ing more than a quarter of a century, constrained me to appear before this high Court and crave the privilege to put on record here my estimate of the virtues and graces, the learning, ability and judicial services of another of his distinguished predecessors, James Lawrence Bartol.

The years rolled on. Richard Henry Alvey, another of those who long presided with such dignity and power over your deliberations, was called to a commanding place in our Federal Judiciary, and again it fell to me, this time as an official of the State, to participate in the sad farewell of our Bench and Bar, as, amidst our prayers and benedictions, he left this broad field of his conspicuous usefulness and honor for his new post of laborious and exacting duty and responsibility elsewhere.

Once more, your Honors, this time under a summons of awful and distressing suddenness, a vacancy in the office of your Chief Judge afflicted us.

John Mitchell Robinson's spotless ermine was exchanged, not for the perishable grave clothes that repel, but for the shining raiment that tells of peace and joy and immortality, and, again, responding to the constraining voice of a warm friendship of my youth, unbroken and undimmed by the struggles, solicitudes and discords of the intervening years, I ventured to speak to his sorrowing associates of his lofty ideals, his inspiring achievements, the purity of his private life, the solid and enduring excellence of his judicial career.

And, now as the shadows of evening are lengthening around me, casting my eye back upon those whom I have here personally known, as with unwearied diligence, unsullied integrity and surpassing power, they labored in that greatest of all human concerns, the administration of a pure and enlightened justice; and recurring to those earlier Chiefs of this tribunal of whom I know only by history and tradition, I am honored in being permitted at this representative gathering to speak of the preeminent merits of their successor and acknowledged peer whom, purified by the chastening ordeal of protracted sickness and suffering, we have so recently seen called to the immortality of that perfect peace that passeth all understanding.

We dwell with loving remembrance upon the rich attractiveness of the personal qualities that made companionship with him so delightful and passing from our sweet and tender recollections of the man whom we loved, we turn with equal delight to the characteristic traits and endowments-the massive strength of the learned and upright Judge whom you and we alike so proudly admired and now so profoundly mourn.

Twenty years he sat here; half of that long time as the diligent, faithful, conscientious associate, bearing with modest yet vigorous efficiency his full share of the labors of the Court and liberally contributing by the force of his splendid intellect and the amplitude of his rich resources to the maintenance of its established reputation as one of the best and strongest of the appellate courts of the Union; and the latter half as your honored and cherished Chief, steadily yet graciously guiding your public hearings and your private consultations and all the while faithfully dedicating his commanding powers towards the attainment of the loftiest height of judicial usefulness and distinction.

We of the Bar, who term after term witnessed his demeanor on the Bench, bear cheerful testimony to the benignant patience, the gracious courtesy and the quiet dignity with which he presided over your public sessions, and your published reports will tell to future generations the inspiring story of how his highly trained and superbly gifted mind, remarkable for its extraordinary analytical power, enriched the jurisprudence of the State.

Time does not allow any extended description of the mental endowments for which he was especially distinguished.

But his opinions covering a very wide range of diversified controversy upon difficult and complicated questions show that he possessed in a high degree the power of singularly clear and exact statement combined with unusual keenness of searching analysis and a capacity for close, acute and vigorous reasoning seldom found so generously bestowed by natural gift and so thoroughly strengthened by assiduous cultivation.

It was the possession of these higher faculties of the mind, these powers of analysis and generalization, that gave him the intellectual force and preeminence so freely acknowledged by the profession and that stamped him by common consent as one of the greatest of Maryland's great lawyers and judges.

To us who were privileged during his term of office to bring before your Honors our briefs and arguments he was a never failing stimulus to exertion, and many of us who are neither unaccustomed to labor nor impatient of its exactions constantly beheld the manifestations of his marvelous capacity for work with mingled feelings of admiration and despair.

Such continuous demands upon his physical strength and endurance could not fail to bring their inevitable result, and now that his mortal remains have been tenderly and reverently laid away in their last

resting place, all that is left to us is to place on record here where his best work was done our profound appreciation of its rare excellence and power and to cherish with deepest respect and affection the precious memory of his inspiring career until in God's good time we too, one by one, shall be called to

"Where beyond these voices there is peace."

Chief Judge Boyd said on behalf of the Court:

The tributes which have just been paid to the memory of our late Chief Judge were not only beautiful and affecting, but were so peculiarly just and appropriate that each of us heartily concurs in what has been said.

One of the marked characteristics of the Maryland Bar is its loyalty to the Courts and its readiness to pay respect to the members of the Bench who prove themselves worthy. It cannot, therefore, cause surprise when prominent and representative members of the Bar lay aside their ordinary duties to meet on this occasion, when the regular business of the Court has been suspended, in order that there may be some public expression of the feelings that fill the hearts of all of us, by reason of the death of Judge McSherry.

Few Judges, if any, have been so generally and favorably known throughout the State as was our deceased brother. He was a man of preeminent ability, and one of the most industrious, thorough and careful jurists that ever adorned the Bench. His opinions were not only clear, forcible and convincing, but had a literary finish which made them attractive to intelligent laymen, as well as to those of his own profession.

He never spared himself labor so long as it was of use in aiding him to reach a right conclusion. His brilliant mind could penetrate and illuminate the most abstruse questions, and his beautiful diction and accurate thought enabled him to make his own views clear to others. He was impartial, fearless and just. He never shirked his duties, but performed them with a zeal that was an incentive to others.

Even when a fatal disease had prostrated his hitherto vigorous body, a kind providence preserved intact his bright intellect, and amidst suffering and anxiety, such as are liable to accompany a serious illness, his thoughts still dwelt upon the work of this Court, and he longed to be at what he regarded his post of duty. In a word he was a great Judge whose place cannot well be filled. Seldom has the State of Maryland suffered such a blow by the death of one of its officers.

At a time when new and important questions are coming before the courts, the State and country can ill afford to lose a Judge so eminently qualified to solve them.

Thirty-seven volumes of the reported decisions of this Court (68 Md. to 104 Md.) will furnish lasting evidence of work well and faithfully done by this distinguished jurist, and in generations to come he will be, as he is now, ranked with the highest of those who won distinction upon the Appellate Court of this State.

He was of a cheerful, jovial nature. His very presence dispelled anything resembling gloomy feelings or depression in spirit.

He looked to the bright side of life, and was not deterred by difficulties seeming to others almost insurmountable. Association with him helped to lighten the burdens of others less favored by nature.

He was an honest and useful citizen and faithful to all trusts, public and private, committed to his care.

His death was a great personal loss to each of us, not merely because we had the privilege and advantage of an intimate acquaintance, but as members of this Court, over which he presided with such ability, courtesy and success, we had the benefit of his wise counsel and his knowledge of the law, in the consideration of cases before us.

To use his own language when speaking of another Judge on an occasion like this-"After life's fitful fever, we trust he has realized that reward which awaits, in the hereafter, the ending of a wellspent life; and that the Judge who loved justice here has been mercifully dealt with by the Divine Author of all justice." These proceedings will be entered upon the Minutes of this Court, which will now adjourn, a further tribute to the memory of our lamented brother.

Eloquent tributes to the late Chief Judge McSherry were also made by Hon. William Pinkney Whyte, Arthur W. Machen, Esq., Milton G. Urner, Esq., Judge James A. C. Bond, George Whitelock, Esq., Thomas G. Hayes, Esq., Edgar H. Gans, Esq., and David G. McIntosh, Esq.

A full report of all the proceedings will be found in 105 Maryland Reports xxxi to lv.

In Memoriam

PROF. WILLIAM TRAVIS HOWARD, M.D., LL.D.

Professor William Travis Howard who, for thirty years, from 1867 to 1897, occupied the Chair of Diseases of Women and Children in the School of Medicine of the University of Maryland, was born in Cumberland County, Virginia, on January 12, 1821.

After completing his early academic studies at Hampden-Sidney and Randolph-Macon Colleges in Virginia, he began the study of medicine under Dr. John P. Mettauer, an eminent surgeon in the lower part of Virginia. His professional education was continued at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, at which he entered as a student in 1842 and received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1844. During the intervals between the sessions of this college he pursued his studies at the Baltimore Alms House, a hospital which afforded excellent opportunities for clinical investigation under the teaching of Prof. William Power, who held the Chair of Medicine in the University of Maryland, and was distinguished as a clinician and especially as a proficient in auscultatory diagnosis, in which he had been trained by the eminent Louis in Paris. Through this teaching and his own devotion to study Dr. Howard became a skilful diagnostician and therapeutist and a very accomplished auscultator.

After finishing his term of clinical work at this hospital Dr. Howard began the practice of medicine in Warrenton, North Carolina and soon acquired a large professional business, both in his own section of the State and as a con