Wm. Curtis Noyes, LL.D. tion. "That is not necessary," was the judicial answer; " let Mr. Noyes write me a note narrating the incidents." The remark meant, in the hearing of all the auditors in the chambers, "The unsworn assertion of Mr. Noyes equals in sincerity and accuracy the statement of any ordinary affidavit maker." " I seldom look up authorities cited at length upon a Noyes brief," was another remark credited to another judge (Chief Justice Henry E. Davies, of the Court of Appeals). The implication gave another tribute to his fairness of quotation. Moreover, Bar and Bench ever recognized his innate sense of justice, and his clear and precise apprehension of legal distinctions that proves so valuable to the Bench in oral argument and illustration. Mr. Noyes, like Federal Justice Patterson of the early days of the Supreme Court, — that jurist to first broach in the tribunal presided over by Marshall, excellent and eloquent anathemas on retroactive or unjust legislation, — was not a man of commanding height; and yet, as one of his adversaries once remarked of him, " he seems to grow tall as he speaks." When Mr. Noyes joined the New York Bar, there was a dividing line, as in Eng land, between the attorney and counsel. Practically, it then broadened beyond the technicalities attached to the distinction; and Mr. Noyes became soon employed as counsel by attorneys, especially in appeal cases. A connection in that respect which he formed with James Lorimer Graham, who was attorney for several large corporations, proved advantageous to Counsellor Noyes, who soon became known as a specialist in corporate law, then in a sort of chaotic statutory condition. He early attracted commercial attention from his elaborate briefs during a long and tedious litigation involving a great corporation of half a cen tury ago, — the North American Trust Com pany, — which had a long list of British investors and creditors attached to it, and
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whose international operations gave rise to new and embarrassing legal questions. Com mercial clients poured into the Noyes office their plaints and defenses, and he soon took rank in the specialties of marine and fire insurance with such old established .lawyers as Theodore Sedgwick, John Anthon, Dan iel Lord, George Sullivan, and George Wood. His business rapidly increased as a juris consult, and his opinion on legal complica tions became accredited and potent factors in Wall Street. " I like Noyes, because he is so thorough," was once said of him by bank president Gracie. The adjective was well placed. " Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring," was a quotation from Pope's essay on criticism that seemed always in the mind of Mr. Noyes when creating brief or awarding opinion. In those he was fond of tracing doctrines to their source. When his library was inspected upon its reaching Hamilton College, it was found to contain a Bracton bearing the autograph of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, of 'y6 memory; also a complete historical set of British statutes; a Statham's abridgement printed at Rouen, 1470; a Coneli's "Inter preter" (the original of 1637, and not the revised edition after suppression by Sir Edward Coke); a copy under date of 1671 of Dugdales' " Origines Judiciales," and all the Dome-Day books. " What won't Noyes want us to import next from the London second-hand shops?" was an exclamation by the elder David Banks, the veteran law pub lisher. Nor must be omitted mention of the set of Chinese and Gentoo codes and volumes of Mohammedan law, or of the Virginia general reports of the years 1730-46. That rare volume "Jardine's Use of the Torture" also belongs to the library. These are specimens of library luxury; but the col lection contained every possible working tool, so to speak, that the active and cos mopolitan practitioner could desire for his professional workshop. And while I write I cannot help thinking what a joy it would
