"Forty-five years after," says Mr. James C. Lamb in his sketch of Mr. Minor in the "Virginia Law Register," "a pupil of his who had been practicing a short while, having heard of Mr. Minor's experience, told him that he had begun his own professional life by observing most strictly the best rules of pleading and practice, even writing out his demurrers and pleas in the most trivial cases. 'Then I will predict,' said Mr. Minor, 'that it was not long before all the bar were fol lowing your exam ple.' 'No, sir,' re plied the young man, ' it was not long be fore I was following their example,' and the aged professor joined heartily in the laugh which followed as he said : "'Ah, you should have persevered, they would have come to you.'" Hon. Alex. H. H. Stuart, who was a contemporary, said of Mr. Minor as a lawyer: " He was fa john b. miliar with the most difficult rules and forms of practice, and had the most profound and accurate knowledge of legal principles. He seemed even that early in life to breathe the very atmosphere of the law." The fol lowing is a copy of his first law card. It was printed on neatly glazed paste-board in 1840, when he entered into partnership with his brother. Lucian and John B. Minor, attorneys-at-law, Charlottesville. Will attend the Courts of Albemarle, Orange, Louisa, Fluvanna and Buckingham, and the Superior
Courts of Goochland. John B. Minor will also at tend, as heretofore, the Superior Courts of Botetourt, and Lucian Minor will practice in the Court of Appeals. REFERENCES.
Richmond. General Bernard Peyton, P. M. Messrs. Kent, Kendall, and Atwater. Messrs. Burwell, Smith and Jones. Mr. John N. Gordon. Charlotteyaille . Messrs. W. A. and J. H. Biff. Twyman Wyatt, P.M. Buchanan. Mr. John S. Wilson. In 1845, when thir ty-two years old he 'was elected to the professorship of law in the University of Virginia. Mr. Lamb says: "Astonishing as it may seem, in the light which now shines upon his suc cess as a teacher of the law, there was great opposition to his appointment, mainly on account of his youth. During his first ten years he minor. graduated only nine per cent, of the ma triculates, but the difficulty of the course under him did not deter applicants for its honors, on the contrary the numbers steadily and rapidly increased from twenty-eight, when he began, to more than I OO, with the aver age attendance in later years of 140. In 1870 he began his private ' Summer Course of Law Lectures ' and year after year he numbered among his pupils many lawyers, who, after practicing for years, went back to sit at the feet of this man whose su perior as a teacher of the law never lived." Senator Daniel of Virginia, at the unveil-
