The Portland daily press., 1869-05-04
DAILY PRESS.
PORTLAND.
Tuesday Morning, May A, 1859.
PORTLAND,
Recent Publications.

REPORTS OF CASES DETERMINED IN THE CIR
QUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR
THE FIRST CIRCUIT FROM APRIL TERM 1858
70 MAY TERM 1861 by Hon. Nathan Gilt
ford, LII. ID. Associate Justice of the Su-
P.eme court, &c. William Fl. Clifford,
counsellor Law, Reporter. Vol 1. Bos-
ton; Little, Brown & Company, 1869.
Thoughtful men have some times express
ed surprise at the Difference everywhere
paid among English-speaking people to law
| yers. Authors, who create nations litera-
ture, teachers, who endow this generation
with the knowledge of the last, preachers who
arouse in worldly men an interest in the great
facts of God and the soul, seem to be employ
ed in much nobler functions. Even the un-
taught laborer, who grows useful vegetable
or makes garment, still more the skilled la
borer who invents q process of doing these
things more rapidly or cheaply, seems more
honorable member Of society than the crafty
attorney, who entertains the petty quarrels of
his neighbor, and sends him for redress on an
illusory chase through the courts till the fees
wrung from his pocket exceed four-fold the
amount involved in the controversy.
In spite Of such base arts, in spite of a con-
ventional reputation that finds no compliment
tary expression in the common speech and in
the delineations of the novelist and dramatist,
the fundamental respect for the lawyer con-
tinues 1t seems national instinct. You
fnd 1t in the border settlsm snts of Kentucky
and Mississippi, where rade' backwoodsmen
packed the log court-houses, and stood SPELL
bound to listen to the pleas of Henry Clay and
Sargent 8. Prentiss. You find it in the Oldest
'eats of culture and wealth, where whole com
munities 60 into mourning over the death of
Choate, of Andrew and of Brady, and where
perplexed legislature distresses itself over the
hard lot of its chief judges, shut up in the pale
of the bench to paltry five thousand year,
while their eompeers at the bar are earning
their twenty and thirty thousand. You find it
in England, mother and nurse Of the common
law, where everybody reads "Campbelps Lives
Of the Lord Chancellors'' as the very romance
OF English history, the summing up of the best
thing the English mind has yet achieved.
In spite of the attractive usss of the great
wealth now won SO easily in speculation and
trade, of the fascination of greatly expanded
science, of the marked successes achieved in
our day in journalism and general literature,
two thirds of the young men in our colleges
yield to the substantial ambition of making
themselves great lawyers Even the minister
hopes his boy will not presumptuously take up
the grave responsibilities of his own vocation,
and until decided call comes, thinks that his
| sphere of usefulness may be within the rail
that separates the bar from the rest of the
world.
We English on both sides of the ocean defer
to lawyers notwithstanding the superficial
ill-repute in which they are held, notwith-
standing the presence of SO many shabby ones
to libel the class, through our deep and hered-
itary reverence for law, quality which has
made us alone of all who have tried the exper-
iment capable of self-goverEment The Ro-
mans had the same passion for law. 1t must
be an emblem of empire. Not the arts of the
Greeks, not the religion of the Indians and
Hebrews, not the subtle learning and genius of
Germany, nor the military enthusiasm of
France, but Roman and English law, based
upon fair play and the giving every man a
chance, conquered and coIonized the world.
Of this law the attorney is the recognized
priest and minister, and gets clothed with its
sanction and respect. The Judge is the per-
fectly developed lawyer; he is the lawyer who,
-o><oS---c<- Aktht VIC AuuuCnCO VI atdEic6 anu
partisanship, studies and discusses law as a
pure science. To argue sharpens and belittles
the mind; to sum up compacts and enlarges it,
1t is curious enough to note the fierce, distort-
ed attorney calmed and smoothsd into the can
did and symmetrical Judge We find such
transformations only among the miracles of
| insect life
| The national respect for lawyers towards
| judges becomes loyalty. They are the recog-
nized aristccracy. We are gratifed when
they condescsnd to be familiar. Awkward
men tumble their minds to find titles to ex-
| press their Difference to them. And why not?
| The great business ct living is to get on.
Individuals and society are impelled by forces
not to be controlled to acquire reputation,
skill, power, knowledge, or what symbolizes
and represents them all, money. The acquisi-
| ton is at the expense of others. This trans
fers to men with their intellectual weapons
substantially the same strife that the boasts
| fight out with tooth and claw Law regulates
| this competition of life, and every man has a
tremendous stake in maintaining it. 1t was
an immense stride when our savage ancestors
consented to lay aside the club and agree to
/ VIC AAsr AAtu1uAtic1, SUN d1 uUt W btIlkt u
man when he was down, not to eat prisoners
not to shoot with poisoned arrows, not to slay
women and children. These were the rudi-
ments of all treaties and laws. Now the club
has almost ceased to arbitrate and lawsuits
succeed wars We shall outgrow law too, but
not yet for these many ages. This is the epoch
| of law, and its ministers hold the same rank
that chiefs and vikings held under the earlier
regime.
If one would understand the important
functions which judge of its highest court
renders to a community, let him look over this
first volume of the records of Judge Clifford's
judicial labors for period of little more
than ten years. Every mans possessions, his
lands, his chattsls, even his reputation he holds
| BY tenure, the validity Of which passes, or is
liable to pass under the criticism of the Judge
of dnal Jurisdiction. 1t lies in his discretion
to say whether crimes that threaten dearest
lives ana shake the structure of civilization
shall be restrained by punishments, whether
she laborer shall receive the reward of his
| toll, and, whether the estate which represents
the industry of a lifetime shall be enjoyed by
the wife and children of the man who earned
| it.
1t will be remembered that Judge Cliffords
appointment was not universally welcomed as
fitting appreciation by the executive of the
magnitude of these responsibilities. But time
has proved, not that Ills appointment was a
partisan one, but that ii was party prejudice
that overlooked and undervalued his sub
stantial qualifications. These were, COM
prehensive knowledge of the principles of
law, particularly OF the criminal law, con-
scientious earefulness amounting to solicitude
not only to decide the pending cause Justly as
between the parties, but what is of more mo-
ment to make such decision az should not
introduce confusion into . harmonious system
of jurisprudence upon the fxity of which
such wide and large interests depend, IA cour-
tssy and urbanity Of manner bred of kindly
natural feeling rather than acquired by q
cultivated habit, which has completely dis
armed all hostility and Sisrespset-a a
rugged power Of work, which has converted
facility into accuracy and surmise and appre-
hension into valuable and enviable erudition
This first volume of Reports of Gases in
the First Circuit Court dscidedb by Mr.. Justice
Clifford is but part and not the best part of
his work, and represents only the first three
years of his judicial studies from 1858, when
he entered upon his duties, to 1861, which was
the opening of new era in the legal, as well
as political history of the country since 1861