a celebrity during the few years he remained at the bar, seldom attained in so short a professional

career.

"Many others of our principal lawyers and statesmen are indebted to the same preceptor for their fundamental acquisitions in the science of jurisprudence and civil polity.

I will not omit to mention, for I wish not to exaggerate his powers, that he enjoyed one advantage in his education beyond any of his cotemporaries, except the learned, able, and upright chief justice Dana, whose long and useful administration in this court ought to be remembered with gratitude by his fellow-citizens. I refer to the society and conversation of judge Trowbridge, perhaps the most profound common lawyer of New England before the revolution. This venerable old man, like some of the ancient sages of the law in England, had pursued his legal disquisitions, long after he had ceased to be actively engaged in the profession, from an ardent attachment to the law as a science, and had employed himself in writing essays and forming elaborate readings upon abstruse and difficult points of law.

"Many of his works are now extant in manuscript, and some in print, and they abundantly prove the depth of his learning, and the diligence and patience of his research.

"When Parsons had retired to the house of his father, a respectable minister of Newbury, in conse

quence of the destruction of Falmouth by the Bri tish, he there met judge Trowbridge, who had sought shelter from the confusion of the times in the same hospitable mansion. How grateful must it have been to the learned sage, in the decline of life, fraught with the lore of more, than a half century's incessant and laborious study, to meet in a peaceful village, secure from the alarms of war, a scholar panting for instruction and capable of comprehending his profound and useful lessons; and how delightful to the scholar to find a teacher so fitted to pour instruction into his eager and grasping mind. He regarded it as an uncommon blessing, and has frequently observed, that this early interruption to his business, which seemed to threaten poverty and misfortune, was one of the most useful and happy events of his life.

"His habit of looking deeply into the ancient books of the common law, and tracing back settled principles to original decisions, probably acquired under this fortunate and accidental tuition, was the prin cipal source of his early and continued celebrity.

"He entered upon business also, after this connexion ceased, early in our revolutionary war, when the courts of admiralty jurisdiction were open and crowded with causes, in the management of which he had a large share. This led him to study with diligence the civil law, law of nations, and the principles of belligerent and neutral rights, in all which he soon became as distinguished as he was for his knowledge of the common and statute law

of the country. Twenty six years ago, when I with others of my age were pupils in the profession of the law, we saw our masters call this man into their councils, and yield implicit confidence to his opinions. Among men eminent themselves, and by many years his seniors, we saw him by common consent take the lead in causes, which required intricate investigation and deepness of research.

"In the art of special pleading, which more than any thing tests the learning of a lawyer in his peculiar pursuit, he had then no competitor.

"In force of combination and power of reasoning he was unrivalled, and in the happy talent of penetrating through the mass of circumstances, which sometimes surround and obscure a cause, I do not remember his equal.

"His arguments were directed to the understandings of men, seldom to their passions, and yet instances may be recollected, when, in causes, which required it, he has assailed the hearts of his hearers with as powerful appeals as were ever exhibited in the cause of misfortune or humanity. I do not disparage others by placing him at their head. They were great men, he was a wonderful man. Like the great moralist of England, he might be surrounded by men of genius, literature, and science, and neither he nor they suffer by a comparison. Indeed, he seemed to form a class of intellect by himself, rather than a standard of comparison for others.

"Even his enemies, for it is the lot of all extraordinary men to have them, paid involuntary homage

to his greatness; they designated him by an ap pellation, which, from its appropriateness, became a just compliment, the giant of the law.

"I have spoken now of his early life only, before he was thirty five years of age, and yet it is known that common ininds and even great minds do not arrive at maturity in this profession until a much^ater period.

"From this time for near twenty years I lived in a remote part of the state, and had no opportunity personally to witness his powers; but his fame pursued me even there. He was regarded by those lawyers, with whom I have been conversant, as the living oracle of the law. His transmitted opinions carried with them authority sufficient to settle controversies and terminate litigation.

"On my accession to the bench, I had an opportunity to see him in practice at the bar, when he possessed the accumulated wisdom and learning of fifty-six years. Though labouring under a valetudinarian system, his mind was vigorous and majestick. His great talent was that of condensation. He presented his propositions in regular and lucid order, drew his inferences with justness and precision, and enforced his arguments with a simplicity yet fulness, which left nothing obscure or misunderstood.

"He seemed to have an intuitive perception of the cardinal points of a cause, upon which he poured out the whole treasures of his mind, while he rejec

ted all minor facts and principles from his consideration.

"He was concise, energetick, and resistless in his reasoning. The most complicated questions appearing in his hands the most easy of solution; and if there be such a thing as demonstration in argument, he, above all the men I know, had the power to produce it.

"With this fulness of learning and reputation, having had thirty five years of extensive practice in all branches of the law, and having indeed for the last ten years acted unofficially as judge in many of the most important mercantile disputes, which occurred in this town, he was, on the resignation of chief justice Dana, selected by our present governour to preside in this court. This was the first, and I believe the only instance of a departure from the ordinary rule of succession; and, considering the character and talents of some, who had been many years on the bench, perhaps no geater proof could be given of his pre-eminet legal endowments, than that this elevation should have been universally approved. Perhaps there never was a period when the regular succession would have been more generally acquiesced in as fit and proper, and yet the departure from it, in this instance, was every where gratifying.

"That the man who, in England would, probably, by the mere force of his talents, without the aid of family interest, have arrived to the dignity of lord chancellor or lord chief justice, should be placed at the head of so important a department, was consid