ROYALL TYLER with Theophilus Harrington and Jonas Galusha as assistants, and continued as chief judge until 1813, when all the judges were chosen from the Federal party. Dur ing the latter part of his term of service Judge Tyler's health was very poor, and this, with party complications, prevented his re election; he resumed active practice at the Bar, which was pecuniarily more profitable than his services to the state, and served for a time as register of probate in his district, but after 1820 he gradually retired from practice. He suffered for many years from a cancer on the face, and died in Brattleboro, August 16, 1826, at the age of 69 years. Judge Tyler's personal and judicial memo rabilia are meagre enough, after the lapse of a century, and the following excerpt from a letter written by his son, Rev. Thomas P. Tyler, D.D., hints at the same diffi culty in 1877: — "Fifty years have elapsed since my father's death. His contempo raries have long since passed away. The materials for biography are of course mainly letters and other manuscript, or printed, documents. It is singular, but true, that the department wherein information is most important to be obtained, (that of the law), is just where it is most meagre and unsatis factory. There were, as you are aware, several trials during his service on the Supreme Bench, in which the violence, heat and animosities of politics, the virulence of which passes all our experience, arrayed the people as partisans on either side. Such was especially the case in the embargo war times. In the Black Snake affair there were several trials, some of which I learn from father's letters were prepared by him self for publication, but my most diligent efforts have failed to find one of them. I do find, from the letters of Senator Robinson and other of his friends, that in their judg ment his charges to the juries, and other official acts in the conduct of the trials, con tributed much to allay partisan feeling and bring the people back to sentiments of justice and patriotism." The Black Snake affair
alluded to above grew out of the capture, at Joy's landing on the Winooski river in what is now the city of Burlington, of a smuggling boat, called the "Black Snake," which, under the embargo act of 1807, did a large smuggling business on Lake Champlain, and in the capture of which several lives were lost. The crew of the boat were tried for murder and several of them con victed, though the only one executed was Cyrus Dean, who was hung October 28, 1808, at Burlington, in the presence, it is said, of some 10,000 people. This is probably an exaggeration, the population of Burlington being but 815 in 1800. The following estimate of Judge Tyler by a late writer seems to briefly summarize his personal and judicial qualities: —"Judge Tyler was social in disposition, with a mind well stored with information derived both from books and their prototypes, men. He was the delight of all who knew him, and was the leading spirit on those occasions when the witty, learned and wise were assembled. To high mental ability, there was joined in his character an uncommonly benevolent and friendly disposition, which gained him the love and respect of many attached friends. As a judge he was conscientious, clear minded and just, both by a natural sense of right and an extensive knowledge of precedents. His instructions to juries were often published, and were specimens of elegant composition and evidences of his great professional knowledge. His human ity, though naturally unbounded, was so guided as to produce the most beneficial results. As a citizen he was public spirited and liberal; as a neighbor, social and un obtrusive; as a husband, kind and atten tive." In 1809-10 appeared from the press of I. Riley, New York, two volumes of Reports of Cases argued and determined in the Vermont Supreme Court, and reported by Judge Tyler. The period covered was 1800-1803 and the reports are mainly of jury trials. While it is said by Wallace (The Reporters,
