The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1873-02-09
Lawyers.


necticut, in singularly elegant and beau.
tifal tribute to the memory of the late Will
liam Hungerford, veteran lawyer Of that
State, pays the following deserved 1--WE
think) compliment to the members of the
legal profession:
And now when I consider this long life
closed-these many years ended of eminent
labor in the highest ranks Of the forum, and
| nothing left of it at all but a tolling bell, q
handful Of earth and a passing tradition-a
of the infelicity which attends the reputa-
ton of a great lawyer. To my thinking the
most vigorous brain-work of the world is
done in the ranks of our profession. Aud
then our work concerns the highest of all
temporal interests, property, reputation,
the peace of families, liberty, life even, the
foundations of society, the Jurisprudence of
the world, and as a recent event has shone,
the arbitrations and peace of nations. The
world accepts the work, but forgets the
workers. The waste hours of Lord Bacon
and Sergeant Talfourd were devoted to let
tiers, and each is infinitely better remem-
bered for his mere literary diversions than
for his whole long and laborous professional
life work.
The cheap caricatures of Dickens on the
profession will outlive, fear, in the popu-
lar memory, the judgments of Chief Justice
Marshall, for tue latter were not clownish
buriesques; but only masterpieces of rea-
son and Jurisprudence.
The victory gained by the counsel of the
Seven Bishops was worth infinitely more to
the people of England than all the triumph
of the Crinean war. But one Lord Cardigan
led fooliahly brilliant charge against a
Russian battery at Balaklava, and became
immortal. Who led the great charge of the
seven great confessors of the English Church
against the English Crown at Westminster
Hall You must 60 to your books and an
swer. They were not on horseback. They
wore gowns instead of epaulettes.
The truth is we are like the little insects
that in the unseen depths of the ocean lay
the coral foundations of uprising islands.
In the end come the solid land, the olive
and the vine, the habitations of man, the !
arts and Industries of life, the Ravens of
the sea and ships riding at anchor. But
the buoy toilers which laid the beams of q |
continent in dreary waste, are entombed
in their work and forgotten in their
tOmbs.
Yet the infelicity to which have allud-
ed is not without its compensatiOns. For |
What, after all, ite posthumous fame to him |
who brought nothing into this world and |
may carry nothing outs The dead leave
Estates. A man may be iibeiled to-day to" sye as
/ fool, fanatic, aud knave, and to- I
morrow his libellers sneak into his funeral
and the chief magistrate of forty
millions of freemen begs the honor of two
eet of space at his obsequies. 1t is the old
'tory-the tax which posthu nous fame SO
,ften pays for its title-a garrett and a
rust in life, mausoleum and a statue
What avails it all 2
We may justly console ourselves with
he reflection, that We belong to a profess
ion which above all others shapes and fash
ons the institutions in which we live and
which in the language of a great statesman
lis as ancient as the msgfstracy, as noble
Is virtue, as necessarysas justice"-a pro-
essioD, venture to add, which is gener-
us and fraternaf above all others, aud in
which living merit is appreciated, l.
to it's deserts, and by none SO
as by these who are its pro-
essional contemporaries and its competi-
Ors in the same field.
We have our riVslries-who else has
lore But they seldom produce jealously.
We have our contentiops-who else has SO
lany3 But they seldom produce .enmities.
he old Saxons used to cover their fires on
very hearth at the sound Of the evening
urfew. In like manner, but to better
urpose, we also cover at each night fall
ae embers OF eachday's struggle and strife.
We never defer oar amnesties till after
cath, and have less occasion therefore than
,me others to deal in post norton bronzes
nd marbles.
So much we may say without arrogance
f ourselves-so much of our noble profess
on.