she died left the largest estate then in Vir ginia. Her will was one of the most re markable ever written. It had codicil after codicil, and made a large volume. " Hav ing no faith in lawyers," she said, " she had written it all herself." On almost every page was an injunction to every heir that " no lawyer should have anything to do with any part of the estate." "The consequence was," said a writer on the subject, " the lawyers got three fourths of it." The negro servants of these famous law yers of former days had much of the court ly manner of their masters, and great pride of family. One of them when asked why he did not, as formerly, attend the meeting-house of his brethren on Sunday, replied, " When I could sit by Mr. Wickham's Bob and Judge Marshall's Robin, I liked to go and be in good 'siety, but now I never know who I am going to sot by, so I stays at home." James Wood Bouldin was born in the county of Charlotte, Va., in 1792. His father was a revolutionary officer, and his mother, Joanna Tyler, a sister of Gov. John Tyler. He studied law with his uncle, Judge Thomas Bouldin. He was witty, sarcastic and had a large fund of anecdotes, which he told very cleverly. He was not long at the bar before he was considered one of the best criminal lawyers in the State. In 1833, he was elected to Congress. In 1836, he delivered a speech in Washing ton, in which he answered in a very able manner, many of the charges which had been made by the North against the South. Among other things Mr. Bouldin said: "It is not true the slaves are in a worse con dition here than in Africa. ' Lander's Trav els ' show that four fifths of the negroes in their native land are slaves." He then quoted John Randolph " it is the happiest occurrence that could have befallen them. They are taken from a country where they are little better than baboons, and trans
planted into one where they are made in telligent beings and Christians." One of his best speeches, while in Con gress, was in defense of some measures of President Jackson; and soon after the president, with his well-known habit of ever re warding his friends, sent for him to offer him a foreign mission, but Mr. Bouldin de clined. In a letter to a son he wrote : — "You write me you have been reading the history of England and your opinion of King Charles. Charles' side was the cava liers and as my origin, education and incli nation all lead me to the cavalier, I have ever been of that order. Under various names and in various countries and times, it has been and will be, a distinction grounded in the natural character of man, subject, as everything else is, to the influence of arti ficial life." In another letter he advises his son to cultivate a love for reading saying: " Most animal pleasures leave a sting behind, are of short duration, pass away with youth, yield ing nothing but the short-lived joy, with the poisoned sting of remorse or regret, and no benefit remaining; while reading yields profit and pleasure, present and to come, not dying with youth, but continuing to the end of life." His memory was remarkable. On one occasion, when he was at Mecklinburg Court, different members of the bar present during an evening entertainment, took part in it. When Mr. Bouldin was called upon he repeated verbatim a splendid sermon that had been preached some time before by a prominent Virginia clergyman. So im pressed was a young man present, that he shortly after joined the church. The late Bishop Atkinson, of North Caro lina, wrote to his son, Mr. Powhatan Boul din of Danville, Va., " Your father's delight was to pour out the riches of his mind in conversation and whatever the subject might be, politics, literature, or the current busi
