knowledge of law they each added knowl edge of human nature; to case learning they added courtesy and tact, and an im partiality such as Lord Campbell in his Lives of Chief Justices loved to emphasize. I used to fancy that the statue of Justice, over the City Hall, often unbandaged her left eye and exultingly balanced her scales when she knew that one of those judges were on the bench." Here the Ghost of Nisi Prius seemed in clined to fall into reverie, and I interrupted it with this interrogation : " You still flit from court to court, and have Bench and Bar of the present under observation : how does either compare with that of the past in your mortal existence?" "We must judge of greatness by the times in which great men lived, and of their sur roundings," was the ready answer. "For instance, Draco, or even Solon, might not become historical personages if alive to-day and exercising judicial power. Perhaps Justinian himself might not be to-day, if alive and writing institutes, regarded as great. Perhaps Chief Justices Jay or Mar shall would have been out of place when lately listening to income tax arguments. No one would expect Chief Justice Fuller, in these days, to hint that colored men had 'no rights that the white man was bound to respect. Neither William Wirt nor Hugh S. Legare stood under the fierce calcium light beneath which Attorney-General Olney has stood. But judging the Bench and Bar of New York City by the times amid which either now exists, and remembering the tempora mutantur proverb, I say either will favorably compare with its Bench and Bar all throughout this expiring century. To-day no Alexander Hamilton is at its bar : yet I fear its roll shows several Aaron Burrs; but in place of Hamilton it has a Simon Sterne and a James C. Carter. In place of James Kent it has the retired Judge Daly, who is hard at work himself with legal commen taries. To replace John Jay is there not
Noah Davis, the approved jurisconsult of your Bar, after attaining grand judicial hon ors through a quarter century? It has no Irish Thomas Addis Emmet, but it boasts a French Coudert. In the legal galaxy shine as nisi prius planets, oratorical Joseph H. Choate, persuasive Elihu Root, logical Ed ward Lauterbach, the astute George Hoadley, the popular Joseph Larocque, the alert cross-examiner, Edward C. James — son of a great deceased judge, — William B. Hornblower and Wheeler H. Peckham (who are still corner-stones, although rejected by senatorial builders), the acute-minded Dan iel G. Rollins, the accurate Wager Swayne, my now venerable Clarence Seward an ad mirable Crichton; the now equally venerable William Allen Butler; James Niemann, a very apostle of the nisi prius creed; the sen tentious James R. Cuming; Artemas Holmes and John S. Des Passos, great proficients in corporate law. "On the New York Bench of to-day Judge Pryor, formerly of Virginia, brings mindful recurrence to its greatest judge, Marshall. Sedgwick, who in appearance and judgment much resembles John Duer, once in the same court; Van Brunt, with old-time suggestions of Samuel Nelson, and Andrews, with like suggestions of Blatchford. Ah, me! ah, me! " cried the ghost, spasmodically, " am I to be the veri table wandering Jew of nisi prius under operation of the old familiar legend? I must —" Interruption came at this juncture by the voice of the court-house janitor, who, thrust ing his head through the door and recog nizing me, said, " Beg pardon; but have you not been alone by yourself long enough? It is hours since I first observed you in this re cess of the building. Besides, by your leave, cleaning time has arrived." My Ghost of Nisi Prius gave a spiritual wink, as if to say, " Now, are you not satis fied with my spiritship? To the janitor I am invisible. But I must not subject you
