occasional errors of this kind improbable. It is believed, however, that, practically, they will be found unimportant.

The proceedings of the meeting of the members of the bar, held on the occasion of the death of Chief-Justice Duer, will be found in this volume. His great abilities, his high professional attainments, his judicial eminence, and his sterling virtues, and the sincere and general regard which they won for him, render it appropriate, as it is believed all will agree, that this tribute to his memory should form part of the volume which he was preparing for publication, when his mortal labors were terminated by death. J. S. BOSWORTH.

NEW YORK, August 28th, 1858.

IN MEMORIAM.

THE PROCEEDINGS

OF

THE MEETING OF THE MEMBERS OF THE BAR, OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK,

HELD ON THE 11th OF AUGUST, 1858,

TO EXPRESS THEIR SENSE OF THE LOSS WHICH THEY AND THE PUBLIC
HAD SUSTAINED BY THE DEATH OF

JOHN DUER,

CHIEF-JUSTICE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THAT CITY,

WITH A BRIEF

NOTICE OF HIS FUNERAL.

CHIEF-JUSTICE DUER died at the residence of his son on Staten Island on the morning of Sunday, the 8th of August, 1858. His death was announced in the various courts of the city on Monday morning, and the courts adjourned until Tuesday, except the SUPERIOR COURT, which adjourned until the following Thursday.

At a preliminary meeting organized on Monday by appointing the Hon. MURRAY HOFFMAN chairman, and the Hon. CHARLES P. DALY secretary, these resolutions were passed:

Resolved, That a meeting of members of the bar be convened at the GENERAL TERM room of the SUPERIOR COURT, on Wednesday, the 11th day of August, 1858, at 12 o'clock, M., to express their sense of the loss the bench, the bar, and the public have sustained by the death of ChiefJustice DUER. Also,

Resolved, That Messrs. GREENE C. BRONSON, BENJAMIN F. BUTLER,

DANIEL LORD, JAMES T. BRADY, and E. W. STOUGHTON be appointed a committee to make suitable arrangements for said meeting.

On Wednesday, the 11th of August, at 12 o'clock, the meeting was held in the room of the principal TRIAL TERM of the SUPERIOR COUrt, which was crowded to its utmost capacity.

Ex-Chief-Justice BRONSON called the meeting to order, and moved that Judge BOSWORTH, the senior and presiding Justice of this court, take the chair, which was carried.

On motion of Mr. JAMES T. BRADY, Judges HOFFMAN, SLOSSON, WOODRUFF, and PIERREPONT of the SUPERIOR COURT, Judge BETTS of the UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT, Judge CLERKE of the SUPREME Court, and Judge DALY of the COMMON PLEAS, were appointed vice-presidents.

On motion of Mr. E. W. STOUGHTON, Messrs. BENJ. D. SILLIMAN and FRANCIS H. DYKERS were appointed secretaries.

Judge BOSWORTH then rose, and spoke as follows:

MY BRETHREN OF THE BAR AND GENTLEMEN-I feel entirely incompetent to say any thing on the present occasion. It is a sad one to all of us, and particularly so to myself and to others occupying the same relation to the distinguished man whose death we deplore. At the same time, I deem it not inappropriate to this occasion that I should state some things in respect to the deceased which attached me to him and made my affection for him, personally, as strong as the respect I cherished for his learning, his great ability, and unsullied integrity. I had no acquaintance with him prior to my election as a member of the court which, during some nine years, he has adorned with his learning, and all the duties of which he has performed with untiring industry and fidelity. It is in the light of this brief personal acquaintance that I shall speak of our deceased brother, trusting that others will present the more comprehensive and extended view which is required to delineate him as he was and as he lived, and to do justice to his worth and services. That acquaintance commenced in the fall of 1851.

Conscious of his great genius and of his superior learning, as well as of his larger experience, I apprehended, without knowing why, that he might be impatient on encountering views less mature than his own, and that he possessed a tenacity of impressions and opinion that might ren

der consultations with those whom he could not but regard as his inferiors, sometimes unsatisfactory, if not unpleasant. But it gives me pleasure to say that I never met one who treated opinions adverse to his own with more courtesy, or discussed questions giving rise to a conflict of views with more kindness, or who strove more to prevent a final disagreement of opinions, when that result occurred, from becoming a cause of even the slightest temporary dissatisfaction than himself. Whether to the credit of the court itself, or not, still it is true, in fact, that the most kind personal relations have always existed between its members. So strong and unbroken has been this personal cordiality, that I do not think any one member of it has failed to desire the re-elec- . tion of an incumbent whose term was about to expire, whatever might be his politics, and whoever might be his competitor. And I have no reason to doubt that this was just as true at the time of my first election, and rightly so, too, as at any election that has since been held.

He was at all times resolute and firm in his resistance to all outside efforts to displace a faithful subordinate officer of the court, and fill his place with another on mere political grounds. Although it has become a practice in making nominations for each party to select candidates holding the political principles they cherish, yet it was his view that Judges could not add to the dignity of their office, or to their claims to personal confidence and respect, by exercising any of their powers for the mere purpose of proscribing subalterns who were faithful and competent on account of their political opinions.

No man was more industrious, or labored longer or more faithfully than he. He was so constituted that he could not be inactive. He read much, and, probably, no Judge in the state read more promptly or with more care every elementary treatise and every volume of reports, from time to time, as they were issued from the press. Even after the casualty which fractured his right leg, early in January last, and for many long weeks confined him in a fixed posture to his bed, he was a constant reader. As soon as he could sit up in his bed, and before he could be taken from it, he commenced the preparation of the calendar cases for the sixth volume of his reports. When last disabled by superadded maladies they had been completed, and nearly half of the volume was printed.

No judicial opinions excel his own in clearness, in fulness of illustration, in beauty of style, in the vigor of their logic, or in the richness or variety of learning by which they are supported. However strong may have been the impressions he had formed on the argument of a cause, as the statement and argument of it presented it, if it so happened that these impressions had been formed in the absence from the mind of any

fact which should justly affect the result, no one more readily than himself gave it its just effect when presented to his mind or recalled to his attention, and yielded so much of previous convictions as the truth and the law of the case required. But when his conclusions were deliberately formed upon a consideration of all the facts and a careful examination of the law, they were, as all would expect, the conclusions of a man of strong mind and great learning would be, so fixed as not to be easily shaken.

He had another mental habit. I will not say it is peculiar, but it is not common, certainly not in the degree that characterized him. He rarely, if ever, attempted to write an opinion until his examination of a case, and of the authorities bearing upon it, had been fully made and completed. The mental process was pursued until no new thoughts were likely to occur from further reflection before he began to write. Writing was not to him an aid or assistant in the comparison of authorities, or in reaching the legal conclusion, which, together, they tended to establish. Hence, most of his opinions, even when delivered at length, were at the time unwritten. Hence, they were delivered with as much precision of language, and in a form nearly, if not quite, as perfect as he wrote. And when he came to write, it was rare that any page of the whole was disfigured with an alteration or interlineation. I think it would surprise all who do not already know this fact to inspect the manuscripts of his longest and most elaborate opinions. It is a rare occurrence that a word is obliterated, altered, or interlined.

From a regard to his convenience, our consultations were generally held at his house. As a necessary consequence, those of his brethren who have been associated with him for years have met him weekly during the whole time, at his own fireside, and know how cordial and affectionate were the relations between him and each member of his family, and the severity of the bereavement inflicted upon them by his death.

I have seen him in health and vigor, in cheerfulness and hope, and I also saw him in the feebleness of his exhausted powers, and though the last interview was a sad one, I cannot regret that it occurred. Hearing that he was feeble, but hearing nothing to excite alarm, I visited him at the residence of his son on Staten Island, on the 30th of July. This is the last time that I saw him. He had been sinking rapidly for several days, and had been deprived by paralysis of the power of speech. Though supported by a person on either side of him, on account of his great debility, yet when our eyes met, the placid and friendly smile that lighted his countenance, and the pressure of his hand, though gentle, as he vainly strove to speak, told me I was recognized and welcome, and that he would if he could, have said something, that it might have been