GEORGE HOADLY the courts of Ohio were as an honored visitor and no longer as an active member of the Bar. In 1888 he was selected to deliver the annual address at the meeting of the Ameri can Bar Association. In closing this address he said: "If we must confess that the bar of today is not equal to that of Justinian's age, not equal to Tribonian and his asso ciates, that Mr. Field's work is premature or inadequate, and that to another genera tion must be committed the task of securing us against the dangers of "inherent sove reignity in public law, and the unwritten in private law, let us devote ourselves to the task of improving the education of our legal successors. Upon this we can all agree." "There is no excuse for admitting to the practice of the law any man not adequately prepared for the work. Let law schools abound, and private preceptors be treated as adjuncts. Require competent knowledge not only of our own tongue, but also of the language that forms its basis; require com petent knowledge of the laws and systems of the great Empire, in which that language was in daily use; require competent knowledge of the history of that empire, the develop ment of its civilizations, as well as of the nations speaking the English tongue whose children we are. Widen the horizon of legal vision. Give to the lawyer before he becomes so pushed by the affairs of clients, as to be debarred by the exigencies of life from study of all except the cases which happen to come to him — give to the legal student the amplest and fullest opportu nities to survey, not merely the historical data which precede our age and are the basis of our system, but others which con stitute the foundations of other civilizations worthy of being considered with our own. Wage implacable war against ignorance; for
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give no man who attempts to come to the bar without an adequate equipment, derived not merely from study of the statutes and the laws of his own country, but from a general survey, at least of those of other lands. Lift up the standard, increase the term of study and be steadfast in exacting from the student the bestowal of time and labor in study. Four things are required of all generations of American lawyers: integrity, industry, learning, faculty." "The first and second of these are at the command of all; industry will bring learning, but God only can give power, faculty, genius. This seems to be allotted to every people and generation, according, at least, to their deserts. We may, therefore, await the future in serene confidence, that if by honest labor we do our part, He who giveth the increase will not withhold from us and successors that vital spark which shall animate our and their corporate work, and make it productive of blessings to generations." The wide extent and great success of his practice in New York is well known, but the details of such a practice are not of general interest. There was, however, during that time one employment of public interest. In 1894 he was employed by the Attorney General as special counsel for the United States in the financial diffi culties which the Union Pacific Railway was in, and as a result of his labors the United States collected the full amount advanced to the Union Pacific Railway with interest. The last few years of his life he was compelled, owing to blindness and failing health, to spend in retirement. George Hoadly died at Watkins, New York, August 26, 1902, having just com pleted his seventy sixth year. Cincinnati, Ohio, November, 1907.
