personality, kind and sweet, yet dignified, as became his position. He was always the same courtly gentleman in all his relations, and his benevolence and lofty character made him beloved of all men. His mind was rich in anecdote and tradition, and he was a capital raconteur. On the second and last retirement of Chief-Justice Perley in 1869, Judge Bellows was at once appointed Chief, and he held that honor till his death in 1873. His lamented decease created a vacancy in the highest judicial office, which was filled by the promotion of Judge Jonathan Everett Sargent, who enjoyed it little more than one year, when another political earth quake turned everything upside down, courts and all. Judge Sargent was well qualified by long judicial experience and habits of in vestigation for his position, for he was con servative and cautious, yet prone to yield rather than to dissent. After leaving the bench, — or more truly after the bench had left him and his associates, — Judge Sargent went into practice, which he soon aban doned for the more congenial pursuits of banking. He died in Concord in January of the present year. In George W. Nesmith,1 New Hampshire owns one of her most remarkable public men. He may be termed an extraordinary man. Born in the first year of this century, he still retains his faculties, scarcely impaired, and is as full of anecdote and love of jest as ever. In private life pure, in public life incorrupt ible, he furnishes a splendid example to our youth. He comes from that sturdy Scotch-Irish stock which has done so much in the making of the Granite State, and he illustrates in a very marked degree the peculiarities of mind and body that char acterize that people. Judge Nesmith was not a close reader nor a hard student; but he was possessed of an intuition that, added to his great common-sense and knowledge of men, made him a most useful member of the 1 Judge Nesmith has died since this article was written.
bench. Few men in the State know as much of its history as Judge Nesmith. He counts among his acquaintances all the distinguished sons of New Hampshire; and there is no greater treat than to listen to his recital of reminiscences. He was one of Daniel Web ster's closest friends, having known him from boyhood. Having attained the age prescribed by the Constitution as its limit for judicial officers, Judge Nesmith retired in 1870, followed by the warm affection and almost veneration of the people. He lives at Franklin, where his home is regarded as the Mecca of lawyers, for he is by common con sent the tried and true Nestor of the bar. One of the most brilliant of a long line of brilliant lawyers was William H. Bartlett, whose untimely death in 1867 was deeply deplored throughout the State. It is not too much to say that he was a superlative genius of juridical learning and tempera ment. Judge Perley, in speaking of him, said : " Few men have excelled him in quick ness of apprehension; and this was a gen eral trait of his mind, observable in whatever he undertook, — in his classical and mathe matical studies, in the law, and even in any amusement or recreation in which he might be led to indulge. There was a playful ease in his way of doing the most difficult things, which made them look more like an amuse ment or a pastime than an irksome labor. With all his despatch, he was distinguished for accuracy and correctness. His memory was also tenacious and exact. In the law he united two things which are not often found together in the same individual, — a perfect mastery of principles, with great and ready recollection of points and authorities." He was a brilliant legal scholar and thinker, and his logistic powers were of a high order. He was a most lovable man, and he had hosts of devoted friends whose hearts were heavy, when, after a too brief career on the bench, he was called away by death. The place thus made vacant was filled by the appointment of a distinguished son of a distinguished father, — Jeremiah Smith.
