shrewdness, he managed a case with rare tact and precision. He was everywhere remarkable for his powers of crossexamination, which was his specialty, and a witness who told any semblance of a falsehood was sure to be detected. Broad and liberal in all his views, polite and affable in his manner, and winning in his address, he was admired and respected by all who knew him. In politics, although he rarely took an active part, he was a Republican, and was elected to the legislature on that ticket in 1865. He was also one of the Republican state electors in 1876. These were the only two political positions he ever held, and he did not aspire to higher political honors.

He leaves a wife and three daughters.

MARYLAND.

RICHARD J. GITTINGS.

Richard J. Gittings, of Baltimore, died at Ocean City, Maryland, on August 2, 1882, in the fifty-third year of his age. He was born May 22, 1830, on the family estate, "Roslin," in Baltimore County. He attended school at New London Cross Roads, Chester County, Pennsylvania, and also at Sweet Air, whence he entered the college of New Jersey at Princeton. He graduated a Bachelor of Arts in 1849, taking second honors in a class of eighty, in which he was next to the youngest in years. He studied law in the office of Mr. George H. Williams, and afterwards at the law school of Harvard University, where he received the degree of LL.B. He was admitted to the bar in Baltimore County in 1852, and soon after to the bar of the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States. He

formed a partnership in the practice of the law with his classmate at Harvard, Mr. A. W. Machen, which lasted until the death of Mr. Gittings. In 1855 he was elected State's Attorney for Baltimore County, and re-elected in 1859, defeating Lloyd W. Williams the first time; and when a candidate for re-election, his competitor was Mr. Richard Grayson, who has since become Chief Judge. As the State's Attorney for Baltimore County, he conducted the memorable prosecution of the murderers Crops and Corrie, in which he was aided by Mr. Machen, and the counsel for the defense were the late Wm. P. Preston and Hon. Wm. Pinkney Whyte. In 1876, Mr. Gittings was an elector on the Tilden and Hendricks ticket, which was his last appearance in a political connection.

Mr. Gittings, soon after his admission to the bar, entered on an extensive practice, rising rapidly to a leading position in the profession. He was thenceforward until his death engaged in the arduous labors of a busy advocate, which afforded but few periods for rest and recuperation, and it is thought did not leave him sufficient physical stamina to meet a sharp attack of illness. He was engaged, on one side or the other, in a large proportion of the important civil cases tried in the courts of Baltimore City and County in the past twenty-five years. He was one of the counsel for the defense in the case of Samuel McDonald, tried for the murder of Berry Amos. Another important case of his was Clare's trial for murder, which he successfully defended. One of the latest celebrated cases in the trial of which he was active, was the Johns will case, where he was on the winning side, in the Court of Common Pleas, in which the trial lasted forty days. Mr. Gittings leaves a widow-whose maiden name was Victoria Sellman, daughter of Colonel Alfred Sellman, of Anne Arundel County-with one son and five daughters.

NEW JERSEY.

ISAAC WILLIAMSON SCUDDER.

Isaac W. Scudder, one of the best known and for many years a leading lawyer of the state of New Jersey, died at his residence in Jersey City, New Jersey, on September 10, 1881, in the sixty-fifth year of his age.

He was born at Elizabethtown, in that state. His father, Smith Scudder, was a lawyer of distinction, and wrapt up in his profession. Mr. Scudder was admitted to practice as an attorney in 1838, and on the formation of Hudson County, moved to Jersey City, and remained there until his death.

He took an active part in the successful government of the nation and of his native state, but was in no sense an officeseeker, although he held several important positions during his life. He was early appointed Prosecutor of the Pleas of Hudson County, and one of the first cases which it was his duty to prosecute was the case of State vs. Spencer. Spencer was indicted for the murder of his wife, and he conducted the cause with such ability and learning that wide attention was directed to him. He served in this capacity for two terms of five years each, with an interval between the terms.

When the Seventh Congressional District in the state of New Jersey was created, Mr. Scudder was elected, in the face of an adverse majority of several thousand, as the first Representative from that district to the House of Representatives of the United States, and served with untiring industry and marked ability during his term. But he disliked any office which might be considered out of the line of his profession as an advocate, and he therefore uniformly declined, although

often urged to accept the nomination to the office of governor of the state, when such nomination was equivalent to an election.

His lore was in his profession, and he excelled more especially as an adviser, although he was also a great advocate. Early in his professional life he became connected with the corporations of the county and state, grew up with them, and for forty years he was counsel to the railroad corporations, and of later years shaped and controlled their great interests which centred in Jersey City.

He was the counsel of "The Associates of the Town of Jersey," and conducted the litigation which established their ownership of the water front of Jersey City; and when this passed under the control of the New Jersey Railroad Company, he became counsel of that company, and in that position he planned and carried forward the legal proceedings by which the Pennsylvania Railroad Company leased the United Railroads of New Jersey, and he conducted that most important litigation by which the lease was finally consummated.

Mr. Scudder was also engaged in almost all the important suits arising in that county in relation to titles to land. His name appears in the reports of the highest court of his state for a period of forty years continually. He brought to each cause very ripe learning, a large and comprehensive view of the law, and a very thorough preparation both as to law and fact, prepared by diligent labor and untiring industry.

These elements of his character made him valuable to his clients, and gave him much influence with the court. His personal and private character was in every way above reproach. His was not a dwarfed nor one-sided character, not a character wrapped up in sordid selfishness, but one that was full and rounded, which exhibited the fullest development of a noble manhood.

One of his marked characteristics was his great industry, which might be said to have been strong in him even in death, since it came to him in his office and at his desk, when engaged in the preparation of a cause then noticed for trial; and he died at his work without even having retired to his couch.

NEW YORK.

CLARKSON N. POTTER.

MR. PRESIDENT AND BRETHREN OF THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION-On behalf of the Committee on Obituaries, and at their request, I submit this memorial of Clarkson N. Potter.

It is a striking instance of the uncertainty of this life, that we should begin our Annual Meeting with this notice of the death of he whom we elected our Pres

ident a year ago. To all appearance he was then in the full vigor of manhood, and destined to long years of activity and usefulness. The summons to depart hence came to him while he was arguing a cause in the Court of Appeals of the state of New York. He was removed to his home, and died there six days later, January 23, 1882. It is fitting that we commemorate his virtues and express our sorrow that we are to share no more his cordial and graceful hospitality, nor hear his silvery voice, nor learn from his clear and vigorous intellect.

Mr. Potter was thoroughly a man of this generation. The means of rapid communication, which steamboat and railroad and telegraph have put at our disposal, have produced an activity of which former ages furnish no parallel. This has formed a type of man peculiarly its own. The leaders of men to-day do not meditate as profoundly, and, it may