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the State Library. His life was passed in a quiet and unostentatious way; and yet, as may be seen from the list of his offices, he did important and various public service, and it was always done to the complete ac ceptance of the people and the legal profes sion. In person he was of middle height, stout and broad-chested, with eyes as black

and keen as a hawk's. He was an adven turous sportsman with rod and gun, and I have more than once seen him in a small boat on Lake George, in a flannel shirt, hail ing the steamboat for a tow to the hotel after a hard and successful day's work in the woods or on the water. See his opinions in Wenzler v. People, 58 N. Y. 516, on a ques tion of constitutional law concerning an of fice; and Wynehamer v. People, 13 N. Y. 378, on the constitu tionality of an excise act.

intellectual pre-eminence, his marvellous re search, his subtle discrimination, his dia lectic skill, his freedom from bondage to precedents, his boldness and originality. He has been called an iconoclast, and ac cused of overturning ancient law to an un precedented and dangerous extent. But like Judge Allen, he seems to have had the ability to enforce his views upon his asso ciates — men of no mean powers — in an unanswerable manner. It is probable that during his short in cumbency he has pro nounced more great and important and widely influential opin ions than any other judge who has ever sat in the court for any length of time, which have made him fa mous in every State of the Union and on the other side of the ocean. To substan tiate this statement, it is only necessary to cite the Wynehamer case, 13 N. Y. 378; Downing v. Marshall, George F. Comstock. 23 N. Y. 366, on char HIRAM DENIO. Judge Comstock's itable trusts; Bissell profound learning and v. Michigan, etc. R. brilliant intellect have probably caused him Co., 22 N. Y. 258, on the liability of a cor generally to be regarded as the ablest of the poration for a personal injury in an act ultra judges who graced this bench during the vires; Storrs v. City of Utica, 17 N. Y. 104, first period. He was elected in 1856 to on the responsibility of a city.for an injury fill the vacancy made by the resignation of by an unguarded excavation in a city; ConJudge Ruggles, and became the chief in dit v. Baldwin, 21 N. Y. 219 (dissenting), 1860, and so continued until the expiration on usury by agent; Marshall v. Moseley, 21 of his term in 1861 . He thus sat in the N. Y. 280, on apportionment of rent falling court only five years, but he left an indelible due after termination of life estate; Mallory impress upon the jurisprudence of the State v. Gillctt, 21 N. Y. 412, on the statute of and the country. There have been judges frauds, — oral promise to pay the debt of regarded as " safer," perhaps as " sounder;" another; Curtis v. Leavitt, 15 N. Y. 9, on but there can be no question about his trusts; Matter of Reciprocity Bank, 22 N. Y.