evil, and to form an association by which a freer interchange of ideas and more intimate relations with each other may be promoted among the members of this bar, and to supply, to some extent at least, the great defect in our system of which I have spoken. It is in that spirit that the gentlemen who have undertaken to organize this association are here, and they rely upon your active co-operation and assistance in the business. [Applanse.]

Need I say to you that one of the most important features of this remarkable age is the power attained and the great results effected by association. You have only to look at our telegraph across the ocean and at our great railroads which span the continent, to see what may be accomplished by combination. You will find that the great law which originated the organizations which have effected such astounding results is the principle of association.

All classes, all professions, save that of the lawyer, have their associations. The humblest artisan in the land falls back upon his trades union, and too often is enabled for the time to bid defiance to capital. Why is it that we, the most important class in the community, conservators as we are of justice, sworn officers of the courts why is it that we are as incohesive as the shifting sands of the ocean beach? Shall this be permitted to continue? Can we not in some way infuse among our members a better idea of their high and lofty calling? Can we not create an organization through which the profession may be educated up to a fitting sense of its grave and elevating responsibilities, and of the position which it ought to occupy in this community? I need not dwell upon the importance and dignity of the legal profession. We all know that there can be no more responsible office than that of a lawyer; and that if you have not a bar, and let me say, an independent bar, that will stand up against oppression and can protect the weak and the defenceless, society will dissolve itself.

Now, gentlemen, I know that there may be much difference of opinion as to the special objects of this association; I fancy that there are not a few who will perhaps think it is formed in a spirit of hostility - that its object is attack. I hasten, for myself and every other gentleman associated with me, to deprecate any such idea and to disavow any such intent. This association is in an embryonic state. We are weak. We associate for mutual protection and assistance; we are not in a position to assume offensive operations. What we want is to create a spirit of professional brotherhood, to create in the members of the profession a regard for the profession. [Applause.] When we shall have done that we shall have accomplished everything. When we shall have brought within our ranks, as I confidently hope we shall do, all that is intelligent, all that is honest, all that is honorable in this profession, when we shall number our members by thousands, do you think we shall need to concern ourselves about the influence which this association must inevitably acquire? Fancy all the intellect and respectability of the bar enrolled, united and actuated by a common purpose. Who can limit its influence who will dare to say what it may not accomplish? Let me tell you that this profession, when thus united, thus animated, will be able at least to protect itself from aggression, come from what quarter it may. [Applause.] The time will assuredly arrive when this will be so; but we are not here to-night to speak of what may hereafter be done; we are simply making a beginning. If we can but induce our brethren to enter this organization and to co-operate zealously in building it up, the future will take care of itself.

Gentlemen, it is singular that there never should have been any association of this bar within the memory of its living members. Even in the days when Kent and Spencer and the other illustrious men who adorned our bench were living; when the great names of Welch and Emmet, and Ogden and Slosson, and the many others which will readily occur to you, shone as the brilliant lights of this bar, there was no organized association of its members; but we know that in those days the bar in this state stood as high as the bar of any other state or country. And why? Because the individual lustre of its leaders gave it a power which was irresistible. Perhaps, if an institution like this which we now propose to form had existed at an earlier day, it might have done much in arresting the decline which we all see and which we have so much cause to deplore.

It is a curious fact, and it may not be known to you all, that more than a century and a quarter ago there was a bar association existing in full vigor in this city of New York. We have no trace of the nature of that organization. History has not busied itself with what was perhaps then considered a little thing. We know not who were the members of that association, or what was its constitution; but one thing we do know - we know what it did.

In the year 1763, when Lieutenant-Governor Colden was administering the affairs of this colony, being ambitious of extending the prerogatives of the crown, he fancied that under the instructions he had received from the home government, a right was given him, with his council, to review upon appeal the findings of a jury upon questions of fact. Before that time the same rule prevailed here which obtained in the parent country, that is, that a writ of error was the only way of reviewing a common law judgment, and that upon that writ no questions but those of law could be brought up. But the governor, ambitions of exercising this control, determined to issue a writ of appeal upon a common law judgment, for the purpose of reviewing the decision of a jury. The writ was sealed by him; but, gentlemen, to the credit of the legal profession of that day, not one solitary lawyer could be found who would argue that appeal! [Applause.] The colonial governor, as you may suppose, denounced the New York bar, and in a letter to the home government he speaks of this bar association, which, as he said, had been formed about 1747, as exercising a most dangerous control and influence in the city of New York. That

was the New York bar of a hundred and twenty-five years ago! Gentlemen, have we lost all the spirit of our forefathers? Now come down with me three years further. In the year 1766, as you all know, the British government commenced its course of tyranny over this country by its first stamp act. You know, as a matter of history, that the passage of that act was received with a storm of indignation in every one of these thirteen colonies; but, gentlemen, do you know that there was no place in the whole country where the resistance to this odions ineasure was more determined and effectual than in this city of New York? When the vessel, which brought the stamped paper here, arrived, such was the excitement of the people that her officers were obliged to anchor her under the guns of a frigate; when the packages of stamped paper were taken from the ves sel, the demonstrations of hostility were so great that the gov ernor was forced to consent that he would not put the law in operation, and he deemed it prudent to surrender the stamped paper to the mayor and corporation of this city. Now, gentlemen, who was it who organized and marshaled this resistance? I am proud to say it was this same bar association. The governor had denounced it in vain three years before, but now on a vastly larger theater of action, it proved itself to be equal to the emergency. You know, as matter of history, that the crown was foiled in this its first attempt, and reluctantly repealed the stamp law, but the governor, disheartened by failure, demanded of the home government that measures should be at once taken to diminish the influence of the lawyers in the affairs of this colony. What comfort should this be to all of us in looking back upon what our forefathers did; and when any of my friends as too many of them do-shrug their shoulders in the very bitterness of despair, and say that nothing can be done but turn on our backs and die. I ask them to remember what the bar of these early days achieved. What they did, we, too, may do. And when this organization, which we are now seeking to form, shall grow in strength,-when it shall become a body all compact, when its muscles, and sinews, and nerves shall have attained their full vigor,-it will be able to do great things for the profession and for the community.

Now, gentlemen, I have perhaps detained you too long with these general remarks. You will be more interested to hear something from me of what we, who have cheerfully undertaken the business of bringing you together, have considered the objects to be attained by this organization.

We desire to make this organization such that every lawyer in this city of respectability, who desires to do so, may join its ranks. We propose to open rooms in some convenient locality, and to supply them with as good a library as our funds will allow, so that there the elder and younger members of the profession may meet during the evenings, and at other times, to take counsel together and talk over the wants of the profession, and where, if they have occasion to study their causes, they shall find a convenient working library. Beyond that, we have not yet ventured to advance a step. Doubtless many of you here have your views on the subject. You will be able to aid us greatly by the expression of your ideas as to the manner in which the institution should be established and carried on. For myself, however, I confess that I think the great object that overrides every other is to get our organization. I am for organization; convinced, that with that once achieved, we may safely trust that all that we hope to accomplish will be fulfilled in the not distant future. [Great applause.j

REMARKS OF WILLIAM M. EVARTS, ESQ.

I suppose, Mr. Chairman, that every one of the gentlemen here to-night is as much a mover in this effort to combine the Bar for useful purposes of interest as any other. So far as I have made the subject a matter of conversation with my brethren of the Bar, with more or less of point in the conversation, during the last seven or eight years. I have found no difference of feeling and none of purpose; and I believe all that has been needed has been that some should take the responsibility and labor of collecting the sentiment of their brethren, as has been done by those who have signed the call for this meeting, to ensure an honest, a sincere, a brave, a considerate, a determined, a persis tent and an absolutely fearless organization of the Bar of New York. [Applause.] I think there is nowhere in this matter to be seen, feared or suspected a sinister, a selfish, a personal object, either in respect to protection, defense, elevation or attack; it is all public, all general, all noble and useful. Now, there have been felt, I think, to be several considerations which should induce the Bar, as scholars, as gentlemen in a common pursuit of life, to combine their influence and the contributions of their resources in a way which will afford us opportunities for the research and study which our profession requires, and for the consultation and communion with each other so impor tant to it. I think we have all felt that to be a great, a numerous, a wealthy Bar, without a library adequate to our name and suitable to our credit, without the means of association in the ordinary forms of intercourse on common grounds, during the hours of the day when we have any leisure or opportunity for such intercourse, was not only a reproach to us, but an injury to Without any special moral occasion, or any particular incentive of public duty in the public need, I think that in the minds of many there has been a purpose, whenever opportunity should serve or attention could be commanded, to induce a combination of the profession with such an object. I hope, sir, that this committee will consider these objects as a part of the organization proposed, and which must have sufficient of a substantial and acceptable interest to its members to keep us closely and permanently connected. [Applause.] With this general object and motive for combination, there is a more powerful and deeper, a more responsible and a more active sentiment, growing out of the condition of our profession and of

us.

the judiciary, and of the sentiments of this community toward both. Careless we have been, careless almost all the interests of society have been, of the great and perpetual trust which rests upon every generation in a free and equal community to see that they bear their share ever, not only in the enjoyment of the noble heritage that has come to us, but in its maintenance, its protection and its defense, and that they shall transmit it ever, not only unimpaired, but amplified-not only unpolluted, but ever brighter and fairer, to every succeeding generation. [Applause.] And we must not lose sight of this fact, that just in proportion as a society is free and equal in its constitution, just as there are no artificial and no permanent gradations in it, just as there are no rulers and no captains, just so is it the more incumbent upon all in the only rank there is-the common rank-to see that they do not become selfish and isolated and envious and injurious, but that they cultivate sentiments of common purpose for the common interests. In institutions

framed in this spirit must ever be the only form of power that an equal and free community can tolerate; and every institution must take care of itself, and not leave to the enterprise of its competitors and rivals the building up of itself.

Now, with these general observations, let us see how much the Bar can do for its own credit, s own power and the service of the community, and how much it can do toward maintaining the credit and character of the Judiciary-that weakest portion of our political system, that portion that has, or should have, no patronage or influence and no political authority, which is dependent upon its integrity, its learning, its capacity, its public spirit, and which must ever rest upon the Bar as the chief interpreters to the people at large of its relation to the community, and as the principal means and agency by which it discharges its judicial duties in all its obligations to that community, for the Judiciary is not a spontaneous agency in the administration of justice. It never does any thing solemn or ex parte except by the invitation-the instigation, if it be evil-of a lawyer. [Laughter and applause.] Now, is it fair that the Judiciary of this State should stand in the general doubt, or general discontent, or general disregard of the community? that it should be subject to aspersion and to suspicion, and not feel, or be permitted to plead, that some lawyer was the first mover in every wrongful act of that Judiciary that brought it thus into contempt? Who does not reverence the Judiciary? Who does not, in the midst of the pressure, the excitement, the credit, the honor, the emoluments-opened so richly to prosperous lawyers here-respect every man who takes a place upon the Bench, and foregoes these bright and alluring invitations to fame and wealth? And who but feels struck, in his own sense of manhood and of dignity, when the Judiciary, which is the crown and honor of his profession, is brought into disrepute ? And who, when he reflects that his own profession are the moving parties in everything that is done by a Judge, good or ill, but feels that it is time for him to collect the honorable and upright and worthy men of his profession together, that they may put their finger upon the unworthy who take the lead, under whatever motives, in these injurious and weakening courses or proceedings? [Applause.] Why, Mr. Chairman, you and I can remember perfectly well (and we are not very old men) when, for a lawyer to come out from the chambers of a Judge with an ex parte writ that he could not defend before the public, before the profession and before the Court, would have occasioned the same sentiment toward him as if he came out with a stolen pocket-book. [Great applause. Our knowledge of the profession and of the affairs of life teach us that from the other side we get new light and new wisdom, and then comes the solemn action of the Court, and we meet our adversaries, our brethren face to face before the Judge; but as to what passes between the Judge and us ex parte, it is upon honor. [Applause.]

Sir Jonah Barrington, in his Recollections of the Irish Bar, tells us, that this sense of honor and right, so far as it depended upon the personal knowledge and skill of the lawyers engaged in any cause, was carried to such an extreme, that if a man demurred to a pleading at that bar, it was considered a good ground for a challenge, as being an imputation upon the ability or integrity of the pleader, and he says that many duels were fought upon that ground. But, without sharing this extravagance, really, Mr. Chairman, I think I have not exaggerated this matter of the duty and responsibility of the bar in its dealings with the bench.

Now, perhaps, I have said enough, but I will add that the sitnation is an extremely serious one. It is very difficult to make people believe, but still it is true, that if an institution contains corruption, and the line is not drawn closely to sever it at once from the sound body, however honest, however earnest may be the purpose of the worthy members, the plague-spot is in the body, and the whole is sick. The disease is not local. It may be cured; but while the plague-spot lasts, the whole body suffers. The institution is suspected, the distinction between the members is not and cannot be known. I speak not of the bar quite as much as I do of the judiciary, and it is only when you attempt to make a rally of the powers left, to make the issue, that there shall be no disease, no corruption and no base aspersions withont foundation, and that it shall not be permitted for men to scoff without cause at the administration of justice, either through the bench or by the bar, and make it plain, one way or the other, that the institutions are pure and strong, or that they are vicious and corrupt-it is only by that rally, that we can restore health, and strength, and confidence. And that is the purpose of this rally to-night. [Applause.] It is aimed at no other object than the evil itself-to ascertain it, to measure it, to correct it, and restore the honor, integrity and fame of the profession in its two manifestations of the bench and of the bar. [Prolonged applause ]

NOTARIES APPOINTED.

List of Notaries Public, appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate, March 10, 1870:

COUNTY OF KINGS. - Re-appointments. —J. Joseph Ammenwerth, Brooklyn; John A. Armstrong, Norman Andrews, Samuel J. Allaire, Williamsburgh; John F. Baker, Frederick W. Burke, Charles S. Barker, A. P. Bates, Thomas C. Bowen, E. Wilson Bloom, J. Kent Boyd, Stephen C. Betts, Jacob J. Bergen, Cyprian S. Brainerd, Jr., John Brainerd, Caleb F. Buckley, George N. Birdsall, Silvester H. Clarke, Stephen J. Colahan, John Curtin, Brooklyn; Samuel Cockcroft, Williamsburgh; R. Ormiston Currie, New Utrecht; Asher P. Cole, Brooklyn; John Currie, New Utrecht; A. B. Capwell, John E. Carpers, S. B. Chittenden, Jr., John H. Colahan, Chas. Domm, Julius Davenport, George R. Dutton, Thomas T. De Witt, John W. Dyer, Edward F. Davenport, Albert Eckert, James Fairbairn, Daniel E. Foley, Alonzo C. Farnham, David G. Fanning, Maurice Fitzgerald, Charles E. Frost, E. Gates, Isaac B. Gregg, Alfred Greenleaf, James Goudge, Herman L. Guck, Edward L. Greenwood, Hubbard Hendrickson, Brooklyn; Melville Hayward, Wm. E. Horwill, Williamsburgh; Rudolph Herr,Theodore Ainesdale, Patrick Hogan, George C. Harward, Amzie Hill, John T. Heydinger, Jr.. Bernard Hughes, John F. Hennessey, Hiram Holmes, Daniel L. Jones, Jr., George L. Kilborn, Horatio C. King, Chas. W. Knowlton, James H. Kidder. Pardon W. Kenyon, Chas. B. Loomis, E. E. Lombard, L. L. Laidlaw, Wm. H. Lawrence, Peter J. Leyendecker, John Z. Lott, John Linsky, John A. Lockwood, James A. Murtha, Thomas C. Moore, James W. Monk, Dennis McNaman. Edward J. Maxwell, Joseph Mackie, John H. Mott, Paul Miller. Wilbur B. Mahen, Walter Nichols, John K. Oakley, John Oakey, John J. Perry, Brooklyn; Matthias J. Petry, Wil liamsburgh; Wm. Poole, George W. Pearsall, Andrew J. Percy, James H. Pratt, John Patterson, Francis G. Quevedo, Francis C. Roche, Jacob Rosengarden, Charles J. Ryberg, Sidney L. Rowland, Brooklyn; John H. Rogers, Williamsburgh, Wm. Savage, Chas. H. Smith, J. Milton Stearns, Jr., N. McGregor Steele, Levi Solomon, Brooklyn; Leavitt L. Stockbridge, Williamsburgh; Wm. F. Sebert, Elnathan L. Sanderson, Edward Simpson, Jr,, Abia B. Thorn, Samuel J. Thomas, Brooklyn; Eliphalet A. Thurston, Greenpoint; Benjamin K. True, Wm. Taylor, Chas. C. Talbot, Brooklyn, George K. Tyler, Williamsburgh; Reuben H. Underhill, Wm. M. Van Anden, Benjamin G. Woortman, Sidney Williams, R. Stewart Willer, Wm. T. Woodruff, Wm. L. Whitney, F. William Walker, Matthew B. Whittlesey, Charles Wagner, J. N. Wyckoff, Jr., Abel C. Willmarth, Henry J. Willis, Geo. P. Willey, Brooklyn.

New Appointments.-Wm. E. Austin, John Atkin, B. D. Allen, Henry H. Adams, A. J. Berrian, Thomas Burk, Benjamin Banks, Chas. H. Burtis, James B. Bach, Wm. Blair, Edward Brookhoot, Jr., Wm. N. Bennern, Brooklyn; John F. Buckmaster, Greenpoint; John H. Bergan, Flatbush; Wm. H. Ballantyne, Henderson Benedict, Henry Beam, Lyman W. Bates, John J. Blair, Robert G. Blood, Martin Brennan, Henry C. Bogert, Smith C. Balis, Eugene M. Cammeyer, Brooklyn; Patrick Callahan, Greenpoint; Victor Chequvine, Patrick H. Colgan, John Cassidy, John E. Cafet, Geo. H. Crans, Howard C. Conraddy, Adrian V. Cortelyou, Jr., Frederick Cobb, Edward W. Candee, J. A. Christadoro, Thomas M. Clark, Joseph Cunningham, Frank Crooke, Brooklyn; Chas. W. Cheshire, Williamsburgh; Wm. Palmer Dixon, Brooklyn; John Dowling, Williamsburgh; Thos. W. Davis, Anthony R. Dyett, Henry Davison, Jr., Wm. H. Delaney, Brooklyn; Edward E. Daily, Williamsburgh; Peter Eireman, Thos. H. Elliott, Joseph Kingleton, Cornelius V. Finehout, George L. Fox, Edward H. Flavin, Henry Ferris, Adolph Getting, Daniel J. Gillen, Samuel Godwin, G. F. Gollmar, Joseph E. Gay, Joseph C. Hughes, Edward T. Howard, Geo. W. Hunt, Brooklyn; Frank W. Hannaford, Greenpoint; Geo. W. Hall, Ferdinand Hagendorf, Brooklyn; Chas. J. Hobe, East New York; G. C. Himer, Brooklyn; Alexander H. Henry, Williamsburgh; Francis J. Humbert, James Johnston, David H. James, Greenville T. Jenks, Ira A. Kimball, Armand Koerfer, George Kingsley, William Kent, George J. Landon, Richard B. Leech, August Lochwing, James P. Lancaster, Washington Lackmann, William H. Langley, James M. McNamara, James D. McConochie, Marquis L. Mann, John B. Meyenborg, Thomas J. Marvin, John Madden, George J. Murphy, Joseph Sprague Mecker, Isaac Morley, Jr., Charles T. Middlebrook, John C. McGuire, Wm. H. Merrifield, Thomas Martin, Augustus Merkel, James W. McAvoy, James H. McKinney, Daniel W. Northrup, John H. Neimyer, De Witt C. Northrup, C. J. O'Donnell, Daniel Phelan, Jr., Samuel W. Patchen, Orestes P. Quintard, J. B. Reynolds, J. Pryor Rorke, James W. Riggs, Claude Rice, Jaques Sandmeyer, S. A. Smith, Jr., Brooklyn; Charles Smith, East New York; J. Henry Storey, James B. Staats, Nathaniel S. Simkins, Jr., Aaron Stone, William O. Sumner, Angus C. Tate, William J. Tate, Edward Fusch, Joseph Treloar, William H. Thompson, Brooklyn; Albert H. W. Van Sicler, New Lots; May Vetter, David Van Wart, Frederick B. Van Vleck, E. K. Winship, Octave Whittaker, Brooklyn; Tunis B. Woolse, Flatlands; Charles W. Wert, Anthony Walters, Sidney Ward, John Whitford, Wm. H. Whitlock, James Younie, Charles F. Young, Brooklyn;

George Zallenkofer, Thomas S. Moore, Williamsburgh — all of whose terms will begin March 30, 1870.

ONEIDA COUNTY. - Re-appointments. — J. Prescott, M. L. Case, J. Lee Tinker, Clarke Dodge, James G. French, Henry Farnam, L. L. Lewis, M. M. Burlison, J. B. Cushman, J. Milton Butler, Charles L. Symonds, William Knight, H. G. Utley, Zacchary Hill, W. B. Goodwin, Everett Case, John A. Goodall, R. S. Williams, George R. Thomas, T. O. Grannis, and Eugene Stearns.

New Appointments. -Echabod C. McIntosh, William H. Fisher, James Merriman, William O. Shelley, Silas L. Snyder, C. L. Phelps, Charles F. Bissell, N. D. Brown, M. Delos Barnett, Alfred C. Coxe, John H. Sheehan, Charles Simpkins, William P. Quin, Sidney A. Bunce, Charles J. Cole, Aaron H. Thomson, John H. Knox, William A. Donaldson, Lewis H. Shattuck, and Arthur Fuller.

MONROE COUNTY. - Re-appointments. - Lewis Allyn, Mortimer H. Green, Samuel D. Cornwell, Julian Shelton, Levi F. Ward, George C. Mauser, Frederick A. Hatch, Theobold W. Tone, William M. Colvin, Alonz L. Mabbett, Charles L. Fredenburgh, Peter W. Handy, Daniel W. Burk, Henry F. Huntington, Alvin L. Barton, Edward J. Reed, Harrison S. Fairchild, J. D. Decker, William G. Barker, John H. Kingsbury, and Joseph A. Steell.

New Appointments. George M. Elwood, P. M. Crandall, Charles P. Achilles, Wm. P. Chase, John V. Effner, George T. Hanning, Daniel L. Johnston, De Lancey Crittenden, Alfred T. Braman, Henry Benedict, Maximillian Lowenthal, Menzo Van Voorhis, Richard H. Warfield, C. P. Wolcott, Frank H. Honey, and Edward W. Gaskin.

CHENANGO COUNTY.-New Appointments. — Robert L. Brougham, Eneas Fenton, George H. Winson, Stanton D. Donaghe. S. L. Rhodes, Ranson Clark, William A. Martin, Daniel W. Redmond, Cyrus A. Bacon, Horace Packer, George W. Ray, and Francis E. Diminick.

Re-appointments. - Charles T. Ackley, Joseph E. Juliand, Warren Newton, and James W. Clark.

GREENE COUNTY.— Re-appointments.- Sidney A. Dwight, Addison C. Griswold, Manley B. Mattice, Charles H. Teal, George R. Olney, and Hiland Hill.

New Appointments. — Edwin Russ, William W. Pettit, and Abner Barney.

DUTCHESS COUNTY.-Re-appointments.- - Wm. R. Woodin, Henry D. Myers, John T. Hull, Reuben North, John S. Crouse, John Nelson, William M. Sayre, Robert N. Palmer, William A. Van Wagner, Milton E. Curtice, Charles B. Herrick, Jackson W. Bowdish, Philip Wells, Zebulon Rudd, and George H. Shift.

New Appointments.-C. W. Hignell, John H. Otis, George W. Ingraham and Hiram S. Haviland.

ULSTER COUNTY. - Re-appointments. - Benj. M. Freligh, Joseph Smith, Benjamin M. Coon, Howard Chipp, Charles D. Bruyn, John E. Van Etten, Cornelius H. Van Grasbeck, Friend Hoar, Jr.. James R. Foland, Jacob Freileach, Anthony, Benson, Charles Bray, George G. Keeler, John Lyon and Macdonald Van Wagener.

New Appointments. - Henry Pitts, Thomas B. Keeney, John J. Schoonmaker, James M. Van Wagener, Henry Griffiths, Herman Winans, Arthur J. Mellon, William Reiser, Jesse F. Bookstaver, William Queensbury, Isaac Becker and Peter M. Gillespie.

Re-appointments.

Abijal Bowen, Simon P. Kester, Thaddeus Hait, Solomon G. Young, Abraham D. Deyo, Edmund Eltinge, Robert J. Dickey and James M. Cooper. Notaries Public confirmed March 11, 1870:

STEUBEN COUNTY. - Re-appointed. John M. Finch, D. L. Benton, Wm. S. Hubbell, Henry Faucett, Wm. W. Allen, Ellsworth D. Mills, John N. Hungerford, George W. Patterson.

New Appointments.— Hiram Bennett, Andrew S. Charles, Harris C. Higman, De Witt Bender, Francis H. Holmes, Win. H. Young, Timothy M. Younglove, Robert L. Browdage.

GENESEE COUNTY-C. A. Hull, Asa A. Woodruff, Benj. F. Ballard, Abner Hull, Charles Spencer, James S. Stewart, David E. E. Mix, Orlando Croff, Lawrence L. Crosby. NIAGARA COUNTY. - Erastus Bowen, John E. Pound, John H. Buck, Benjamin J. Hunting, Job W. Vail, A. Ford, James F. Baldwin, John H. Goodman, Geo. A. Torrance, James G. Porter, S. Park Baker, Henry Luth, Henry Corner, William B. Lewis, John H. Schmeck.

LEGAL NEWS.

A Pittsburg judge recently fined a young man $50 for kissing a lady in the street.

A Tennessee jury has thought it worth $10 to call a man unjustly a Kuklux in that State:

The Junior Law Class of Washington University numbers among its members two females.

The law expenses of the United States Government during the past year amounted to $375,990.

A Tennessee court is listening to 300 love letters which are being read in a breach of promise case.

R. Collier, one of the ablest lawyers of Virginia, died in Petersburg on the 3d inst., aged 65 years.

An English justice has sent a man to prison because he persisted in calling himself the Prophet Jeremiah. The Pennsylvania Legislature has been petitioned by the Philadelphia bar to increase the judiciary, both local and State.

Hon. Geo. Arnold, of Cleveland, a prominent lawyer and a justice of the peace of that city, fell dead in the street a few days ago.

Two Chicago "divorce lawyers" and their client have been sent to jail for sixty days for conspiring to obtain a divorce without publication.

An enterprising lawyer has improved upon Mr. Brady's invention, and proposes to clear a murderer by proving that his father was once insane.

It has been judicially decided that death caused by apoplexy, created by intemperance, is not a bar to the recovery of a life policy of insurance.

A San Francisco judge lately tempered justice with mercy by fining a half-starved girl twenty-five cents for stealing a pitcher of milk, and then raising twenty dollars for her among the lawyers and others who were in court.

The death at Jacksonville, Fla., of I. M. Frazier, a prominent member of the Baltimore bar, is announced. He was Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates in 1867, and was a steadfast Union man throughout the war.

The German lawyers of New York city have formed themselves into a Legal Aid Society, the object of which is to aid poor Germans lacking the necessary knowledge of the language and laws of this country in law cases.

Senator James Nye, of Maine, is to appear in court in April to answer to a charge brought by a diamond broker of Constantinople, whom he refused to pay for a diamond ring worth £75 which he purchased while Minister to Turkey.

Mrs. E. Morris, the female occupant of the judicial bench in Wyoming. is described as married; about sixty years of age; more fat than fair, and a believer in Spiritualism, and a different organization of our social as well as our political system.

A London shopkeeper lately lost a bill for £665 against a woman, the judges ruling that the plaintiff could not recover because he knew that the defendant was a person of immoral character, and that the articles supplied to her were to help her pursue her immoral calling.

Judge Blatchford, of New York, has denied the motion to discharge the attachment in the case of John N. Cushing, and others, against property in this country of John Laird, builder of the Alabama, and looking to the recovery of damages for the destruction of the ship Sonora.

The people of Portsmouth, Va., complain that evenhanded justice is not meted out in that region. Recently a servant, who designedly poisoned a family for whom she worked, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment, whilst a man who stole a horse received a sentence of fifteen years' imprisonment.

A western judge has decided that the authority of fashion-plates and journals is not to be recognized in law as of more weight than the decision of any private person. This was in a suit brought by a modiste against a young woman who had declared the dress sent home to be a "perfect fright," and threw it into the fire.

A Dogberry in Mississippi has made a funny decision. Two negroes, near Rolling Fork, in Issaquena county, had a difficulty, and it resulted in their attendance before a magistrate in the neighborhood. After a hearing, the justice decided that both men were in fault, and that each should pay a fine of twenty-five dollars and costs, making forty-eight dollars each. But both were unable to pay. The embarrassed squire finally hit upon a plan to get even with them. He put both to work on his forty-acre cotton patch, and they picked eighteen hundred pounds each to square the bill.

NEW YORK STATUTES AT LARGE.

СНАР. 3.

AN ACT prescribing the jurisdiction of courts of sessions, and to provide for filling vacancies in the offices of justices of sessions.

PASSED January 25, 1870. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. Until otherwise provided by law, courts of sessions shall possess the same criminal jurisdiction which they had on the first day of November, eighteen hundred and sixty-nine.

§ 2. When the justices of sessions, or either of them, shall fail to attend at any court of oyer and terminer or court of sessions, or if a vacancy or vacancies shall exist in such office in any county in this State, the presiding judge of the court may designate by order, which shall be entered in the minutes of the court, any justice of the peace of the county in which such court is appointed to be held, to serve as justice of sessions during said term. If such order is made by reason of the non-attendance of any justice of sessions, it shall be in force until such justice shall attend, but only during the term at which it was made.

§ 3. This act shall take effect immediately.

CHAP. 19.

AN ACT in relation to employers and persons employed, and to amend subdivision six of section eight, of title six, chapter one, part four of the Revised Statutes.

PASSED February 17, 1870; three-fifths being present. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate und Assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. The provisions of subdivision six of section eight, of chapter one, title six, part four of the Revised Statutes, shall not be construed in any court of this State to restrict or prohibit the orderly and peaceable assembling or co-operation of persons employed in any profession, trade or handicraft, for the purpose of securing an advance in the rate of wages or compensation, or for the maintenance of such rate.

§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

CHAP. 20.

AN ACT to amend an act entitled "An act in relation to the surrogate of the county of Wyoming and for other purposes," passed April eighteenth, eighteen hundred and forty-three, and to declare said act a general act.

PASSED Feb. 18, 1870; three-fifths being present. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. The fourth section of the act entitled "An act in relation to the surrogate of the county of Wyoming and for other purposes," passed April eighteen, eighteen hundred and forty-three, is hereby amended so as to read as follows: "In all cases of the erection of a new county hereafter, the surrogate of such county may take proof of the wills and grant letters testamentary and of administration, in cases where the deceased, at the time of his death, resided within the territory embraced within such county; and where, before the erection of such new county any will of such deceased person shall have been proven, or letters testamentary or of administration shall have been granted by any surrogate, but no final settlement of the accounts of the executors or administrators of the last will and testament or of the estate of such deceased person, has been had, then and in that case the surrogate of such new county shall have jurisdiction, exclusive of any other surrogate, of all questions thereafter arising upon any such will or estate, including all necessary proceedings in the final settlement thereof."

2. The surrogate of any county in which such will shall have been admitted to probate or letters of administration granted, shall, on the demand of any party interested, make or cause to be made, for the use of such

party, certified copies, under his hand and official seal, of any and all papers, records, and proceedings on file or of record in such surrogate's office, and the same shall, on being filed in the surrogate's office of such new county, have the same validity and effect in all subsequent proceedings in such estates as the original.

3. This act shall take effect immediately.

СНАР. 33.

AN ACT to provide for the revision of the Statutes of the State of New York.

PASSED March 2, 1870; three-fifths being present. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. The Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, is authorized to appoint three persons, learned in the law, as Commissioners, to revise, simplify, arrange and consolidate all statutes of the State of New York, general and permanent in their nature, which shall be in force at the time such commissioners shall make their final report, and in the execution of their duties, said commissioners shall have free access to any public records or papers of this State, and be permitted to examine the same without fee or reward.

§ 2. In performing this duty, the Commissioners shall bring together all statutes and parts of statutes which, from similarity of subject, ought to be brought together, omitting redundant or obsolete enactments, and making such alterations as may be necessary to reconcile the contradictions, supply the omissions, and amend the imperfections of the original text, and they shall arrange the same under titles, chapters and sections, or other suitable divisions and subdivisions, with head-notes briefly expressive of the matter contained in such divisions; also with side-notes, so drawn as to point to the contents of the text, and with reference to the original text from which each section is compiled, and, as far as practicable, to the decisions of the State courts explaining or expounding the same; and they shall also provide by a temporary index, or some other convenient means, for an easy reference to every portion of their report.

§ 3. When the Commissioners shall have completed the revision and consolidation of the statutes as aforesaid, they shall cause a copy of the same, in print, to be submitted to the Legislature, that the statutes so revised and consolidated may be re-enacted if the Legislature shall so determine; and at the same time they shall also suggest to the Legislature such contradictions, omissions and imperfections as may appear in the original text, with the mode in which they have reconciled, supplied and amended the same; and they may also designate such statutes or parts of statutes as in their judgment ought to be repealed, with their reasons for such repeal; and may also recommend the passage of new acts or parts of acts, as such repeal may in their judgment render neces

sary.

4. The Commissioners shall be authorized to cause their work to be printed in parts, so fast as it may be ready for the press, and to distribute copies of the same to members of the Legislature, judges of the State courts, and to such other persons in limited numbers as they may see fit, for the purpose of obtaining their suggestions; and they shall from time to time report to the Legislature their progress and doings.

5. The statutes so revised and consolidated shall be reported to the Legislature as soon as practicable, and the whole work completed within three years.

§ 6. The Commissioners shall each receive, as compensation for his services, at the rate of five thousand dollars a year for the time actually employed by him, not to exceed three years. The reasonable expenses of clerical service and other incidental matters, not to exceed three thousand dollars annually, shall also be paid them.

§7. In case the said Commissioners, or either of them, shall refuse to act in the premises, or shall die, resign or remove from the State before the completion of the duties assigned to them, it shall be the duty of the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint others or another in their or his stead, who shall have the like powers as aforesaid, and be entitled to a compensation which shall be proportionally equal to that which is allowed by this act to said Commissioners.

28. This act shall take effect immediately.

The Albany Law Journal.

ALBANY, MARCH 26, 1870.

THE LIABILITIES OF MARRIED WOMEN AS SURETIES.

Legislative tinkering and judicial construction have placed the law relating to the property rights and liabilities of a married woman in a very anomalous condition. While it has absolved her from the disabilities imposed upon her by the common law, it has also absolved her from those liabilities which her acts ought naturally to entail.

The statutes of 1848 and 1849 provided that the real and personal property of any female thereafter married should continue her sole and separate property as if she were a single female; and that any married female might take by inheritance, or by gift, grant, devise or bequest, from any person other than her husband, and hold to her sole and separate use, and convey and devise, real and personal property, and any interest or estate therein, and the rents, etc., thereof, in the same manner, and with like effect, as if she were unmarried.

The leading case under this statute is that of Yale v. Dederer, (18 N. Y. R., 265, and 22 id., 450). This was an action to charge the separate estate of Mrs. Dederer, a married woman, with the payment of a promissory note which she had signed with her husband. The consideration of the note was the purchase price of some cows purchased by Mrs. Dederer's husband of the plaintiff. At the time of the sale and of the giving of the note, Mrs. Dederer owned separate real and personal property, while her husband was insolvent. When the case first came before the Court of Appeals, which was in 1858, that court held Justices COMSTOCK and HARRIS delivering the opinions that the acts of 1848 and 1849 did not remove the general disability of married women to bind themselves by their contracts, but that the powers conferred by those statutes to hold to their separate use, and to convey and devise, all their real and personal estate, as if unmarried, carries with it the power to charge such estates substantially in the manner and to the extent previously authorized by the rules of equity in respect to separate estates, and that therefore the bare execution of a promissory note was not sufficient to effect such charge.

"I think it is plain, however," says Judge Comstock in his opinion, "that the statute does not remove the incapacity which prevents her from contracting debts. She may convey and devise her real and personal estate, but her promissory note or other personal engagement is void, as it always was by the rules of the common law. This legal incapacity is a far higher protection to married women than the wisest scheme of legislation can be, and we should hardly expect to find it removed in a statute intended for the more effectual protection of her rights.' It is quite another question, however, whether she may not charge her legal estate, held under this statute, in the cases and to the extent recognized by courts of equity in respect to estates held under a trust for her

separate use. The right to charge her separate estate, in equity, resulted from the jus disponendi which courts of equity regarded her as having, and it was a necessary incident of the full enjoyment of her property. It would seem, for reasons quite similar, that she should have the power to charge an estate acquired and held under the statute referred to. The estate, it is true, is a legal one, but the disability of coverture which, as we have seen, prevented her from disposing of or charging such estates in equity, no longer exists. That disability, as we have also seen, was overcome when she acted under a power of disposition conferred by the instrument conveying the estate. But that power is given in the broadest terms by the statute, and I see no reason why a power thus bestowed should not be equal in its results to one conferred by a private instrument. My conclusion, therefore, is, that, although the legal disability to contract remains as at common law, a married woinan may, as incidental to the perfect right of property and power of disposition which she takes under this statute, charge her estate for the purposes and to the extent which the rule in equity has heretofore sanctioned in reference to separate estates."

When the case again came before the Court of Appeals in 1860, there was the finding-not in the case before that the defendant had, in giving the note, intended to charge her separate estate with its payment, though no mention of that fact appeared in the note itself. It became necessary, therefore, to determine whether the additional fact that the wife, at the time of making the note, intended to charge her separate estate, changed the rule as before laid down. The gist of the decision of the court is stated in the addenda to the opinion, which is in the following words: "A majority concurred in the opinion that the intention to charge the separate estate must be stated in the contract itself, or the consideration must be one going to the direct benefit of the estate." In other words, to make the debt of a married woman a charge upon her separate estate, it must be connected by agreement, either express or implied, with the estate. If contracted for the direct benefit of the estate itself, it would, of course, become a lien upon an implied agreement in analogy to the doctrine of equitable mortgages for purchase money; but if not so contracted for the direct benefit of the estate itself, it can only be made a charge by some affirmative act of the married woman evincing that intention. "All agree," says SELDEN, J., "that when the wife has expressly charged the payment of a debt upon her separate estate, whether it be her own debt or the debt of another, such charge is valid and will be enforced." What should be sufficient evidence of such express charge was not decided?

In 1860 an act was passed, and amended in 1862, which provides that a married woman may bargain, sell, assign, and transfer her separate personal property, and carry on any trade or business, and perform any labor or service, on her sole and separate account, and her earnings shall be her sole and separate property, and may be used or invested in her own name; also, that any married woman possessed of real estate as her separate property may bargain, sell, and convey such property, and enter into any contract in reference