fancy, to the gentle presence of him, with flowing silver locks, who was so dear to Germany,-Thibaut,the expounder of the Roman law, and the earnest and successful advocate of a just scheme for the reduction of the unwritten law to the certainty of a written text. From Heidelberg I fly to Berlin, where I listen to the grave lectures and mingle in the social circle of Savigny, so stately in person and peculiar in countenance, whom all the continent of Europe delight to honor; - but my heart and my judgment, untravelled, fondly turn, with new love and admiration, to my Cambridge teacher and friend. Jurisprudence has many arrows in her golden quiver, but where is one to compare with that which is now spent on the earth?" In all coming time, our courts of justice will concede to Joseph Story the enviable fame of such liberal interpretations of the common law, and enlightened judicial decisions, that we hope what Vincentio says, in Measure for Measure, regarding the statutes and decrees of Austria, may never be said of this republic: "We have strict statutes, and most biting laws, Having bound up the threatening twigs of birch, For terror, not to use, in time, the rod Becomes more mocked than feared, so our decrees, Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead; And Liberty plucks Justice by the nose." HENRY WILLIS KINSMAN. JULY 4, 1836. FOR THE CITY AUTHORITIES WAS born at Portland; graduated at Dartmouth College, in 1822; read law with Daniel Webster, and became his partner in practice, in 1827. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Benjamin Willis, Esq., of Haverhill, Mass. He was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, in 1830; was captain of the City Guards; was a member of the Boston city Council in 1832, and was of the State Senate in 1841. He was the collector for Newburyport in 1841, and was again appointed by President Taylor, in 1849, to the same station. DAVID HENSHAW. JULY 4, 1836. FOR CITIZENS FROM ALL PARTS OF THE STATE, AT FANEUIL HALL. In this bold and manly performance, our orator says: "We are wont to look back and compare our republic with the ancient republics of Greece and Rome. The constitutions of those renowned nations, in turn the mistresses of the world, were raised upon foundations so radically different from our own, surrounded by circumstances and influences so foreign from those of the present age, that they can no more be compared with us, than we with the Chinese. Our government is, sui generis, the first of its race. It sprung into life from the voice of the people, as Minerva sprang from the head of Jupiter. We can only measure our progress by comparing the different epochs of our own history. By this measure, we shall find that we have made great advances. We shall perceive that, as Democratic doctrines have prevailed, as the Democratic party has held the reins of power,-so has our progress in free principles been accelerated. The pomp and stateliness of aristocratic forms, under their rule, have yielded to a simpler garb, and a more civil deportment, in your public functionaries. The moneyed aristocracy was curbed during the administration of Jefferson; and the shackles upon the press, which the preceding administration, regardless of the constitutional restrictions, had imposed, as the most important step in their march to arbitrary power, were taken off in Jefferson's time. The human mind was emancipated. Mental slavery, so far as the laws of the United States could apply to it, was abolished. The freedom of action, as well as the field of thought, was enlarged. New force was given to the will of the majority, exercised within constitutional limits. The whole course of the national government, which was previously fast verging towards monarchical principles, was changed, and the ship of State put upon 'the republican tack. Time brought with it new abuses. The rigid Democracy of Jefferson had given place, in the government, to loose political principles. A moneyed aristocracy had planted itself in a fortress, which it had occupied and strengthened for half a generation, which it thought impregnable, and by means of which it fondly hoped to rule the country. The whole system of our national government was rapidly tending to a complete change. "The government was levying taxes to be spent on internal improvements. It was draining the people of the old States, who had made their own roads and bridges and canals, to pay for like improvements in the newer sections of the Union. It was taxing the whole community, under a ruinous tariff, for the purpose of fostering or regulating the labor of a class. It was rapidly absorbing the power of the States, and suffocating the liberties of the people. While retrograding from just principles at home, the government was fast losing its character abroad. Our despoiled citizens called in vain for redress from the spoiler, for protection from their country. Gen. Jackson took the helm. He was called into power by the spontaneous votes, the unbought suffrages, of the people. On him the hopes of the nation reposed. He has not disappointed them. He has redeemed his pledges. He has far surpassed the most sanguine anticipation of the people. The |