The act providing for a reporter of the decisions of the court seems not to have been received with highest favor by some of the judges. Mr. Payne relates that shortly after the passage of the act the office of reporter was offered to him. He consulted Judge Staples in regard to accepting it, who said : "You can take the office if you choose, but we shall make you all the trouble we can. We shall give you no written opinions unless we are compelled to do so. We don't want any reporter or any reports. We mean to decide cases rightly, but we don't want to be hampered by rules, the effect of which would be to defeat justice." Mr. Payne did not accept the office. The judge seems to have had as little desire to make precedents for his successors as he had regard for those of his predecessors Judge Staples died in 1868, after a life of wonderful industry. He despised all sham and display, and his life was characterized by decision of character and the highest in tegrity. His reported opinions are few. The most of them are very short, and are mainly brief statements of the conclusions reached by the court rather than elaborate state ments of the reasons upon which the de cision rests. Associated with Chief-Justice Staples were Alfred Bosworth and Sylvester G. Shearman.
Alfred Bosworth. Judge Bosworth was born at Warren in 1812. He graduated from Brown University in 1835, and studied law with Judge Haile. For fifteen years he represented his town in the General Assembly. Upon the decease of Judge Haile in 1854, Mr. Bosworth was elected to succeed him as an Associate Jus tice of the Supreme Court, which office he continued to hold until his death in 1862. Judge Bosworth was of counsel for Rhode Island in suits growing out of the boundary question between Rhode Island and Massa chusetts His name is not conspicuous in the reports.
Sylvester G. Shearman. Judge Shearman was born in North Kings town, Rhode Island, in 1802. He practised law at Wickford, and was elected Represen tative to the General Assembly at the first election under the Constitution, and in 1848 was Speaker of the House. He was an As sociate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1855 to 1868. While a member of the court, he was as signed to hold the Court of Common Pleas. "He was a man," says Mr. Payne, in his "Reminiscences of the Rhode Island Bar," "without any pretence to superior sanctity, vast acquirements, or greatness of any kind; he was a good man, knew what was worth knowing, and discharged faithfully the duties of all the positions in which it had pleased God or the people to place him." He had a keen but homely wit, and a fund of illustra tion and anecdote at command. Though a dangerous man to cross swords with in repartee, he " had no malice in his nature and no sting in his wit." Mr. Payne gives the following, among many other examples of his ready wit. When James T. Brady, impressed by the ability of Mr. Shearman, said to him, "Why do you stay in such a little place as Wickford? Why don't you remove to New York, where there is a wider field for your talents? " Mr. Shearman replied, naming certain disreputable classes in Saxon tongue, "Take these people out of New York, and it is not much bigger than Wickford, after all." When he wanted to express the longevity of a certain family, he said : " I never knew a who did not outlive the Almighty's Statute of Limitations, his friends, his for tune, and his reputation." Samuel Ames. In 1856 Samuel Ames was elected ChiefJustice. He performed the duties of the office for nine years with such signal ability, learning, and integrity that he is often spoken of as the Great Chief-Justice. Born at Provi dence in 1806, at the early age of seventeen
