committed the custody of deeds which in ily adviser in many other directions. His Great Britain from traditional family pride caution as to passing titles once put many are never publicly recorded, must have. thousand dollars into the coffers of the This emigrated taste became his luck in his elder Bennett. The Civil War was com adopted country; for he soon acquired mencing, and an English merchant named fame as a conveyancer. He has, during Robert Bage hastened to sell his double his vast experience as a searcher of titles in mansion on the commanding corner of Fifth New York City, become possessed of more Avenue and 38th Street, because believing knowledge about their abstracts than any that war would ruin property. The edifice other member of its Bar, except perhaps pleased the great editor, and negotiations the office of the Dewitts. If John Tovvn- for the sale began. The stipulated price shend passes a title for real estate, its owner was made by agreement a special deposit in Wall Street, for instance, where land is of Bennett in the famous Chemical Bank. valued by the square inch, may sleep Townshend began a search for the title, soundly over his quarter million purchase and unearthed an apparent flaw that had of realty. Townshend has a retriever or escaped the scrutiny of a previous searcher collie scent for a flaw, and is perhaps who was regarded as a real estate omni sometimes erring on the side of technicality. scient. He took his own time to complete Had he drawn the last testament of Lord the title, and a tedious interim elapsed. Westbury, or one for the Bay State How- Meanwhile, gold had advanced to a high land family, or for the late Samuel J. Til- premium, and the legal tender act had been den, their wills would never have undergone enacted. In the end the purchase-money litigation; and in two cases to the evident was withdrawn from the bank that all disregard of testatorial intentions. Town- through the war paid gold on its own shend's taste for conveyancing naturally in bills, and the amount was handed to Bage, vited him towards personal transactions in the vendor — but in greenbacks. The the ever rising real estate market of New difference between the market value of the York City, and his dealings have on the latter and the premium upon a sale of the average improved his patrimony. Perhaps withdrawn gold constituted a handsome he is one of the very few lawyers who can profit, and practically reduced the stipu give and explain that legal fans asinornm, lated price for the real estate. It may be "the rule in Shelley's case." But he is also well believed that the Townshend fee be an "all 'round lawyer"; and his opinion came a large one under the improved cir upon any question is valued. He has found cumstances — circumstances that at least for time to prepare, in the years gone by, a once extracted the sting of Hamlet's plaint treatise on spoken and written defamation against " the law's delay." which is an accepted authority; and also a Were I a man of wealth I should tender volume on Circumstantial Evidence, with a a banquet to this quintette of legal Nestors, collection of remarkable cases. During the and have them there grouped together as past forty years he has been the family guests surrounded by companionable selec counsel of the James Gordon Bennett fam tions of co-diners from the junior bar. ily; and he often steered their newspaper These should toast the honored health of the Herald through those shoals of libel the quintette and descant upon the honor that American newspapers in a search after able professional careers of " Ben " Silliman, sensation and in a disregard for the com Noah Davis, James M. Smith, Albert mon law of privacy often get grounded Mathews and John Townshend aforesaid; upon. He has long been a cherished fam and not omitting Charles P. Dal}'.
