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The Author to the Reader

a member of that same court to apply to it so eulogistic a title. "Let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth; a stranger and not thine own lips." I fully considered this question, however, before adopting the title, and made up my mind that as my connection with the court did not begin until May, 1891, there could be no impropriety in my applying the term "great" to the court of which I write, namely, the court whose history terminates in 1880. Whether the same adjective may properly be applied to the court since 1880 will be a matter for the future historian to settle. I do not attempt to influence his decision.

Madison, Wisconsin, November, 1911.