Bench trusted or distrusted any counsel. When judges would say, for instance, to counsel, 'Allow me to look at that case,' and have the cited book handed to them, I knew that they wanted to be assured that the addressing lawyer had quoted rightfully, and did not slur paragraphs to his own advantage. Burr was a great sinner in that latter respect, and took all chances of sub tlety for victory. Being this species of an unscrupulous lawyer, it became of advantage to the public that in the fin de siecle (Eigh teenth) when nominated for puisne judge of the Supreme Court of New York State he de clined that post, for, fancy a man of his private and political character holding on the bench the scales of justice, and with per haps both eyes morally bandaged. "Aaron Burr at the bar, until his pliant, cooing voice was heard, and his eyes either gave at one time soft glances and at other times blazed, was far from impressive in personal appearance. He had a replica in a natural son who was a famous attorney in this city until he died, at an advanced age, as late as civil war time, and whom doubtless you have often seen and met during your own time. Burr was undersized, and like nearly all men who are short in stature, put on at all time in public a pompous and selfconscious bearing. But a hearer lost sight of his personal deficiencies when listening to his torrent of words set to those dulcet tones which made him so dangerous to the fair sex, as many social traditions avouch that he was. "James Kent even in youth had that Ro manesque cast of features which marked his latest years. He then much resembled the face and head of Cicero as shown in the busts which libraries furnish." I as listener here interrupted the ghost by observing interlocutorily, " Yes, I have noticed that, when standing before the marble bust of Cicero — that which confronts every visitor in the corridor beyond the entrance to the Astor library — and there recalling the
portrait which used to hang in the house of the son, William Kent, on East Union Square." "Firmness was outlined in James Kent's folded lips and massive jaws, and at times his look was awe-inspiring. In his later days, when I saw him in Chancery chambers," continued the ghost, increasing his volubility, "he did not seem to belong to the day and generation surrounding him, but to some classic age of days long gone by. His was a head and face to hang in portraiture in some national gallery of paintings, along side of a portrait of Joseph Story. "Thomas Addis Emmet also had a Roman esque face, and he always impressed me as belonging to a departed classic age. I abom inate," added the ghost with energy, " a judge who wears a mustache. Fancy one on Hamilton, or Kent or Story, if you can, with due respect to their greatness of ap pearance. Although, of those three un bearded magnates the Commentator on the Constitution which Hamilton aided in fash ioning held the most benignant face, and lacked the severity that sometimes flecked the countenances of the other two. John Jay, New York's Chief Justice, impressed me with its benignity. That was a Jay trait in his sons also, whom I have heard at the bar : William, and John the third, whose young grandson, a Virginian Robinson, is growing up to continue the Jay legal prestige. "Samuel Jones the first w.as a great mas ter of principles; so was his namesake son, whom I have heard deliver opinions as Chan cellor; so is the grandson and third Samuel Jones, whom I occasionally find still in the courts as I flit about in them. These I have mentioned were all judges in time. "The Livingstons depended more upon precedents than principles. I have learned, during my long siege as auditor in courts, to distinguish the philosophic lawyer from the case lawyer. "The three Hofifmans were the most ora torical and eloquent of their contemporaries.
