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The Green Bag.


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education, and was a trustee of Union College, and a lecturer in the Albany Law School. In person he was rather tall and moder ately stout; somewhat swarthy; his frame was formed for endurance; his well-rounded head indicated resolution and firmness, and was well balanced between the reflective and the executive faculties. His capacity and patience of labor were extraordinary. His manners were easy, dignified, and con siderately courteous. His nature was warm and impulsive, but held under the restraints of reason and religion. In a very touching memorial of him by Chief-Judge Church, in 70 N. Y., it is well said : " Through an extended life he was an honor to his race, to his profession of the law, and to his judicial office." From a long study of the opinions of this court, I am inclined to rank Judge Allen with the half-dozen greatest judges who have sat on this bench. His opinions in the Supreme Court are to be found in the first thirty-nine volumes of Barbour, and in the Court of Appeals are so numerous and so prodigal of learning and acute in reason ing that it is difficult to make a choice; but I will refer to Chamberlain v. Chamberlain, 43 N. Y. 424, on a bequest to a foreign charitable corporation; Ruloff v. People, 45 N. Y. 213, on liability of one of several engaged in the same felony for murder by another during the transaction; Bank of Albion v. Burns, 46 N. Y. 171, on wife's mortgage for husband's benefit; Palmer v. Dewitt, 46 N. Y 532, on copyright in drama before publication; Laning v. N. Y. Cent. R. Co., 46 N. Y. 521, on master's liability for negligence toward servant; President, etc. v. Penn. Coal Co., 46 N. Y. 250, on construction of contract for arbitration. Martin Grover. Martin Grover was born in 1811, and had a common-school and academical education. He practised at the bar until 1857, and was acknowledged to be one of the most power

ful, shrewd, and adroit advocates in the west ern part of this State. He was elected to Congress in 1844 as a Democrat, and served one term, in which he ran counter to the course of his party on the vital question of slavery in the Territories, delivered one of the most original, able, and dignified speeches on the subject, and was chairman of that famous meeting of Northern Demo crats in which the " Wilmot proviso " had its birth. He served as Supreme Court Justice, by appointment to fill a vacancy, from 1857 to 1859, and was then elected for eight years. In 1867 he was elected to the Court of Appeals for eight years, and sat there until the re-organization in 1870, and then was elected as an associate judge. He died in 1875 I once wrote of him : " Judge Grover was a man of large professional learning, untir ing industry, and an almost unparalleled power of application; of unerring common-sense and a keen appreciation of humor; of quick perception and broad comprehension; of sturdy honesty and boldly independent judg ment; of a deep love of right and justice, and a hearty scorn of wrong; holding his opinions with extreme firmness, but candid and reasonable in spirit; sometimes restive under argument, always patient in investi gation; of plain manners and blunt demea nor, sacrificing not to the graces and but little to the usages of polite society; of robust and massive frame, heavy in move ment but not devoid of a simple dignity; careless in his dress, unostentatious, demo cratic. Like Othello, he was rude in speech; like Ulysses, he was subtly wise." On re flection, I think this does no more than jus tice to his essential qualities, but is rather too polite about his manners and demeanor. I especially beg pardon of the Moor. So, too, I think Judge Folger was rather too polite in his memorial of him in 59 N. Y., when he speaks of his " agile and diffusive humor," and says : " His humor was so lively and overmastering that it at times jostled dig nity and even decorum. He did not at all