Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 01.pdf/554

This page needs to be proofread.
Editorial Department.

We have heard of a "full bench," but this latest animadversion on its reprehensibility is taken from the syllabus of Repath v. Walker, decided by the Supreme Court of Colorado, June 7, 1889. uNew Trial. — Misconduct of Judge and Jury. Where the record on appeal shows by uncon tradicted affidavits that the jury, during the time they were supposed to be deliberating, were seen on the streets, one of the jurors being intoxicated, and that the trial judge was intoxicated on the trial and at the time of overruling a motion for new trial based on the jury's misconduct, the judgment will be reversed." We should say so!

Aecent SDeatf)sf. Mr. Franklin Fiske Heard, widely known as an author and compiler of law books, died in Bos ton, September 30, aged sixty-four years. He was born in Wayland, and graduated at Harvard Col lege in the Class of 1848. With Judge Bennett he edited the " Massachusetts Digest," and with the Hon. Charles R. Train he published a standard work on " Precedents of Indictments." Editions of " Gould on Pleading " and " Metcalf on Con tracts," besides works on " Civil Pleading," "Slander and Libel," " Curiosities of the Law," "Oddities of the Law," " Shakspeare as a Lawyer," and a treatise on "Criminal Procedure," have made him widely known as an accurate lawyer and ripe scholar, and his services have been in request by the bench and bar in the preparation of cases for trial and argument. He was espe cially regarded as an authority in criminal law, and served as assistant district attorney of the county of Middlesex during the incumbency of Mr. Train. He married Harriet Hildreth, a sister of the wife of General Butler, and a married daughter living in Virginia survives him.

The bar of Columbus, Ohio, have sustained a great loss in the death of Hon. J. William Bald win. He was born at New Haven, Conn., April 30, 1822, and graduated at Yale College. In 1843 he went to Ohio and studied law with Samuel Brush and Matthew Gilbert in Columbus. He was

507

admitted to the bar in 1844. He rose rapidly in his profession, and achieved such success as is given to but few men. He was appointed to a position on the Supreme Bench of Ohio, succeed ing Judge Matthews.

Willliam T. Minor, ex-Governor of Connecti cut, died October 13, at his home in Stamford. He was born in Stamford, Oct. 3, 1815, and was graduated at Yale in 1834. He taught school in his native town from that year until 1841, study ing law at odd moments. He was admitted to the bar in 1840. Mr. Minor was a member of the Connecticut Legislature for eight years, and in 1855 he was elected governor, serving from 1856 to 1858. President Lincoln made him con sul-general at Havana in 1864, but he resigned after three years. In 1868 he was made a Supe rior Court judge.

REVIEWS. The Chicago Law Times for October contains a fine portrait of James Kent, with a biographical sketch of that eminent jurist. Charles B. Waite contributes an article on " Amendments to the Fed eral Constitution," and Hon. Elliott Anthony has an interesting paper on "The Trial of William Penn for preaching the Gospel."

The Students' Law Monthly, Vol. I. No. 1. — This is the first number of a series of prize essays which Messrs. T. & J. W. Johnson & Co. of Philadelphia propose to publish monthly. The idea of this firm in offering a prize to the students of the graduating class of each of the Law Schools in the United States for the best essay on some legal topic is a most excellent one. It encourages the careful study, on the part of the student, of some one particular subject, and the result must be the production of a series of papers which will be really useful to the profession. In the present number we have an essay on "The Law relating to Mercantile Agencies," by Joseph W. Errant, a graduate of the Union College of Law, Chicago. The article displays a careful and patient investigation of the subject by its author, and thoroughly covers the law relating