other. Webster came prominently into view just as Pinckney's sun was setting." The fair comparison, therefore, " would be between Pinckney at the summit of his fame, when he attempted to press for a re-argument of the [ Dartmouth ] College cause and John Marshall turned his ' blind eye ' towards him, and Webster at the same age and period of his career, after he had argued that long line of important constitutional causes, had delivered the Bunker Hill oration and the Reply to Hayne, had become known abroad and his own country rung with his fame, and when he stood the unchallenged leader of a far larger, if not a more brilliant, bar. . . . Take Pinckney's greatest efforts at the bar, in the Senate, or in diplomacy, and compare them with the corresponding efforts of Webster, and I believe the superiority of the latter will be dis tinctly seen. ... A great mass of Webster's legal work survives, and insures him a permanent fame as a lawyer. The New York bar lost one of its best known characters by the death of the late Tom Nolan, "The Barrister," whose claim to fame rests on his Irish wit and humor, rather than his knowl edge of the law. Numberless stories concerning Counsellor Nolan, some true, some apochryphal, have long been current; and some of these have been published recently in a small volume, un der the title of The Barrister, 1 which furnishes an hour's interesting reading. The following quotations show the quality of the Barrister's sayings : On one occasion Nolan was giving his views about some of the judges and lawyers. "There's Smyth," said Nolan, " he's a good judge, a foine judge, but he thinks ivery man ought to go to prison at least wance." Counsel for a defendant railway corporation having made a motion to dismiss an action, the Court asked Nolan what he had to say in answer, to which he replied : "If your honor plase, I've tried four cases this wake, and aich one of thim was dismissed by the Coort. Therefore, I hope your honor will allow this case to go to the jury." 1 The Barrister. Being anecdotes of the late Tom Nolan of the New York bar. With portrait. Compiled by Charles Frederick Stansbury. New York : Mab Press, 1902. (viii-f-264 pp.)
35 1
Nolan having been retained to defend a boy who had fallen into the clutches of the law, was asked by the parish priest what the probable outcome of the case would be. "Your Riverence," replied Nolan in a hoarse stage whisper, " as regards the chances of the case, I feel sure that with your Riverence 's inflooence and a little perjury I can get the bye off!" Sometimes the Barrister's eloquence soared to poetic heights, as in the following instance : "Far be id fr'm me t' disagree wid yer hon or's expectashins or intinshins in the case. But whin yiz spaik t'me ov justice iminatin'fr'm th' source yer honor indicated, me faith in human naytchure gets shaken on its pidistal, and I trimble for th' consequinces, so far as this poor cli ent ov mine is concern 'd. No, yer honor, yiz might as well ixpict t' see th' bright an' effulgint harvest moon shine in resplindint rays through th' attinuayt'd sait ov me poor client's breeches as to look for justice fr'm that soulless corporayshin. Lord have mercy on us!" Mr. Nolan was once retained by the defend ant in a suit at law brought to recover payment of a gas bill, in which a witness for the plaintiff was asked : "On what evidence do you conclude that six teen thousand, seven hundred and forty feet of gas had been burned during the month by the defendant?" "On the evidence of the gas meter," was the answer. At which the Barrister impulsively exclaimed : "I wouldn't believe a gas meter under oath!" On another occasion Mr. Nolan was arguing a case in behalf of clients who were sailors, and, while in the midst of an exhaustive display of nau tical scholarship, was interrupted by the Court: "How comes it, Counsellor, that you possess such a vast knowledge of the sea?" "Of course I have, your honor. Does your honor think I kem over in a hack?" The following plea for judicial mercy, show ing every evidence of the touch of the Barrister's fine Italian hand, will be found brimful of pathos and Nolanesque eloquence : "To the Hon. Judge of the City Court, in Equity : Your petitioner, Samuel, would defer entially represent that on the 10th day of Janu ary, in the year of grace 1891, your honor
