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1 he Green Bag.
term, on the back benches unknown, and with scarcely any chance of success. The spirits of almost any other man would have broken down under circumstances so discouraging; but Kenyon was made of sterner stuff. He fagged on with courage, increasing his knowledge of the law by taking copious notes of the decisions of the bench when in court, and incessantly readihg the text books and reports when in chambers. At length he became gradually known as a painstaking, working counsel, who might be safely depended on in cases where industry and patience were particu larly required. A reputation of this kind was the foundation of his fortune. He made no sudden hit, acquired no expected triumph; but, by steady and unceasing labor, he proved — and we com mend the lesson to all placed in similar circum stances—that whoever does justice to the law, to him, in the end, will the law do justice. In Egypt the moment a man died he was brought to judgment. The public accuser was heard. If he proved that the conduct of the de ceased had been bad, his memory was condemned and he was deprived of burial. Another illustration of the law's delay is furnished by the United States District Court in Philadelphia. A case was finally disposed of there a few weeks since, which involved only about $1000, which has been in the courts for fifty years. The principal in the case, his law yers, the judges before whom it was first tried, the United States Supreme Court justices, and everybody else connected with the case from the start died long ago; and there is now neither plaintiff nor heirs to receive the award. Grave judges, and others learned in the law, have contributed their quota, as in duty bound, to the common stock of popular sayings. It is Francis Bacon who speaks of matters that "come home to men's business and bosom," who lays down the axiom that " Knowledge is power," and who utters that solemn warning to enamoured Benedicts, " He that hath a wife and children, hath given hostages to fortune." We have the high authority of Sir Edward Coke for declaring that " Corporations have no souls," and that " A man's house is his castle." The expression, " an accident of an accident,"
is borrowed from Lord Thurlow. " The greatest happiness of the greatest number," occurs in Bentham, but as an acknowledged translation from the learned jurist Beccaria. To Leviathan Hobbes we owe the sage maxim, "Words are wise men's counters, but the money of fools." It is John Selden who suggests that "by throwing a straw into the air you may see the way of the wind; " and to his contemporary Oxenstiern is due the discovery, "with how little wisdom the world is governed! " Mackintosh first used the phrase, " a wise and masterly inactivity." In the familiar expression, " a delusion, a mockery, and a snare," there is a certain Biblical ring, which has sometimes led to its being quoted as from one or another of the Hebrew prophets; the words are, in fact, an extract from the judgment of Lord Denman at the trial of O'Connell.
Accent 2Deatfjg. Hon. Charles Devens, Justice of the Supreme Bench of Massachusetts, died in Boston, Janu ary 7, after an illness of but a few days. Judge Devens was born in Charlestown, April 4, 1820. He was graduated at Harvard College in the class of 1838, studied in the Harvard Law School, and took his degree in 1840. From 1841 to 1849 he practised law in Greenfield, and was a State Sena tor from that district in 1848-1849. He was then appointed United States Marshal for Massachu setts, which office he held for several years. In 1854 he resumed the practice of his profession in Worcester as a partner of Hon. George F. Hoar, and there he remained until the breaking out of the war, when he accepted, April 19, 1861, the command of the Third Battalion of Rifles, with the rank of major, leaving unfinished a case in which he was engaged in the Supreme Court. On the evening of the next day he left with the com mand for Washington, and at Annapolis was or dered to Fort McHenry at Baltimore. Before the battalion's term of service expired, Major Devens was commissioned Colonel of the Fifteenth Regi ment, then being recruited at Worcester. He went to the front with that regiment, and in August led the scouting-party that was sent across the Potomac.
