fruit, many fold, in your own achievements and renown." When Mr. Proctor had continued his work and completed several biographies, he received a letter from Judge Conkling, in which the writer said: "A powerful rival has entered the field you are occupying, intent on writing a work of the same character as that on which you are engaged, and I think it proper, indeed, I feel it my duty, to call your attention to the subject before you go any farther with your work. The rival to whom I refer is Henry B. Stanton, of New York, a writer of acknowledged ability, a lawyer of high standing, a legislator not without renown, and a son-in-law of that illustrious jurist. Daniel Cady. Mr. Stanton is sustained by an influence that will be largely in his favor. You can see at once, my dear friend, the advantage this gentleman has over you. I do not underrate your qualifications, in any manner, for I am satisfied you possess rare ability; but that is comparatively of little consequence in a case like this. The public is guided largely by outside appearances and the advantageous circumstances that surround a writer. However, you can continue your work and do as your opponent is doing — publish some portions of it in advance sheets in the ALBANY LAW JOURNAL. In this way you will soon ascertain the opinion of the public in regard to the matter. If you are to be successful. you will soon know it: if your rival is to be the fortunate one, the sooner you know it the better: for, of course. the field will not permit both of you to occupy it." -- This letter. coming as it did from so distinguished a writer. from a man upon whom Mr. Proctor had so largely relied for information and encouragement in regard to his work, fell heavily "Don his ambition. and he at once decided to abandon the field to his rival. He felt the full force of Judge Conkling's remark regarding the powerful influence his rival could bring to his aid and the want of that influence in support of himself. He took the material he had gathered for his work with so much industry. put it out of sight and turned his attention to something else. But he read Mr. Stanton's advance sheets as they appeared in the ALBANY LAW JOURNAL very carefully and fairly. As he studied them he thought he found superiority in his own productions. Then, again, it occurred to him that all writers are prone to see excellence in their own productions which others do not. But time went on and he, continued to read Mr. Stanton's advance sheets, comparing them with his own work, and his confidence in his own increased as he read, until he decided to take Judge Conkling's advice and put advance sheets of his own work in the ALBANY LAW JOURNAL. Among the biographies he had completed was that of John C. Spencer. Upon this he had expended much research and labor, and he had writ ten it with great care and all the ability he possessed. It was an exceedingly important and difficult subject for the young writer to undertake, for John C. Spencer was one of the greatest of New York's statesmen and jurists; one of the revisers of the New York statutes, special counsel appointed by De Witt Clinton to prosecute the abductors of William Morgan; a member of the famous congress of 1816, whose powerful speeches and reports against the recharter of the United States Bank places him first among the legislative orators and writers of that period, and secretary of the treasury under John Tyler, ranking among the ablest American lawyers. Having given the biography another careful review. he sent it to the ALBANY LAW JOURNAL. addressed to that learned. accomplished and highly distinguished journalist. Isaac Grant Thompson. then the editor of that paper. with a note, saying: I have entered the field of legal history and biography. I have adopted a subject which ought to be attractive, not only to the legal profession, but to the public, and would be, if written by a writer capable of handling it, the history of the | bench and bar of the State of New York, thus far never written. "I send you herewith an extract from the life of John C. Spencer, that truly illustrious lawyer. jurist and statesman, knowing your ripe learning and rare ability as a writer, with much hesitation and many doubts as to my work being regarded worthy of your attention. Nevertheless, I respectfully ask for it a careful examination as to whatever ability it has, and also a fair analytic review of its faults. If you find it worthy of publication. as an advance sheet of my work, I shall be exceedingly gratified to have it appear in the columns of the ALBANY LAW JOURNAL; if not, kindly return the MS. to me, and I will thank you for whatever criticisms may accompany it, for I know they will be just, true and generous." Mr. Proctor committed the MSS. to the mail. not without forebodings that its fate would be consignment to the waste-paper basket, or a return to him of what had cost him so much care and labor. The first issue of the LAW JOURNAL after this made no reference to it. This was not entirely surprising; he could hardly expect it The next issue he opened with some trepidation and anxiety. To his astonishment he saw it contained his article, and what is more, it was the leading one, occupying the place of honor in the journal. With it was an editorial note, calling the attention of the readers of the journal to it as an article that would command their admiration; that it was from the pen of L. B. Proctor, who was now engaged in writing the history of the bench and bar of the State of New York; that he had entered a hitherto unoccupied field, and the editor assured his readers that the author had entered the field to attain success in it. Accompanying this journal was a letter from Mr. Thompson, the editor, thanking Mr. Proctor for the paper, expressing his admiration for it and requesting that the whole biography be sent him to be published in numbers, which was done. The appearance of this biography in the LAW JOURNAL brought highly commendatory notices from the Rochester Union and Advertiser, from the pen of the revered editor of the Buffalo Courier, David Gray, whose name still shines bright in the history of journalism of the State and nation, and from other leading journals. The favor with which his paper was received put new life into the author, inspired him with confidence and fixed his determination to continue the work. Not long after the appearance of Mr. Spencer's biography in the ALBANY LAW JOURNAL the author began to receive letters from leading publishing houses, inquiring whether or not a publisher had been secured. At length he received communications from the law publishing house of Diossy & Company, of New York, with which a contract for the work was soon closed, and Mr. Proctor proceeded with his writing until the work reached a successful completion. The appearance of Mr. Spencer's biography was favorably received by the profession and the judiciary. The writer's description of the subject of his sketch was regarded as exceedingly truthful. striking and novel, and was written in a manner that showed him master of the work he had undertaken, which is exhibited by the following extract from the biography: It has been said by an eminent English writer that Macaulay was the philosopher and Lamartine the poet of history. With equal propriety may it be said that John C. Spencer was the philosopher and Ogden Hoffman the poet of the New York State bar. Not that the latter, like Talfourd, actually divided his time between law and poetry: not that he, like Lord Tenderden, was more proud of his iambics and hexameters' than of his triumphs at the bar. Yet Mr. Hoffman did not yield to the opinion that legal arguments and forensic efforts require no decoration of elocution to render them forcible and effective. He did not, therefore, endeavor to emancipate himself from all oratorical rules; but he knew how to adapt his elocution to profundity and comprehensiveness, to the rules of logic. to the philosophy of the dull black letter of the law! Often, however, before a jury, his vivacity his facility of sentiment his power of picturesque illustration his pathos, aroused emotions something like those created by the inspiration of the poet. The meditative character of Mr. Spencer's mind led him to philosophic disquisitions to the contemplation of the abstract student to the coinage of logical deductions. His mind did not work by sudden and strong im pulses, leaping with irresistible force to its conclusions, but by calm and laborious processes. tending silently, yet surely, thereto.' He was not easily excited by the delicate and exquisite beauties of poesy; he never indulged in a variety of imagery in flights of fancy in touches of pathos. Therefore his speeches at the bar, in the popular assembly, in legislative bodies, were delivered in language severely correct, scrupulously pure, but free from all rhetorical drapery. He possessed the power of giving an ethical interest to his subject of penetrating deeply into it - of establishing, by the clearest and subtlest train of reasoning, those delicate lines which divide apparently analogous precedents. Another feature of Mr. Spencer's mind was the singular sagacity with which he seized upon questions of fact, the facility with which he disentangled the point in dispute from sophistry and error, and reduced a perplexed and elaborate question of law to a plain problem of common sense. Thus, without the magic of Mr. Hoffman's eloquence, he was as powerful and successful before a jury as he was before those courts where nothing but plain questions of law are discussed and settled." The work, "The Bench and Bar of the State of New York." has met with remarkable success. not only at home, but throughout the Union. The attractive title aroused the interest of the profession and of the judiciary, and expectations were fully realized in the contents and style of the production. The work was also well received in Europe, having been reprinted in Germany by a well-known publishing house in Berlin, the neces sary arrangements having been made with the original publishers. Judge John K. Porter wrote from London to the author, saying that the work was eagerly perused by the profession and the judiciary, one of the latter remarking that he was not aware that American legal literature had reached such a high state as was exhibited in this work. The Bench and Bar of the State of New York" passed into several editions. (To be continued next week.) NEW YORK STATE BAR ASSOCIATION. Tassociation will be held in this city on HE annual meeting of the New York State Tuesday and Wednesday, January 16th and 17th. As usual, the regular sessions will be held in the common council chamber, City Hall. The opening session will be at 10 A. M. on Tuesday, at which time the president. Walter S. Logan, of New York, will deliver his address, the subject chosen being "The Limitation of Inheritance." The regular order will then be proceeded with. including the reading of addresses and papers, the selection of officers and the appointment and reports of special and standing committees, until 6 o'clock, when a recess will be taken to meet in the assembly chamber in the capitol at 8 o'clock. The following extract from the announcement sent to the members of the association attaches importance to Justice Brown's address: "At 8 o'clock, in the assembly chamber, the annual address before the association will be delivered by Mr. Justice Brown, of the Supreme Court of the United States, on The Liberty of the Press. We bespeak for the eminent jurist. who has so kindly consented to attend our meeting, notwithstanding his arduous labors on the bench and his needed presence in Washington, a large and appreciative audience of his brethren at the bar and others, who will be interested as well as instructed by his masterful treatment of this live topic." Admission to the address will be by card. except to members; cards for non-members can be procured from the secretary. After the address a reception will be given Justice Brown at the Fort Orange Club, where the members of the association will have an opportunity to meet him and each other. The association will convene again in the common council chamber at 10 A. M. on Wednesday, when matters of interest to the profession will be considered, reports of committees discussed, and such other business transacted as shall come before it. The list of papers and addresses to be read before the association is large, and includes important subjects by men distinguished in the profession. The list includes: Hon. James Alston Cabell. of the bar of Richmond, Va., subject," The Trial of Aaron Burr;" Hon. Felix Brannigan, of the department of justice, Washington, D. C., subject. "On the Legal Aspects of the Philippine Question:" Prof. E. W. Huffcutt. of the College of Law, Cornell University, on "Federal Control of Corporations;” William Larremore, Esq., of New York bar, on the Constitutional Regulation of Contempt of Court; Simon Fleischman, Esq.. of the Buffalo bar, on "A Correct Basis for Corporate Taxation; " Walter S. Jenkins, Esq., of the Buffalo bar, on Taxable Transfers, Inter Vivos: Prof. Charles F. Bostwick, of the University Law School. New York city, on " Corporate Finance in Law;" James W. Easton, Esq., of the Albany Law School, on The Historical Method as Applied to the Study of Law;" and J. Newton Fiero, Esq., "On the Taxation of Corporate Franchises." On the night of January 17, at 7:30 o'clock, the annual banquet of the association will be given in the Ten Eyck. Tickets for the banquet can be procured at any time from Mr. Frederick E. Wadhams, secretary of the association, No. 33 Tweddle Building, by mail or in person, or on either of the days of the meeting. The banquet will be for members of the association only. The committee on law reform proposes the following questions for discussion at the meeting: First. Is it desirable that the northern district of New York be divided and an additional Federal district created? Second. What action should be taken by this association with reference to the present condition of statutory revision? Third. What method should be adopted to ob tain proper consideration by the bar of the State of the proposed revision of the code prepared by the statutory revision commission? The State board of law examiners will hold an examination on Wednesday afternoon. January 17. in the City Hall. The committee of arrangements of the annual meeting is composed of Franklin M. Danaher, Albert Hessberg, William P. Rudd, George W. Daw, Louis W. Marcus, L. W. Baxter, Charles W. Dayton, Henry E. Tremain, J. P. Allds and James P. Phillips. TH FLAGS OF TRUCE. HE general rule, in reference to deceit, is that it may be practiced when war is progressing. Deceit is employed either to prepare the means of doing turbulent acts under favorable circumstances by misleading the enemy prior to an attack, or to render attack useless by inducing him to surrender, to evacuate a place held by him, or induce him to come to terms. Particular acts and signs, however, according to the customs and usages of war, have specific meanings, by reason that belligerents may carry on certain necessary intercourse. Where an understanding evidently exists that particular acts shall be done, or signs used, or characters assumed, persons and things associated with an army under a flag of truce are exempted from liability, and they cannot be employed in deceiving the enemy. Information cannot be surreptitiously obtained under a flag of truce, and the bearer of a misused flag may be treated by the enemy as a spy. Persons not covered by the enactments of the Geneva Convention must not be protected by its cross. To use the distinctive emblems of an enemy is perfectly legitimate when escape is desired, or when it is wished to draw his forces into action. In actual battle, enemies are bound to combat loyally, and are not free to ensure victory by putting on a mask of friendship." A commander may, of course, avail himself of information, if given by a traitor; how far he is justified in endeavoring to suborn treachery is not an easy question to answer. An officer may pretend to be a traitor for the purpose of ensnaring the enemy who attempts to corrupt his fidelity; but where he voluntarily makes overtures to the enemy under the pretence of being a traitor, and then deceives the enemy with false information, his conduct is, according to the customs of war, most dishonorable. Stratagems, of course, are allowable, such as false attacks, the dissemination of false information; in fact, every mode of deceiving the enemy by act or word which is not perfidious, is permissible according to the rules of civilized warfare. Conversely, no deceit is allowable where an express or implied engagement exists that the truth should be acted or spoken. "To violate such an engagement is perfidy, and contrary alike to the customs of war and the dictates of honor." As an illustration, it is a gross breach of faith and an outrage against the customs of war to hoist an hospital flag on a building not appropriated to the wounded, or to use a place protected by an hospital flag for any other purpose than an hospital. (See Vattel, vol. ii, p. 207; and Halleck, vol. ii, p. 25 et seq.) Hostilities may be suspended by means of a truce or armistice, which may be either general or special. If it be general in its application, it refers to all hostilities in every place, and is to endure indefinitely it amounts in effect to a temporary peace; it does not, however, decide the controverry in which the war originated. A special truce only applies to certain places, such as the suspension of hostilities, which may take place between two contending armies of between a besieged fortress and the army by which it is invested. (See Vattel, Droit dés Gens, book iii, c. 16, ss. 235, 236.) The conclusion of a general truce requires either the previous special authority of the supreme power of the State or a subsequent ratification by such power. A partial truce or limited suspension of hostilities may be concluded between the military and naval officers of the respective belligerent States, without any special authority for that purpose, where from the nature and extent of their commands such an authority is necessarily implied as essential to the fulfilment of their official duties. - Law Times (London). Legal Botes. The senate has confirmed the nomination of Mr. Job Barnard as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. One of the features of the new German Code, which went into effect on January 1st, 1900, is the absolute equality of men and women under it. William B. Gage, the Boston lawyer who died the other day, was a life-long friend of Gen. Butler, and was preparing material for a life of Butler at the time of his death. Mr. Gage represented the defense in more murder trials, and was more often successful in such cases, than almost any lawyer practicing in Massachusetts. Governor Roosevelt has announced the follow ing appointments: Supreme Court Justice Michael Herschberg, of Newburgh, as an associate justice on the Appellate Division bench for the Second Department, to take the place of Justice Cullen, of Brooklyn, designated as an associate judge of the Court of Appeals; Supreme Court Justice Frank H. Hiscock, of Syracuse, and Frank C. Laughlin, of Buffalo, to sit in the Appellate Division Court for the Fourth Department, and John B. M. Stevens, of Rochester, as special county judge of Monroe county, to succeed Judge Carnahan, elected mayor of Rochester. Josiah H. Bissell, author of Bissell's United States Reports, and a well-known Chicago attorney, was adjudged insane on December 27, 1899, and sent to the Elgin asylum to be treated. It has been known to the friends of Mr. Bissell that he has been subject for a number of years to periodical fits of insanity. Mr. Bissell was accompanied to the court by George W. Stanford, a veteran of the Chicago bar. The Court of Appeals of Indian Territory, in a recent opinion (Missouri, K. & T. Ry. Co. v. Truskett, 53 S. W. 447), indulge in the following: As to the sixth assignment of error, the contention of appellant is that the fall of a heavy dew is an act of God, which should relieve a common carrier from its liability. We cannot concur with appellant in this contention. Had the dew been of that brand well known as Mountain Dew,' it might have affected the engineer and fireman, but not the engine or corporation itself, to the extent of relieving it from the obligation of its contracts." A new advertising scheme was recently employed by a firm in a southern city. The junior partner of the firm swore out a warrant for the arrest of the senior partner on the ground that he was selling goods below cost, and that the firm was constantly losing money thereby. The case came up in court, and the counsel for the senior partner asked for a postponement in order to have more time to prepare his case. The judge granted the request, bail was fixed, and the senior member During 1899 there were 131 legal executions, as compared with 109 in 1898. There were 100 persons executed in the south and 31 in the north, of whom 58 were whites, 72 blacks and Indian. The crimes committed were: Murder, 113; rape, 17; highway robbery, I. There were 19 execu tions in Georgia, 10 in Alabama, 11 in Texas, & in Maryland, Missouri and Pennsylvania, and 7 in New York. During the past year there were 6,225 murders, as compared with 7,840 in 1898. Of these 3.309 were due to quarrels, 296 by highwaymen, 212 due to liquor, and 173 to jealousy. There were 5.340 suicides, as compared with 5,920 in 1898. Of these 2,573 were due to despondency, 355 to insanity, 191 to domestic infelicity, 146 to disappointed love, and 127 to liquor. Some of the methods were: Poison, 2,134; shooting, 1,953; hanging, 527: cutting the throat, 316, and drowning, 30. The record of embezzling, forgery, defaulting and bank wreckage for the past year was the smallest ever known, the total being but $2,718,373, as compared with $5,851,263 in 1891, and $11,248,084 in 1897. Judge John H. Baker, of the United States Court, recently held that an ordinance of Terre Haute requiring an extra-state brewing company to pay a license of $1,000 for conducting a beer depot was invalid. The court held that making beer in one State and shipping it to another is interstate commerce, and a State law denying such right, or substantially interfering with it, is in conflict with the Federal Constitution. The controlling question in the case, the court says, is whether the law passed by Terre Haute was enacted in the exercise of its police powers or under its powers of taxation. If under the power of taxation the law would be invalid as to citizens of other States, even though valid as to citizens of this State. Any statute or ordinance enacted under the police power of the State must have some relation to the peace, good order, health, morality, or security of the people," Judge Baker says. "The ordinance in question contains no provision for any supervision, control or regulation of the business of the handling, storing or selling of beer, or supervising, controlling or regulating the depot or agency in which it is stored. Exacting a license from the owner of the depot or agency where beer is stored does not, so far as the court can see, have any necessary relation to the peace, good order, health, morality or security of society in the absence of any provision for the control of such depot or agency." - Indianapolis News. Mr. Justice Wills has found it necessary to repeat the familiar saying that a court of justice is not a theater, says the London Law Journal. The acquittal of a woman who was tried at Guildford on a charge of murdering her illegitimate child was received with loud applause by some members of her sex in the gallery of the court. The learned judge, having directed the chief offender to be brought before him, informed her that she had rendered herself liable to be sent to prison, but he contented himself with giving her a serious warning that a court of justice was not a place where expressions of approval or disapproval could be permitted. He was more merciful than the late Lord Coleridge, who, during a trial at Leeds in 1893, sent a youth to prison for forty-eight hours for allowing his feelings of emotion to overcome his sense of decorum. Macaulay states that the acquittal of the Seven Bishops was followed by great shouting in court, and that the judges made no attempt to suppress it because public opinion was so strong. Whether such a manifestation of popular feeling would be tolerated at the present time may be doubted. Applause in court is a serious evil, since it may affect the manner in which juries discharge their duties; but it is an evil which is scarcely likely to be removed by mere threats of imprisonment. We doubt, indeed, if imprisonment is the fitting punishment for the offense. A wide distinction ought to be drawn between persons who are deliberately guilty of contempt of court and those who, without desiring to cast any disrespect upon the court, merely allow their feelings to get the better of their judgment. A fine would be more suitable to the occasion. English Notes. The death is announced of Mr. Justice O'Brien, one of the judges of the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice, Ireland. As a judge, says the Times, he enjoyed the reputation of being one of the most fearless and eloquent occupants of the bench, and from the very outset of his judicial career he was brought into contact with cases which made the most urgent claims upon his courage, and gave ample inspiration for his eloquence. It was his fortune to preside at the trials of the Phoenix Park murders, and he did so with a fortitude and an impartiality which will long be cherished among the best traditions of the Irish bench. The fact that no attempt was made upon his life during the progress of the trials or afterwards may be taken as a proof that the Invincibles themselves were not unimpressed by his passionless impartiality. Captain Dreyfus is stated to have addressed the following letter to M. Clamageran, president of the French senatorial amnesty commission: "M. le Sénateur. On the very day when liberty was restored to me by a measure which I in no wise |