ences, should, as they often did, differ. There was nothing unseemly in their differences, but some of the best specimens of juridical discus sion in the reports of this State will be found in their conflicting opinions, as the one or the other led the majority or the minority of the court." After leaving the bench Bronson became counsel for the city of New York. In Shindler v. Houston, I N. Y. 261, he united in reversing his own judgment in the Su preme Court. In Vilas v. Jones, 1 N. Y. 274, on usury, and Shorter v. People, 2 N. Y. 193, on self-defence, may be found good examples of his powers. His politics re sembled the common law rather than equity, — he was a " hard-shell " Democrat. He once ran, or rather cantered, for governor, — his speed was not sufficient. Freeborn G. Jewett. Of Judge Jewett there are singularly few records except those which he made in the reports. He was prominent in politics and in law. He was Inspector of State Prisons, and Member of Assembly and of Congress, County Judge, Circuit Judge, and the first Chief-Justice of the Court of Appeals chosen bylaw under the Constitution of 1846. His opinions show him to have been a wellgrounded lawyer, a patient investigator, and a clear and discriminating writer. The court in their memorial " remember the clearness of his intellect, the justness of his judg ment, the purity and benevolence of his heart." He was born in Connecticut, in 1 79 1, had a common education, resigned from the bench in 1853, owing to illness, and died in 1858. He was a Democrat in politics. Charles H. Ruggles. Judge Ruggles was the chairman of the committee, in the Constitutional Convention of 1846, appointed to prepare the new ju dicial system. His judicial powers are well exemplified in De Peyster v. Michael, 6 N. Y. 467, holding a reservation of quarter-sales
in a lease to be invalid; Silsbury v. McCoon, 3 N. Y. 380, holding that a wilful trespasser gets no title to whiskey manufactured from corn which he has converted; and in Barto v. Himrod, 8 N. Y. 483, holding that a statute dependent on popular adoption is void. Addison Gardiner. Addison Gardiner was born in New Hamp shire in 1797. His grandfather was one of the few but immortal patriots who fell at Lexington. He was appointed circuit judge at the age of thirty-two. He presided at the historical trial of People v. Mather, indicted for conspiracy in abducting Mor gan on account of disclosing the secrets of the Masonic order. He was elected lieu tenant-governor in 1844 and in 1846, as a Democrat, and was thus President of the Senate and the Court for the Correction of Errors. It is said that he might subsequently have been governor if he would. On the bench of the Court of Appeals he frequently differed from Bronson, the other leading mind of the court as first constituted. He voluntarily retired in 1855, owing, it is said, to the fluctuating character of the court. From that time, for twenty-five years, he heard as referee as many important causes as any judge of the Supreme Court. In 1 86 1 he declined the office of Peace Com missioner. A competent critic 1 has said : "There have been judges of greater learn ing, but in large comprehension and true judicial wisdom it is doubted whether he is surpassed by any. . . . His opinions are simple, terse, business-like documents. . . . He never wrote a line to display his learning, or for rhetorical effect. . . . The hesitating utterance of the truth by the timid was not lost upon his receptive ear; the subtle per version of it by the disingenuous did not de ceive or mislead him." He was a man of magnificent physique; genial, sympathetic, and full of humor; fond of history, poetry, and fiction; careless of fame; deeply reli1 Mr. William F. Cogswell.
