The next letter is from Mr. Justice Patteson, of the Queen's Bench. TO HON. JOSEPH STORY. 33 Bedford Square, November 5th, 1839. I beg to return you many thanks for a copy of your Commentaries on the Laws of Agency. I readily avail myself of this opportunity to acknowledge the great obligations under which you have laid all the members of the profession of the Law, and especially those who have to administer it, by the learned and profound treatises which you have published, and to express how grateful I feel to have any communication with so distinguished a Judge. The respect paid to American Reports and Law Treatises in England is, I think, rapidly increasing, and tends much to the improvement of our theory and practice, and, I trust, will continue. Your obliged servant, J. PATTESON. The next letter is from John William Smith, Esq., the accomplished compiler of " Smith's Leading Cases." TO HON. JOSEPH STORY. SIR: 12 King's Bench Walks, Temple, October 29th, 1839. I beg leave to return you my best thanks for a copy I received yesterday of your valuable work on Principal and Agent. I would endeavor to tell you how highly I estimate it, but that I should incur the blame of presumption, were I to venture any opinion, even the most laudatory, on the work of so distinguished a lawyer. I am happy to say that I have already heard it much admired by others, whose judgment carries here much weight with it. I have the honor to be, Your obedient servant, JOHN WILLIAM SMITH. The next letter is from William Burge, Esq., the learned author of the Treatise on Suretyship, and of the Commentaries on Colonial and Foreign Laws. TO HON. JOSEPH STORY. Lincolnshire, 31st March, 1840. MY DEAR SIR: I have to return you many thanks for your work on Agency. Your publisher here had sent me a copy, but on receiving that which came to me direct from yourself, I returned to him that which he had previously sent me. I have read it with great attention and profit. You have rendered the examination of this branch of Commercial Law singularly valuable by your illustrations from the Civil and Foreign Law. I am rejoiced to hear that you intend to follow the same plan in treating of the other leading branches of Commercial Law. You have my sincerest wishes, that for your own sake, as well as for that of the public, an abundant share of health may be allotted to you. Let me ask you whether the law of Principal and Surety will form a separate treatise? My reason for asking that question is, that I may leave my manuscript in my drawer. We are not sufficiently familiar here with the peculiarities of the Civil Law, as well as of Foreign Codes, in this branch of law. I shall be very glad indeed to hear that it forms part of your plan. I beg you to believe me, my dear Sir, With the greatest esteem and respect, Your very faithful and obliged friend, The opinion of Sir W. W. Follett, Esq., the distinguished advocate and Attorney-General, one of the brightest ornaments of Westminster Hall, is thus expressed: MY DEAR SIR: TO CHARLES SUMNER, ESQ. Duke Street, Westminster, November 11th, 1838. Accept my best thanks for the valuable book you have been so kind as to send me. Mr. Justice Story is, of course, well known to us here as the author of the best book that has been written on the Conflict of Laws, and it gives me great satisfaction to possess another work from the pen of so profound a lawyer and accurate a reasoner as he is. Permit me also to assure you that this copy will always possess an additional value to me from its coming through your hands. Believe me, my dear Sir, Most truly yours, 26 W. W. FOLLETT. CHAPTER VII. PROFESSORIAL AND JUDICIAL LIFE. EXCESSIVE LABOR-LETTERS FROM WASHINGTON-ADVANTAGE OF LITERARY STUDIES TO A LAWYER-PLAN OF TREATISES ON COMMERCIAL AND MARITIME LAW-CASE OF NICHOLS v. COUCH CORRESPONDENCE WITH R. H. DANA, JR.-LETTER FROM MR. DANA CONTAINING REMINISCENCES-LOSS OF THE STEAMER LEXINGTON - LETTER ON AMERICAN ORATORS AND STATESMEN - NOMINATION OF GENERAL HARRISON - LIEBER'S POLITICAL ETHICS - VIEWS IN RESPECT TO A BANKRUPT ACT CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. JUSTICE COLERIDge — Letters TO MR. EVERett, Mr. Wigram, Mr. FIELD, DR. LIEBER - PUBLICATION OF NEW EDITIONS OF BAILMENTS, CONFLICT OF LAWS AND EQUITY PLEADINGS - LETTERS FROM MR. JUSTICE COLERIDGE AND MR. Burge. THE Law School was now rapidly increasing in reputation under the auspices of the two professors, and numbering between eighty and ninety students. In this department my father's time was passed without any very striking events, devoted only to steady labor, in which his energies were tasked to their utmost. He was, in fact, at this period, overburdened with work, and it was evident to his friends, that he was undertaking more than his health could support. But labor was to him an excitement which he could not forego. Pressing on towards his goal, he could not stop to calculate the expenditure of health and strength. All this year he was running against time. The following letters, written at this period, recount, among other things, the various occupa tions of the year 1839, and the series of legal treatises which he proposed to write: TO MISS HARRIET MARTINEAU. MY DEAR MISS MARTINEAU: Washington, January 19th, 1839. You will be surprised that I write you from this city, and more so that I have not thanked you before for your letter, which I received some months ago. But, in truth, it has not been a matter of choice, but almost of necessity. Within the last year the business of my Circuit has been doubled, and it was only on the Saturday before I left home for the Supreme Court, that I adjourned my last Court at Boston. We have also between eighty and ninety students at the Law School, upon whom, at every interval of leisure from the duties of my Circuit, I have been obliged to bestow a constant attention by lectures, &c. You have also, I perceive, been engaged in various labors, some of which I have not as yet had the good fortune to see. But I have read, and with exceeding pleasure, your review of Miss Sedgwick in the Westminster. It is a beautiful tribute from one who can appreciate excellence and discriminate its various developments. By the by, the Westminster is rising in reputation among us, and in some of the late numbers there are articles of a high order, which have been received here with great favor. I am glad to see that you are enrolled among its permanent contributors, but I shall look with even more interest to your other literary efforts, and especially to the series in which you are now engaged. I presume you may wish to know what Congress are doing. It is the short session, and very little business of a public nature has as yet been brought before either House. The refusal to act upon the abolition petitions, being in effect a denial of the Constitutional right of petition, has created a good deal of excitement; and the question of slavery is be |