weak opinions, but even such a mind would gain stability by attention to opinions less valuable than its own.

Judge Bronson's conclusions are rapidly formed and seldom subject to revisal or qualification. To convince him against his inclination would be an enterprise too formidable for one prudent of his resources. But whatever opinion he may form, it is honestly entertained and fearlessly expressed. Whether on or off the bench, he is equally indifferent to the effect of the announcement of his conclusions, nor is he restrained by party affinities or prejudices, from arriving at the results to which the peculiarities of his mind tend.

The salient points of his mind are marked by antagonism springing from his intellectual organism rather than from his nervous constitution. His opinions are not colored by passion or prejudice, but are the acknowledged children of his brain. The point and spiciness of his writings are not the product of warmth engendered by opposition, but of a mind endowed in itself with the elements of intellectual strife without requiring opposition or an adversary to call forth its energies,

His distinction as a lawyer rests on a solid basis. There is nothing meretricious in his mode of handling subjects. He does not strike for effect, or for the sake of an attitude, but to do execution. His learning is comprehensive and profound, and is available to sustain his positions. If an authority is to be questioned, or a case doubted, it is not mutilated and misrepresented, but fairly and openly attacked. No timidity prevents him from meeting an objection, wherever it may pre

sent itself—whether in the opinion of distinguished judges or of eminent counsel.

As a speaker, he is not gifted with an impressive address. His remarks are pointed, and to the purpose; but a natural hesitancy of manner, and the want of warmth of imagination deprive him of much of the power that is due to the strength of his intellect. The rhetorical talent is perhaps more often over valued than any other intellectual gift. All mankind covet it, for it symbolizes the power of the mind-as the sceptre and the crown represent the sovereign dignity. The effect of eloquence is to move men rather than to set them thinking. But it is the business of the lawyer to convince rather than to arouse, to satisfy doubts rather than to create them. And if he is often found swerving from this end, it is when he has discovered his inability to attain it.

Judge Bronson and Charles O'Conor work with the cold-chisel, and though the anvil and sledge-hammer lawyers throw off more sparks and seem to do more execution, yet the former leave their work complete and finished, while the latter are often unable to recognize it after it has become cold.

Judge Bronson possesses many admirable traits of character. His bearing is dignified; he is courteous and affable in his address, and pleasing in his manners. There is neither affectation nor stiffness in his presence or conversation, but an easy dignity, enlivened by an agreeable pleasantry. It is rare to find these latter qualities combined with a mind of such singular power

and strongly marked individuality. Judge Beardsley resembles him in many of these traits, but wants that genial flexibility of disposition, by which the latter enters into the spirit and feelings of those that surround him. Both are gentlemen in the true sense, and as such, exercise an influence that is denied to intellect, however brilliant, when allied to an uncongenial disposition.

A little more of this gentlemanly finish would be of service now-a-days, both within and without the bar, while its absence is less excusable in the lawyer than in those whose occupation does not offer the same inducements to its cultivation.

GEORGE WOOD.

It is not our purpose in these brief sketches to present a full length portrait of the prominent lawyers of the city of New York, who will fall under our notice. All that is attempted is a mere chalk sketch, done in a sort of blackboard style. Should the subjects of our sketches be recognized by any other peculiarity than their names, it will be the good fortune of the writer, for which he will be sufficiently grateful.

Had our purpose permitted so agreeable an undertaking, the rare qualities and attainments of Mr. O'Conor would have opened a broad and refreshing field, full of matter for study as well as entertainment. And the subject of the present notice would sustain the interest of a more elaborate survey than we have the leisure to bestow.

Mr. Wood belongs to the past as well as to the present. His early contemporaries were the great men whose honored names have survived their labors. His later cotemporaries are the vigorous lawyers of our own day. His calm address, his suavity and manly logic, are the product of early contests at the bar with the most distinguished men, who have impressed their strong minds upon our jurisprudence. In these stirring times of reform, he is now and then a little at fault to discover where the old landmarks have been shifted to- but in the main, takes progress in a very good natured and considerate manner.

Mr. Wood is emphatically a lawyer of the old school. He has been a hard student in his day; though he is not one of those who bring upon themselves an intellectual dyspepsia by undertaking to digest more than is wholesome at a time. He is more properly known as a jurist than an advocate, or in other words, one who looks to the law as his patron, rather than to his client as his master. Without possessing a technical mind, he has mastered the most profound and technical department of legal study, the law of real estate. In this and in public law, he is most at home, though his grasp of the broad principles of law that underlie the entire fabric of jurisprudence is sufficiently comprehensive, to mark with distinction his labors in all other depart

ments.

As a speaker, the operations of his mind are exact and methodical. His manner is deliberate and impressive, and apt to carry conviction to the mind. His

subjects are discussed in the broadest lights. His tendency is to solidification, rather than to analytic dissection, and his arguments present principles of law applied and embodied in a form so symmetrical and complete, that their genuineness is no less apparent to the common understanding than to a cultivated and acute legal mind. In this respect, Mr. Wood's best efforts are instructive models of legal discussion.

Minds possessed of this intuitive faculty of discernment have a proclivity to indolence. The ease with which they develop their subjects, in time renders protracted study irksome, and they scarcely arrive at the full maturity of their powers, before their force is impaired by relaxed effort. Mr. Wood has been a sufferer of late years from this cause, or rather, we should say, that law has been the sufferer; for such powers as Wood possesses, when exerted to their fullest force, confer rare advantages upon the profession. It is the undisputed right of those who have achieved honor and affluence sufficient to satisfy their ambition, to withdraw from the severer labors of professional life. But it is nevertheless to be regretted that a mind richly endowed and cultivated by careful study to the highest point of usefulness, should be withdrawn in the least degree from the important labor of strengthening and perfecting our system of jurisprudence.

Mr. Wood is still in practice, but it must be a good fee and a good case that will tempt him to take down and buckle on his sturdy old armor. He will hardly lay claim to that indefatigable industry that followed a