ings of this distinguished professor, the writer has always been an ardent admirer of the original of this representation. Upon this occasion he conceived the idea of writ ing a short sketch of Mr. Minor's life. Cir cumstances have prevented the fulfilment of this design until the present date (August). When undertaken he little anticipated that the sketch would become an obituary. Such however is the fact, Mr. Minor having died on Monday, July 29, 1895, after the completion of the longest and ablest career as a teacher of law known to Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence. The writer has been tempted to say, the sad fact, but why so? The man's course was complete, his memory is dear and living to a larger number than often falls to the lot of man, — his enemies are none. He is at rest, and why should his friends, among whom he counted every student that attended his school for fifty years, grieve for him? It is true that they must feel a personal loss, but they may console themselves by remember ing the perfect life, which it remains for me to imperfectly sketch. John Barbec Minor was the youngest son of Launcelot and Elizabeth Minor, and was born at his father's home, " Minor's Folly," in Louisa County, Virginia, on June 2, 181 3. He obtained his early education at home and at a neighboring school, until delicate health in his seventeenth year compelled him to suspend his studies for a time, in order to lead a more active out-of-door life. He spent most of the next year on horseback, acting as collector for numerous country newspapers, riding from county to county, visiting the patrons of his clients. In the fall of 1830 he, with two older cousins, walked to Kenyon College, Ohio, where he studied for a year. Among his classmates was David Davis, afterwards a justice of the United States Supreme Court, and a United States senator. Another was Stanton, Lin coln's secretary of war. With both of these he maintained the friendship there formed for many years. At the close of the college
session, he made a pedestrian tour alone, through New York and Ohio, visiting Nia gara and all points of interest on his route, and observing particularly the people of those States, who at that time, before the days of rail roads, differed more materially perhaps from the people of his native State than they now do. This experience, together with his year on horseback in the Virginia counties, undoubt edly gave him a much wider knowledge of man than that usually acquired by a student of his age, and in after years he profited by it as a lawyer and teacher. Upon his re turn he entered the University of Virginia as a student, where he remained until 1833, graduating in several academic schools and taking the degree of B.L. John A. G. Davis was professor of law at the University at that time, and about a year after graduating Mr. Minor married his sister. Mr. Minor began the practice of law at Buchanan, Botetourt County, Virginia, but removed, in 1840, to Charlottesville, where he formed a partnership with his elder brother, who was afterwards Professor of Law at William and Mary College. Mr. Minor was an ardent advocate of the com mon-law system of pleading and could never discuss the code system with patience. I re member well his illustrating in class, the ef fect of a careful pleader upon the bar at large. He said that when he first went to Buchanan, the procedure in the courts was very loose, but by always insisting upon conformity with the strict rules of common law, in the cases in which he was engaged, he alone succeeded in reforming the entire procedure of that court, so that upon his departure it was said that the pleading in the courts of Buchanan was the best in the State. It is thought by many, that it is due to Mr. Minor's influence and the influence of his many students throughout the State that Virginia is not now numbered among the code States. In the year 1845 Mr. Minor was elected Professor of Law at the University of Vir
