pleading, the new code, following, and, in some respects improving upon, the rules adopted by Massachusetts in 1836, was much in advance of what had hitherto been attempted in England." He visited England and was most cordially received, and collected many valuable his torical documents relating to Virginia and the colonies. Bishop Mead says : " He was imbued with a large share of antiquarian spirit and visited England mainly to study early church history." In 1858 he removed to the District of Columbia and built a house called "The Vineyard," adjoining the "Soldiers' Home." At the time he left Richmond he was re corded in the Virginia reports as counsel before the court of appeals in one hundred and ninety-seven cases, among them that in which the will of John Randolph of Roanoke was the subject. From 1858 he appeared at every term, before the court of appeals at Richmond, down to and including its July term 1860 and before the supreme court until 1861 . It was said: "All who knew him admired the correctness and serenity of his understanding and the benevolence of his character." His last appearance before the supreme court was in 1883, in two cases of much importance, involving the ownership of the riparian privilege on the Potomac, at Washington. (109 U. S. 672.) In 1874 he completed the publication of his great work of twenty years, entitled " The Practice in Courts of Justice in England and the United States." Mr. Selden says : "This work was like his life, no inaccuracy has been detected in the one, no blemish dis
covered in the other." In 1882 he published the first volume of his " English Institu tions," said to be a learned exposition of constitutional and juridical progress in Eng land, from the days of the Romans until the death of Henry VIII." He died before the second volume was completed. He was familiar with Latin, Spanish and French, and everything that is best in English literature. He was very modest and entirely without self-conceit or egotism. He was tall, erect but never very stout. Mr. Robinson's son, the grandson and namesake of Benjamin Watkins Leigh, Mr. Leigh Robinson, is an honored and beloved member of the present Washington City bar. I am told no law yer who appears in the courts there is listened to with more attention and re spect. The Barbour family has given a number of splendid lawyers to the Virginia bar. From the Revolutionary and early Constitu tional era down to late years when it was represented by that able man, the lamented and clever United States senator from Vir ginia, John S. Barbour. Thomas Barbour was distinguished during the Revolution, and of his two sons, one, James, was governor of Virginia, secretary of State and minister to England, and the other, Philips Pendleton Barbour, was an associate judge of the Su preme Court of the United States in 1836. James Barbour was an intimate friend of William Wirt and was his companion fre quently on the journeys from court to court. The bar, it is said, was at that date, much more even than at present, regarded as the best avenue to distinction.
