Story and a Kent to the close of life, and which still animates the veteran octogenarian of the bar, Chief Justice Jones.

We have observed that as a real estate lawyer, Mr. Wood deserves the distinction he has attained. This most important branch of legal study, which has laid the foundation of almost every great legal reputation, is not pursued at the present day with the avidity its importance deserves. The consequences of this neglect will be felt a quarter of a century hence.

Mr. Wood is one of those lawyers of the old school, who look upon the doctrines of the common law as venerable old castles still strong for shelter and defence. He will discuss a remainder or a use, with as pleasant a gusto as a wild fowl cooked to a turn. And would as little expect to see a remainder without a particular estate to sustain it, as a pyramid without a base.

Mr Wood is no less remarkable for the raciness of a vein of pleasantry and quiet humor running through his mental composition, than for the grave and demure expression that gives it its point and delicacy. His great efforts, as well as his lighter and familiar conversations are touched with this happy peculiarity. Those who have listened to him while addressing a solemn bench of judges, upon some otherwise dry topic of discussion, often find themselves shaking with a sensation of inward satisfaction, quite inconsistent with the demure aspect of the speaker.

In this respect he is the opposite of Mr. O'Conor. The one possesses the happy faculty of constructing,

by an elaborate and careful process, a ludicrous solecism, that can be remembered and repeated, and laughed over, again and again; while the other invests the objects of his humor with an unobtrusive and quiet absurdity, that can be felt by all, but scarcely repeated or described.

Mr. Wood is cordial and communicative with his equals, affable and social with his inferiors; and on the whole, such a character as one likes to know and converse with. His distinction is never fortified by reserve or affectation; nor is it the less secure for this reason. Whether you see him in conversation, or in consultation, quietly and benignly twirling his snowy hair with his finger, or erect and dignified, uttering the manly creations of his intellect, in a case of magnitude, you feel secure in the belief that you have no common man before you.

One peculiarity of Mr. Wood ought not to be omitted. He is conscientious in regard to his fees; believing that the interests of his profession, and of morality in general, are concerned in correcting the habitual looseness that prevails in regard to the moral obligation of paying one's lawyer. And though a moderate man himself, who would be shocked by the value that some men place upon their labors, he never fails to set a good example, by relieving his clients with the greatest convenient despatch of that uncomfortable feeling that results from the consciousness of having withheld from meritorious services their just reward.

We close this sketch by saying that we have the greatest respect for Mr. Wood, and though we hardly

hope for such a result, yet for the advantage and credit of the law, we would desire that his ripe experience might create for itself a permanent monument amidst the juridical literature of our country.

DANIEL LORD.

In selecting the subjects of these sketches, two considerations have influenced the writer. First, that none but thorough-bred lawyers should thus be presented to the public; and second, that those subjects should be so well known that the portraits may be readily and generally recognized. Exclusion from this series does not therefore imply the absence of ability or reputation, but merely that the two do not happen to be conjoined to such an extent as to serve for illustration of those traits of legal character that it is our purpose to sketch. We endeavor to present examples for imitation, rather than objects for admiration. We have accordingly selected men so widely known as to have become a sort of public property, and whose acknowledged reputation can not suffer from the effects of the scrutiny that is necessary to discriminate excellencies from faults.

Daniel Lord enjoys a reputation rarely achieved at the metropolitan bar. He has been eminently successful. And that success is the more deserved as it has not been filched from the accidents of fortune, but is the result of severe labor and study. There are reputations that start upwards from the earth, blaze meteorlike across the heavens, and expire. There are those that from the cradle to the grave, seem to be held aloft

by an invisible power-like fixed stars. There are those, too, that rise from the earth, like the pyramids, firm, lofty and enduring- but the work of industry inspired by ambition. Of the first sort, many may be seen at any time when the atmosphere is clear and free form storms and clouds. Of the second, a Bacon and a Webster are brilliant illustrations, while a Blackstone and a Story are fitting examples of the latter class.

Mr. Lord belongs appropriately to the class last described. His mental qualities fit him for success in his profession. The basis of his intellectual character is a strict conservatism that disinclines and unfits him for theoretic speculation. Unlike certain modern lawyers of the Young America school, his principles of law are derived from the solid experience of the past, rather than from the transitory relations of the present, or illusive prognostications of the future. If this conservatism is at times a little too unyielding, it must be remembered that the office of the lawyer is to reproduce the wisdom of the past in its relations to the rights of individual and social man. That while those fiery spirits that drag the car of progress are blinded by the dust and excitement they create, he must stand like a wary pilot, guiding and watching the sacred vehicle, lest it swerve from the broad highway, and comes to run among incalculable dangers.

Mr. Lord has acquired a thorough and accurate knowledge of the history of legal adjudications. He is guided less by intuitive perceptions of right than by scientific knowledge of the law. He has accordingly attained his chief excellence in that department of the

law which relates to the rights and obligations of individuals, in contradistinction to the law as it affects the relation of communities of men and states. Thus while as a commercial, maritime and real estate lawyer, he has attained undoubted superiority at the New York bar, as a constitutional lawyer he is excelled by others. In the former department of law, the circumstances under which legal principles are applied are less variable than in the latter; for with all the changes that have been wrought upon society by its increased power of production and locomotion, the rights and obligations of individuals have undergone comparatively little change, since the earliest code of law was promulgated. On the other hand, public law as propounded in the United States has no type in the codes and institutions of the ancient world, and is indebted to such men as Chief Justice Marshall and Alexander Hamilton for its stability. Mr. Lord is a close and severe reasoner. His argu

ments are clear and forcible, and abound in nice discriminations. He does not possess that expansive power that rises to eloquence, nor has he made the graces of oratory his peculiar study. But as a speaker, He is uniformly

he commands attention and respect. respectful to the bench, and courteous towards an opponent. He avoids collision rather than seeks it. If strongly attacked on debatable ground, he shifts his position to the vantage ground with an adroitness that disarms an incautious adversary. With more of the combative element he might at times give greater force to his positions; but he avoids at least the foible of