Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 01.pdf/279

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The Green Bag.

one of the leaders of the State bar. While connected with the school he served one term as Governor of the State and five years as a judge of the Supreme Court of Errors. He was three times selected by the legislature a commissioner for the revision and compilation of the State Statutes, and himself thoroughly revised Swift's Digest of the Laws of Connecticut. Owing to his more active professional duties, he was unable to devote as much of his time to the school and its work as Judge Hitchcock had done, but was assisted, after the retirement of Governor Bissell, until 1865 by Judge Thomas B. Osborne.

Judge Osborne received his legal education in Mr. Staples' school, and had been a judge of the County Court and served two terms in Congress. As a lawyer he had directed his attention mainly to office practice and the execution of private trusts. As an instructor he was able and conscientious, careful in statement and conservative in the spirit of his teachings. He resigned his position in 1865, and died in 1869, the same year in which Governor Dutton's death occurred.

This closes the first stage of the history of the school. It had educated about a thousand men, many of whom had attained professional eminence. Among them may be named Justices Davis and Strong of the United States Supreme Court, Judge Julius Rockwell of Massachusetts, Judges Seward Barculo and Alexander S. Johnson of New York, Judge H. B. Brown of Michigan, Chief-Justice Sheldon of Illinois, Governor Polk of Missouri, Gov. William Warner Hoppin of Rhode Island, Hon. Alphonso Taft of Cincinnati, Hon. William H. Hunt of Louisiana, Hon. Edward J. Phelps of Vermont, Chief-Justice Smith of North Carolina, Chief-Justice Watkins of Arkansas, Attorney-General Edwards Pierrepont, Governors Hubbard, Ingersoll, and Harrison, and Judges Pardee, Loomis, Phelps, and Shipman of Connecticut, Chief-Justice Brown of Georgia, Chief-Justice Alwater of Minnesota, Judge Shiras of Iowa, and Professors Dwight of the Columbia Law School, Bicknell of the Indiana University Law School, and Booth of the Chicago Law School.

The second period of the school's history begins in 1869, when, after one or two temporary changes in the management, three prominent members of the local bar were selected by the Corporation to assume control. They were Hon. William C. Robinson, Simeon E. Baldwin, and Johnson T. Platt, who are all of them still actively engaged in the work of the school. In 1871 Hon. Francis Wayland was chosen Dean of the Law Faculty, which office he still holds, and since that time Professors William K. Townsend and Theodore S. Woolsey have been added to the Faculty. The history of the school for the twenty years which has elapsed since then, and its present character and position, prove the selection of these gentlemen to have been peculiarly fortunate. The attendance, which had been for a few years quite small, very soon became larger than ever before and has lately been rapidly increasing. There are one hundred and six students in attendance at present.

During this period several other gentlemen have been connected with the school for varying periods of time as special lecturers. Prof. James Hadley, LL.D., delivered his valuable lectures introductory to Roman Law, which have been published since his death. Rev. Leonard Bacon, D.D., LL.D., the Nestor of American Congregationalism, lectured on Ecclesiastical Law; Ex-President Woolsey on International Law; Judge Charles J. McCurdy on Life Insurance; Hon. LaFayette S. Foster, LL.D. (by whose will the school was given $60,000 with which to endow a professorship), on Parliamentary Law and the Science of Legislation; Chief-Justice Origen S. Seymour on Code Pleading; Frederick H. Betts of New York on Patents; Prof. James M. Hoppin, D.D., of New Haven on Forensic Oratory, and Dr. Francis Bacon on Medical Jurisprudence. These auxiliary courses, con-