city;' and so it certainly is in an especial degree, to such as are occupied with that kind of pursuits which require assistance, co-operation, and sustained emulation, to say nothing of the numerous other aids to knowledge, which concentrate in these populous assemblages of men. Doubtless this benefit of association among those engaged in kindred pursuits, gave a great part of their value to ancient schools, as those of Athens, and of Alexandria, in an age when printing had neither so greatly multiplied the manuals of learning, nor had substituted for this actual association that 'converse with the illustrious dead' which a man may now hold as it were, through the aid of books, without ever going out of his native village.

Biography at this day, by means of the press, collects for the most solitary reader, all the great subjects of her story, as it were, into one illustrious and universal school, in which the living and the dead,-those separated by time, and those by distance, are united for the contemplation and the imitation of the aspirant. Here every variety of genius may find a model, every variety of temperament take solace and courage; and the competitor in every course draw 'the inspiring breath' of emulation from his predecessors: hence competition is widened, so to speak, beyond the sphere of our immediate companionship; our views are expanded by seeing what has been attempted; and our hopes elevated by what has been accomplished, by so many sages and veterans in our particular pursuit. So likewise useful hints in the general order of our studies, practical examples of the value of method and perseverance; rules for the just conduct of professional life, may be collected in this academy of the venerable dead. The sage ethical poet has said of the youthful student, 'Resistless burns the fever of renown,

Caught from the strong contagion of the gown;'

but stronger and deeper is the contagion caught from the contemplation of the models which biography exhibits of those whose example is especially inciting, as it transcends the usual level of life; and youth is particularly the season for its

study. Biography, with touches more distinct than those of history, and in more enlarged proportions than is consistent with the latter, cannot fail, at that tender age especially, to make the liveliest and most enduring impressions:

"For if on youth's untainted thought imprest,

The generous purpose still shall warm the manly breast.'

If useful discoveries and inventions; increase of learning; the spread of religion, and the general melioration of society, concern us as abstract facts, they acquire additional interest when associated with a knowledge of the individuals to whom we are indebted for their introduction. Hence biography, in general, is a no less pleasing than useful study: it is history teaching by example, stimulating our ambition, and guiding our footsteps, and forcibly illustrating the means of improving various kinds of talent; pointing out the success of persevering industry directed by integrity, and the deference, honours, and influence accorded to enlightened genius.

As law is a growth well adapted to the American soil, our admiration of the progress of legal science among us is very natural, and should be accompanied with a desire of some acquaintance with its cultivators. It is, perhaps, not a rash assertion, that no country for the same population, ever produced in the space of an half century, as many deeply learned and scientific lawyers. The bar of nearly every state in the union, has been distinguished by more than one legal Hercules. Some of these luminaries have departed from us, leaving the brilliance of their fame for our contemplation; others, from their meridian height, now enlighten and warm us. Let the youths of the present day follow their paths; and as the setting horizon receives those now on the ascendant, may the culmination of those emerging from the dawn, be at least as splendid as that to which they have succeeded.

The lives of such eminent American jurists, as have been published, will no doubt be consulted with a national and professional interest: it were invidious to dwell on the many profound and accomplished judges and lawyers, who continue

to adorn the bench and bar of the Union, and of the States, as the student in the course of his studies will become familiar with their names and their fame.

We now present to the student some of the best specimens of American legal biography, (an extremely meagre list) and such other relative matters as may enlarge his acquaintance with the names at least, of those who have fashioned the system of American Law.

TABLE I.

LIVES of American Jurists.

1. Wheaton's Life, Writings and Speeches of Wm. Pinkney. Baltimore, 1826, 1 vol. 8vo.

2. Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry, 1817.

3. Life of William Wirt. Baltimore, 1832.

4. Life of Fisher Ames, 1809, 1 vol. 8vo.

5. Bowen's Memoir of Tristram Burgess. Philadelphia, 1835.

6. Knapp's Biographical Sketches of Eminent Lawyers and Statesmen. Boston, 1821, 1 vol. Svo.-viz:

[Parsons, Sumner, Warren, Green, Eliot, Mather, Knapp, Byles, Adams, Kilby, Osborn, Church, Orne, Allen, Read, Pratt, Lathrop, Gridley, Sewall, Hovey, West, Cooke, Sullivan, Dalton, Otis, Leonard, Ruggles, Sprague, Cushing, Hammond, Washburn, Hodge.]

7. American Jurist. [Bushrod Washington, Thomas Addis Emmet, George Bliss, Robert Trimble, Nathan Dane, William Wirt, &c.]

8. Prentice's Life of Henry Clay, 1832.

9. Life of Daniel Webster, 1835.

10. Holland's Life of Martin Van Buren, 1835.

11. Learned's Life of Hugh L. White, 1835.

TABLE II.

LIST of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, with the date of their Commissions, from the organization of the Court, to the present time.

1. JOHN JAY, of N. York, [born Dec. 1, 1745, died May 17, 1829.] CHIEF Justice, Appointed Sept. 26th, 1789.

2. WILLIAM CUSHING, of Massachusetts, [born March 1733, died Sept. 13, 1810.] Associate, Sept. 27th, 1789.

3. JAMES WILSON, of Pennsylvania, [born in Scotland, 1742, died Aug. 1798.] Associate, Sept. 29th, 1789.

4. JOHN BLAIR, of Virginia, [born 1732, died Aug. 1800.] Associate, Sept. 30, 1789. 5. JAMES IREDELL, of North Carolina, [born died Oct. 1799.] Associate,

February 10th, 1790.

6. THOMAS JOHNSON, of Maryland, [born 1732, died Oct. 19th, 1819.] Associate, November 7th, 1791.

7. WILLIAM PATERSON, of N. Jersey, [born 1741, died Sept. 9th, 1806.] Associate, March 4th, 1793. (In the place of Mr. Justice Johnson, resigned.)

8. JOHN RUTLEDGE, of S. Carolina, [born in Ireland,

died July, 1800.] CHIEF

JUSTICE, July 1st, 1795. (In the place of Mr. C. J. Jay, resigned.)

9. SAMUEL CHASE, of Maryland, [born April 17th, 1741, died June 19th, 1811.] Associate, January 27th, 1796. (In the place of Mr. Justice Blair, resigned.) 10. OLIVER ELLSWORTH, of Connecticut, [born April 29, 1745, died Nov. 26, 1807.] CHIEF JUSTICE, March 4, 1796. (Appointed in the place of Mr C. J. Rutledge, resigned.)

11. BUSHROD WASHINGTON, of Virginia, [born 1759, died at Philadelphia, Nov. 26, 1829.] Associate, Dec. 20, 1798. (In the place of Mr. Justice Wilson, deceased.)

12. ALFRED MOORE, of North Carolina, [born 1755, died Oct. 15, 1810.] Associate, Dec. 10, 1799. (In the place of Mr. Justice Iredell, deceased.)

13. JOHN MARSHALL, of Virginia, [born Sept. 24th, 1755, died at Philadelphia, July 6th, 1835.] CHIEF JUSTICE, Jan 31, 1801. (In the place of Mr. C. J. Ellsworth, resigned.)

14. WILLIAM JOHNSON, of S. Carolina, [born 1763, died at Brooklyn, L. I. Aug. 4, 1834.] Associate, March 6, 1804. (In the place of Mr. Just. Moore, resigned.) 15. BROCKHOLST LIVINGSTON, of N. York, [born Nov. 25th, 1757, died at Washington, March 18th, 1823.] Associate, Nov. 10, 1806. (In the place of Mr. Justice Paterson, deceased.)

16. THOMAS TODD, of Kentucky, [died January, 1826.]

(Appointed under the act of Congress, Feb. 1807,
Justice.)

Associate, March 3, 1807. providing for an additional

17. GABRIEL DUVALL, of Maryland, resigned Dec. 1834. Associate, Nov. 18, 1811. (In the place of Mr. Justice Chase, deceased.)

19. JOSEPH STORY, of Massachusetts. Associate, Nov. 18, 1811. (In the place of Mr. Justice Cushing, deceased.)

19. SMITH THOMPSON, of N. York. Associate, Dec. 9, 1823. (In the place of Mr. Justice Livingston, deceased.)

20. ROBERT TRIMBLE, of Kentucky, [born 1777, died Sept. 1828.] Associate, May 9, 1826. (In the place of Mr. Justice Todd, deceased.)

21. JOHN MCLEAN, of Ohio. Associate, March, 1829. (In the place of Mr. Justice Trimble, deceased.)

22. HENRY BALDWIN, of Pennsylvania. Associate, January, 1830. (In the place of Mr. Justice Washington, deceased.)

23. JAMES M. WAYNE, of Georgia. Associate, Dec. 1835. (In the place of Mr. Justice Johnson, deceased.)

SALARIES.-Chief Justice, $5,000.--Associates, $4,500.-Attorney General, $4,000. Reporter, $1,000, and emoluments from the sales of his volumes.

TABLE III.

LIST of American Lawyers, whose biography merits some attention.*

ADAMS, (Andrew) Connecticut. Died November, 1797, aged 61.

ADAMS, (John) second President of the United States, born October 30, 1735, died

4th July, 1826.

ADDISON, (Alexander) Pennsylvania: Judge, Reporter, died November 24, 1807, aged 48.

ALLEN, (William) Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, appointed 1750, died 1780.
AMES, (Fisher) Dedham, Mass. born 9th April, 1758, died 4th July, 1808.

ATKINSON, (Theodore) Chief Justice of New Hampshire, died 1779.

BAYARD, (James A.) Philadelphia, 1767, died August, 1815.

BIGELOW, (Timothy) Worcester, Massachusetts: born 30th April, 1767, died 18th May, 1821.

BLAIR, (John) Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States: died August 1800, aged 68.

BRACKENRIDGE, (Hugh Henry) a Judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania: born 1749, died 1816.

Brackenridge, (John) Attorney General of the United States: died 1806.

BRADFORD, (William) Attorney General of the United States: born at Philadelphia, 14th September, 1755, died 23d August, 1795.

BREARLEY, (David) Chief Justice of New Jersey, 1763: died August, 1790.

BRYAN, (George) Judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania: appointed 1780, died January 28, 1791.

BURKE, (Acdanus) Judge of the Supreme Court of South Carolina: died 30th March, 1802, aged 59.

BYFIELD, (Nathaniel) Judge of the Vice Admiralty: born 1653, died at Boston, 1733.
CHAPMAN, (Asa) Judge of the Supreme Court of Connecticut: died 1825.
CHASE, (Samuel) of Maryland, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United

States: born April 17, 1741, died June 19, 1811.

CHAUNCEY, (Charles) Judge of the Supreme Court of Connecticut: died 1823.

CHEW, (Samuel) Chief Justice of Pennsylvania: died 1744.

CHEW, (Benjamin) Chief Justice of Pennsylvania: died 1810, aged 87.

CUSHING, (William) Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States: Massachusetts, born March, 1733, died 13th September, 1810.

*The following list is, of course, extremely imperfect, and presents a meagre catalogue of the eminent lawyers of our country; as our limits, and the object itself of the enumeration, equally exclude one that would be complete, and this is offered that it may give the student the first means and impulse of inquiring into the much neglected subject of American legal biography.