reverence for justice; his sound legal principles, drawn by a clear and logical deduction from the purest Christian ethics, and from the very founda tion of all rational and practical jurisprudence. He was blessed with a very amiable, generous, tender and charitable disposition, and he had the most artless simplicity of any man I ever knew. It was impossible not to love as well as respect and admire him. He was perfectly disinterested. The selfish principle, that infirmity too often of great as well as of little minds, seemed never to have reached him. It was entirely incompatible with the purity of his taste and the grandeur of his ambition. Every question appeared to be at once extinguished when it came in competition with his devotion to his country's welfare and glory. He was a most faithful friend to the cause of civil liberty throughout the world, but he was a still greater friend to truth and justice." The Chancellor was now full of years and full of honors. Columbia, Harvard, and Dartmouth had given him their highest de grees; he had delivered the Phi Beta Kappa address at Yale: he had been tendered a public banquet in New York City on his eightieth birthday, and had been invited by the different bars of the country to be their guest. We find him in March, 1847, writ ing to his son, concerning the preparation of the fourth edition of his commentaries, that "the labor will be animating and amusing when soft and balmy spring comes." His appearance, which was tall and slender, with strong features, dark eyes, and complexion, had lost very little of its wonted sprightliness and energy, while his mind was clear and strong to the end. His son, William Kent, wrote that the ten last years of his life were the happiest. He was surrounded by his wife, his companion of every joy and sorrow for sixty-three years, and his family, for his son had resigned his professorship at Harvard in order to be near his father. A charming account of the close of Chancellor Kent's life written by his son discloses many interesting facts. It seems that questions on points of law, cases for arbitration and inquiries as to general and constitutional
jurisprudence were presented to him from all parts of the United States, and even from the British provinces, to the end of his life. He never remitted his constant readings of the English and American reports, while he found his serenest consolation at this ad vanced age of eighty-four years in reading literature. His chief delight, however, was in poring over books of travel. He had a passion for one thing — geography. He told his friend, Judge McCoun, that he " was a better geographer than a lawyer." The books of voyages and travels largely out numbered all others in his library, and to the amusement of his friends he would enthusiastically trace the discoveries in Cen tral Africa and Asia, and accompany Parry and Franklin in the Arctic circles. He would draw maps of routes, islands, and promontories, showing adventurous courses, which his friends possessed as valued and characteristic relics. The summers he passed at his country retreat in New Jersey, and he resided in the city during the winter seasons. He grew mellow with increasing years, and all acerbity of partisan feeling had gone. He reverted with praise to the men whom he had vigorously opposed in his early days, and his opponents reciprocated this good feeling. He was universally known in the city, and had a word of cheer for all. The long day of his life was now drawing to a close, and just before the earthly curtain fell, he gathered his children around him, and spoke these words to them : " I believe in the doctrines of the Prayer-book as I understand them, and hope to be saved through the merits of Jesus Christ. My object in telling you this is that if anything happen to me, as it soon must, perhaps it would console you to remember that on this point my mind is clear. I rest my hopes of salvation on the Lord Jesus Christ." He died at the city of New York on the 1 2th day of December, 1847. The bar of that city met soon after his death, and a committee was appointed which duly con
