their patriotism, their freedom, and above all of their justice. Proh pudor! whether the mob destroys a convent at Boston or a church at Philadelphia.

Believe me, most affectionately,

Your friend,

JOSEPH STORY.

The judicial and professorial duties of this year were unusually laborious. The Law School now numbered one hundred and fifty-four members and occupied a great portion of his time; and the dockets on his circuits were crowded with important and difficult cases, on which in the endeavor to satisfy the urgent wishes of counsel he overworked himself and exhausted his energies.

Among these may be mentioned that of Jenkins v. Eldredge, (3 Story, R. 182,) in which a parol trust was set up founded upon voluminous and contradictory evidence. To this single case my father devoted a great deal of time, patience, and study, the fruits of which are to be found in his long and able judgment thereon, covering no less than sixty-eight printed pages. There is, perhaps, no one of his judicial opinions more luminous than this, or which better exhibits his skill in arranging and analyzing evidence, or his sagacity in winding through labyrinthine intricacies of detail with the silver thread of legal principles.

These exhausting labors, together with the untoward event of the Presidential election, which, contrary to his hopes and expectations, had resulted in the election of Mr. Polk, greatly depressed his spirits; and the letters of this period are despondent in their tone. A long and dangerous illness, with which I was most inopportunely attacked, tended also to cast an additional gloom over

his mind, at a time, when all his energies were needed to support him against the pressure of his duties. This is alluded to in the following letter.

MY DEAR SIR:

TO RICHARD PETERS, ESQ.

Cambridge, November 27th, 1844.

I have just received your letter of the 25th. William has been unable to write you, from a severe typhus fever, of which he has been dangerously ill; indeed, for some days I despaired of him. He is now on the recovery, but still feeble and confined to his chamber.

As to myself, I have been unable during William's severe illness to attend to any thing. It completely prostrated me. Since that time and before, I have been literally overwhelmed with judicial duties, and with burdens upon my shoulders not yet half removed, which I have all along feared would knock me up. I thank a good Providence that I am yet very well, though much fatigued and exhausted; and I hope that at Washington I shall have some repose; and if practicable I mean to abstain from all extra labor, nay to be very moderate and very quiet in all things about the Court. I have done my share of the work, and have earned my title to a little indulgence.

Truly and affectionately, your friend,

JOSEPH STORY.

The Berkshire Jubilee, alluded to in the next letter, was a social reunion of those who had been born in

Berkshire, and who united on this festival to interchange congratulations, and to revive the memories of their native county.

MY DEAR SIR:

TO HON. EZEKIEL BACON.

Cambridge, September 28th, 1844.

I received your kind letter of the programme of the Berkshire Jubilee a considerable time ago; and if I were not tired of repeating my excuses of most pressing engagements (I had almost said overwhelming) for my delay to answer it, I should state to you that the letter and the programme were not the less welcome to me, and that my silence is not to be construed into indifference. I should have been glad to see you at any time during the past season; at the same time, at your age and mine, I know how little we are able to indulge our wishes. We must look to the future with eyes passing the boundaries of time and seeking other scenes.

Altogether your Jubilee must have been glorious; and I daily feel more and more the value of such associations, which unite hearts long separated, and hands which have been long estranged. Age, if it brings its infirmities, brings also its blessings, and among those are the softened views which it takes of past political and other differences, and the gentle tenderness with which it seeks to bring together the happier associations of early years on our natal soil. I envy not the man who does not feel his soul warmed and elevated by, as well as yearning towards other men, from whom he has been separated for almost a half century.

I have not time to write you more; we have one hundred and fifty-four students at the Law School this term, and my lectures to them, and my judicial duties crowd out almost all means of leisure to write to friends.

Believe me, most truly and affectionately,

Your friend,

JOSEPH STORY.

In answer to a letter from Mr. Kennedy, the Principal of the Dublin Law Institute, asking my father's views

of the "method of instruction and study best calculated to elevate the standard of legal knowledge, and facilitate acquirement by the student," he thus writes:

DEAR SIR:

TO T. KENNEDY, ESQ.

Cambridge, near Boston, May 15th, 1844.

The pamphlets which you so obligingly sent me, together with your letter, did not reach me as early as might have been expected, owing to my absence in attending the annual session of the Supreme Court at Washington; this is my apology for the apparent neglect, in my not having before returned my thanks for the favor you have done me.

I have read with great interest the papers respecting the Dublin Law Institute, which you have sent me. I have been long persuaded that a more scientific system of legal education, than that which has hitherto been pursued, is demanded by the wants of the age and the progress of jurisprudence. The old mode of solitary, unassisted studies in the Inns of Court, or in the dry and uninviting drudgery of an office, is utterly inadequate to lay a just foundation for accurate knowledge in the learning of the law. It is for the most part a waste of time and effort, at once discouraging and repulsive. It was, however, the system in which I was myself bred; and so thoroughly convinced was I of its worthlessness, that I then resolved, if I ever had students, I would pursue an opposite course. It was my earnest desire to assist in the establishment of another system, which induced me to accept my present professorship in Harvard University, thereby burdening myself with duties and labors, which otherwise I would gladly have declined.

The system pursued by my learned brother, Mr. Professor Greenleaf and myself, in our juridical instructions has had the most entire success. The Law Institution here has flourished far more than I ever dreamed it could in a country

like America, where the administration of law is not as with you concentrated in Dublin or in Westminister or Edinburgh, but spreads over the whole territory.

Our system of instruction is not founded upon written lectures, (which, I am persuaded, is a very inadequate mode,) but upon oral lectures connected with the daily studies of the students in the various works which they study, and in the lecture-room where they are all assembled in classes, and where they undergo a daily examination; and every lecture grows out of the very pages of the volume which they are then reading. In this way difficulties are cleared away, additional illustrations suggested, new questions propounded, and doubts raised, and occasionally authorities criticized, so that the instructor and the pupil move along pari passu, and the pupil is invited to state his doubts, and learns how to master his studies.

Whether the like system would answer as well with you, I am unable to say, but I can scarcely suppose that it could fail, and I may add, that our pupils are all satisfied with it, and make a progress in their studies, so cheering and so marked, that it will not be relinquished.

I should heartily rejoice to know that the Dublin Law Institute should have the highest success in achieving the same purposes. I am aware that any change is likely to meet with much opposition from those who are accustomed to the old system, partly from prejudice and partly from, what I am sorry to say that I fear is but too common in our profession, a disposition to resist innovation even when it is an improvement. If Parliament should aid your efforts, I should indulge higher hopes of your triumphant success.

For your kind and flattering personal remarks, I beg to return you my sincere acknowledgments. If I have done aught to advance the cause of jurisprudence it will be the most ample reward of my labors which I could wish.

Believe me, with the highest respect,

Truly your obliged friend and servant,

JOSEPH STORY