rightful power to record a judgment, nor to grant an appeal. Thus ended the first act of this farcical drama. The persistent purloiner of the pigs, refus ing to accept defeat, obtained from the sove reign Legislature, at its next session, another act, directing the Court of Common Pleas to try the defaulted action. Before that tribu nal the parties again met, and, after lengthy argumentation, the Court deliberated. Ma son's argument had again prevailed, and this Court also determined to have nothing to do with the matter. By this time the "pig action" and the "pig acts " had attained to much notoriety in legal circles in the State. It brought all such special acts of the Legislature, interfering with the regular course of the courts of law, into ridicule and contempt. In consequence, this mischievous practice was, in New Hamp shire, fairly laughed out of existence. Mr. Mason was a fluent speaker and stud ied his cases very diligently. In court his manner was respectful, his statements lucid, and his argument always strong. Perhaps, too, somewhat of his success was owing to his physical appearance. His powerful mind was enshrined in a giant frame. In his early pro fessional period he was notably tall and ap parently slender. A fugitive anecdote of him is remembered as follows : Traveling once in a sleigh after a great snowstorm, he met a countryman in a similar conveyance. Mr. Mason turned his horse and sleigh as far to one side as he conveniently could, and cour teously requested the other party to do the same. The man was sturdy of figure and stubborn of countenance, and taking Mason's courteous speech as the sign of a craven spirit, he refused to budge an inch, and de manded a free way for his vehicle.
At this Mr. Mason's eyes flashed. The day was cold and he had sunk deeply in the robes of his high-back sleigh, but now he drew himself up and sat erect on the seat for a moment, then began slowly to divest himself of the wrappings, and to get upon his feet, displaying his proportions to the surprised countryman, who exclaimed in a tone of alarm, " You needn't rise any more, Mister. I'll turn out." In his prime, Mr. Mason was six and a half feet in height, well proportioned in body but with a slight stoop, — not uncommon in tall professional men. He was appointed Attorney General in 1802, and it has been said of him that he was " the first Attorney General of the State who comprehended the responsibilities of the office." Subsequently he was offered the Chief Justiceship of New Hampshire, but declined the appointment. From 1794, when he changed his residence to Portsmouth, to his removal to Boston in 1832, his life flowed smoothly on in constant and successful practice of the law, varied only by four years of service — from 1813 to 1817 — in the National Senate, and an oc casional term in the Legislature. He died in 1848 at the age of eighty years. Following his removal to Portsmouth, Mr. Mason had for his professional opponents at one time or another, nearly all of the lead ing lawyers of his own and neighboring States, Daniel Webster being his antagonist in many cases. Hon. George S. Hillard, in stating his es timate of Mason, once said that the differ ence between him and Webster was, that "Mr. Mason was a great lawyer, and Mr. Webster was a great man practising law."
