commanded the assent of his hearers. One needed only to see him to know that he was a man of great abilities. His countenance was peculiarly striking, and yet did not indicate the precise cast of his mind; his features relaxed into a repose which but partially betrayed the power of his intellect, or the sublimity of his reasoning. Yet one might read in his face evidences of a thoughtful mind, sometimes lost in day-dreams, sometimes absorbed in studying out the most abstruse questions of the law; but when aroused, his features assumed a new aspect, and every muscle spoke. He scorned the dirty tricks of those who disgrace the law by 'stealing the livery of Heaven to serve the Devil in,' and by attempting to convert the profession of the advocate into a mere school of refined knavery.' To attempt to mislead a jury or brow-beat a judge, was in his opinion surrendering the integrity as well as the honor of the bar. It was his rule never to encourage a groundless suit or a groundless defence. In integrity of character; in fidelity to his clients and to his conscience; in the dignity and suavity of his manners; in his respectful deportment to the Court, his professional brethren, the jury, and to the witnesses; in short, in every particular his was an excellent model for young counsellors, and one which they would do well to strive to imitate; and though they may not be able to equal the great original, still they may drink from the same fountains from which he drank, and, like the little Julus by the side of his father Æneas, they may tread the same path that he trod, though it be non passibus æquis.'

He

Such was the reputation, and such the qualifications which Mr. Hitchcock brought with him to the bench. He discharged his duties as judge with increasing reputation and dignity. Few men exhibited more fairness, or showed more thought, more caution, more research and legal knowledge in their decisions than he did. Few men possessed higher qualifications, natural and acquired, for the judicial bench than he did. Fewer men have left in their judicial career deeper traces of wisdom, honesty, impartiality and justice. His wisdom was the wisdom of the law, guided by experience and enriched by a scrutinizing investigation of principles; his honesty was a deep, vital principle, pervading the whole man; his impartiality and his love of justice were a part of his nature. was a learned judge; but his learning did not consist merely in a knowledge of books and precedents. He read not only to learn, but also to digest and to master. He was wise above that which is written.' He relied not wholly on the decisions of other judges, nor did he indulge the desire to overrule their opinions, and fashion the law to his own private views. He was actuated by a higher and nobler principle of action; he was actuated by an earnest desire to follow out its precepts in good faith and simplicity. There was in his mind an almost intuitive perception of abstract right and justice, and the best mode of administering them in the exigencies of any particular case. He had the rare power to grasp a cause, and develope its merits and demerits almost as soon as it was proposed. In his charges to the jury he was exact and full, and dis

posed of the questions of law under consideration freely and fearlessly. In short, as a judge, he was eminent for his wisdom and accuracy; for his dignified deportment; (his deportment was dignified without partaking of that owlish gravity with which gentlemen of the bench are sometimes afflicted;) for his firmness in preserving order in the court-room, and maintaining the rights of the bench without giving offence; and for his happy faculty of despatching business rapidly without being in a hurry. In his judicial capacity, too, he was a proper model for emulation and ambition-elevated, solid, pure.

As a TEACHER of law, we hazard nothing in saying that he was without a superior. Being deeply sensible of the paramount importance of legal learning in the United States, he brought the energies of his early manhood to the law-school, of which he was the most ardent friend and supporter, and devoted his time and talents to it during the remainder of his life. To his well-known and acknowledged eminence among the gentlemen of the profession; to his unrivalled attainments in the various departments of legal science; to his long experience in giving instruction; to his talents, judgment and skill in teaching, the law-school owes a large share of its present reputation. His instruction was severe, thorough and profound. It compelled the student to think; it aroused, disciplined, and strengthened the mind, while it brought with it the conscious rewards of labor. In his oral instructions he expounded the principles of the law with felicity, being clear in his statements, striking in his illustrations, and forcible in his expositions. Entertaining the highest views of the usefulness and the dignity of the law, he endeavored to impress the minds of his pupils with a just sense of the importance and responsibility of the station for which they were fitting themselves. To impress upon them, by precept and by example, the beauty of a virtuous life; to show that professional triumphs are useless unless honorably obtained; to show that to be a great lawyer it is necessary to be a good man; to inculcate respect for the law and its constituted authorities; to unfold the principles of his favorite science; to hold up a high standard of professional virtue and morality; to animate his pupils with zeal in their country's welfare; to do this, was an object sufficient to engage his attention and fill the measure of his life. He would have his pupils imbued with sound principles of law, with exalted views of the utility of their profession and of the responsibility of their offices as ministers of the temple of justice, with a realizing sense of their duty to the cause of learning, to society, and to GOD. He held in utter contempt and denounced the conduct of men who practice law as a trade, and not as a science; men

'that can speak To every cause, and things mere contraries, Till they are hoarse again, yet all be law.'

He would not however have a lawyer withhold his assistance from the accused, but at the same time he would not have him presume for a moment that conducting an appeal at law was his only

duty; he would have him remember that he is a citizen. In short, he would have the lawyer scorn to do any mean thing; he would have him virtuous, a man of inflexible integrity, of unsullied honor, of spotless reputation, of high and noble aspirations, of enlightened benevolence and pure patriotism; he would have him a minister of justice, a peace-maker. He would have him feel that he is responsible not only to his client but also to his own conscience, to the court and the cause of justice, and that it is impious to pervert the precepts of the law in order to aid in the triumphs of injustice. His intercourse with his pupils was always of the most friendly character, and he inspired those who approached him with something of his own ardor in the pursuit of their studies. With melancholy pleasure do those who were so fortunate as to enjoy his instructions remember his kindness, his words of encouragement, and his untiring patience in listening to the inquiries and solving the difficulties of the young student. They always speak of him in terms of the highest praise, and consider it one of their greatest privileges that they were permitted to learn from him lessons of wisdom; lessons

'PERFECT and much to be desired, and giving joy with riches,

Which Diligence loveth to gather, and hang round the neck of Memory;
Thought carefully tendeth, in the kindly garden of the heart.'

A student of his writes us as follows: As you well know, Judge Hitchcock's lectures were for the most part extemporaneous. He had a system and a course, from which he did not materially deviate during successive years. But he preferred to trust to the subject and the occasion to suggest the form of expression in which he should convey his instructions. This was entirely in accordance with a maxim of his own, that a good lawyer should trust to his head rather than to his note-book. His most remarkable qualification as an instructor was one which the peculiar discipline of a well-educated lawyer is apt to produce-perspicuity. I do not think that the dullest student on the benches ever failed to understand exactly what the Professor meant. I never knew an explanation asked of a point which he had once elucidated. He was full of illustration, new and old; and I even recollect one day, when although he was suffering from an agonizing tooth-ache, he kept the class in a humor very nearly approaching to merriment by a succession of witty corruscations. He was always lost in his subject, and bodily pain never probably impeded his mental activity. His various and accurate knowledge-I never knew his equal in the latter respect; what he knew, he knew for certain qualified him to make law lectures exceedingly entertaining. In the treasures of history, which are intertwined so thoroughly with legal knowledge, he was absolutely rich, and there was no subject upon which he was more earnest than in urging the necessity of historical learning to a sound lawyer. 'While lecturing, his eyes were usually fixed upon the table before him, and rarely turned toward his students. Occasionally however, an ingenious inquiry from some one of them would induce him to raise for a moment as lustrous a pair of expressive black orbs as

ever adorned a human face. He was approachable in his office at all times; and although his studious and thoughtful air often led one to fear interrupting him, I do not think that he ever allowed one to suppose him interrupted. I have spoken of his wit. It was as keen as a sword. His humorous remarks were always dry, and never uttered with an air. In fact, it was impossible sometimes to tell, with such exceeding gravity and such truthfulness of manner were his 'flings' made, whether he intended a mere barren statement of a fact or a most delicate stroke of wit. He was admirably versed in the political history of our country, and was probably as competent to give a history of American law as any person in our country. I once heard him state that it was very far from being a pecuniary object of any moment for him to continue the lawschool.'

Though not a strenuous partisan in politics he was an old-fashioned federalist, and a fit specimen of the excellence of the school of the patriots and statesmen of the days of WASHINGTON. He regarded the union of the States as the palladium of our liberty. An inflexible advocate of republican institutions, he was a firm friend of the Constitution, and had confidence in its redeeming power to allay the perturbations of party spirit. He was a patriot and a statesman, in the purest sense of the words.

We should not do justice to the subject of this sketch were we not to speak of his Christian character. Of his religious character it may be said that it was like his character in other respects, retiring. In his religious affections and emotions, as in all the affections and emotions of his nature, he depended very little upon sympathy with others; and he sometimes may have seemed to repel such sympathy rather than to seek it. But the most striking feature of his religious character was, that notwithstanding his retired and almost unsocial habits, he never shrunk from what he recognized as duty. Show him any way in which he could do good, without interfering with some duty already clearly incumbent, and he was always ready to undertake the service. It was near the close of his career as tutor in college, that he became a Christian; during the revival of 1815.' Soon after that period he united with the Centre church, and was the superintendent of the Sabbath school when first a Sabbath school was attempted in New-Haven. He gave instruction from Sabbath to Sabbath, for several years, to a large class of young men, who counted their membership in his Bible-class one of their highest privileges. In 1833 he was chosen and ordained to the office of a deacon in his church, which he held until his death." *

His uniform and steadfast adherence to Christian truth, the even tenor of his exemplary life, his profound and extensive scriptural and theological knowledge, combined with an earnest desire for the spread of the blessings of the gospel, gave him a standing and an influence in the church, which seldom fall to the lot of a man engaged in a secular profession. Though a sincere and hearty Con

* FROM Dr. BACON's Discourse at the funeral of Judge HITCHCOCK.

gregationalist, he was free from all bigotry and narrow-mindedness. His standard in religious matters, as in every thing else, was high and severe. There was a beauty in his daily walk which all loved. The same consistency and conscientious adherence to what he professed characterized him in every sphere of life in which he moved. He was fixed in his principles, and neither honor nor emolument could move him. Not that he was without ambition; he had ambition; but it was a sanctified, Christian ambition; ambition for wisdom, and not for power, that he might receive its ordinary rewards and attract the public gaze. His was a higher aim and a more enduring object.

But after all, interesting as it is to contemplate such an one in his public functions, it is as a man that those who knew Mr. Hitchcock best will most delight to contemplate him. He was one of the few great men whose greatness was not diminished in the estimate of those who approached him. The virtues of his private character endeared him to those who saw him in the retired scenes of life, and to all with whom he was associated. A natural reserve and diffidence, which accompanied him from his earliest youth, conveyed to the casual observer an idea of sternness, and occasioned the unmerited imputation, among those who knew him not, of pride. His retiring and modest habits might have seemed at first to some to be indicative of an unfeeling heart, having but little love for the social scenes and pleasures of life. But nothing could be farther from the truth. He was of a social disposition, and often indulged in playful humor and familiar conversation with his friends. He was a man of extreme sensibility; and this, combined with the pressure of his professional duties, prevented him from mingling to any great extent in general society. The impression of austerity or coldness was always removed by an intimate acquaintance with him. He was warm in his friendships; he was hospitable, unobtrusive, frank, kind, affectionate; a charitable benefactor to the poor; possessed of generosity without affectation, and in his domestic relations a model; a union of virtues which fancy may portray but which is rarely met with in real life.

Such then is a sketch of the life and character of JUDGE HitchCOCK. In them we find much that commands our respect, much that excites our admiration, much that engages our affection. Few men have left a character of such untarnished virtue. Such men are not

the gift of every age. They appear only at distant intervals. They

are beings of a superior order, sent into the world to enlighten and elevate the human race. His example should not be lost to the world.

The Rev. Mr. PIERPONT, after recounting some of the difficulties and rough realties with which Judge Hitchcock had to grapple in early life, and alluding to the eminence to which he slowly but steadily ascended, proceeds: This I know is exceedingly jejune, but I think that these facts are instructive and encouraging, especially to the young. They show not only that obstacles to one's progress and destination in life may be overcome by a determined will, but