BOOKS.

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF JUSTICE STORY.. TEE celebrity of Joseph Story, is even something more than Ameri- can and European. Except Blackstone; Story is perhaps the only lawyer who has attained a literary as well as a legal celebrity by dint of his law-books. The fame of Mansfield is wholly judicial ; that of Coke is Titanic but wholly legal; Brougham has a name for rhetoric, politics, mathematics, and the belles Iettres, but hardly for law ; notwithstanding the genial manner in which Lord Camp- bell fulfils his office and the common sense which he imports into his summing-up, his general celebrity has been attained by his Lives of the Chancellors and Chief Justices. The great American jurist occasionally disported in the fields of literature, but his efforts were not of sufficient importance to have attained celebrity by themselves, or even in conjunction with what is called " su- perior " legal or judicial acquirements. The remarkable characteristic of Story appears to have arisen from a rare combination of qualities. He had a strong love of literature and poetry, and a turn for versifying, which he practised even on the bench, drawing his subject very often from the tedious orator before him : yet he had an equal liking for the driest branches of English law—had thoroughly mastered the jargon of the Year-books, the logical subtilties of the old mode of special. pleading, and the artificial rules of the law of real property, tracing it from its origin in the feudal system through the casuistical efforts of the judges to break down its rigidness by fic- titious modes. His genius was fruitful, his style copious, not to say redundant, yet from nature or by training he had a close and almost rigid logic, which is rarely found with a diffuse fulness of ideas and words. He had an affectionate heart, a genial disposi- tion, and a playful manner, perhaps as rarely united with such various labours such a husbandry of time, and such devotion to a profession which with many men has an undoubted tendency to deaden the sympathies, to narrow the mind, and to render the manners disagreeable.

The labours Story underwent were enormous. In addition to his duties as a Circuit Judge and a Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States—which were enough to have fairly occupied a man —he tarried on a very extensive correspondence, gave his attention to public affairs, was at the call of his friends for lectures, public addresses, and so forth, and fulfilled the duties of Law Professor at Harvard ,College. On the other hand, his publications seem alone sufficient to have employed the life of an ordinary man, when the research they required is considered, and that this re- search could not even be attempted without much preliminary training. His son thus sums up his legal and literary labours. "The judgments delivered by him on his circuits comprehend thirteen volumes ; the Reports of the Supreme Court during his judicial life occupy thirty-five volumes, of which he wrote a full share ; his various treatises on legal subjects cover thirteen volumes, besides a volume of pleadings ; he edited and annotated three different treatises, with copious notes, and pub- lished a volume of poems ; he delivered and published eight discourses on literary and scientific subjects before different societies ; he wrote biographi- cal sketchesof ten of his contemporaries, six elaborate reviews for the 'North American,' three long and learned memorials to Congress; he delivered many elaborate opeechee in the Legislature of Massachusetts and the Congress of the United States; he contributed a large number of valuable articles to The Encyclopedia' Americana' and to The American Jurist.' He also drew up many other papers of importance : among which are the argument before Harvard College, on the subject of the Fellows of the University ; the Reports on 'Codification, and on the salaries of the Judiciary ; several very important acts of Congress, such as the Crimes Act, the Judiciary Act, the Bankrupt Act, besides many other smaller matters."

If it be objected that a considerable drawback should be made from the Reports, since they are the records of spoken judgments, it must be remarked in reference to the question of labour, that he often wrote his judgments, and that his method of preparing them in particular oases was conscientiously minute.

"Mr. Greenleaf thus relates it as having been communicated by my father to him but a short time previous to his death. It was his habit, after hearing an argument in any case of importance, to defer the investigation of the matter until his mind had cooled after the excitement of the hearing, and freed itself of all bias produced by the high colourings of the advocate and the eloquence of his appeals ; leaving in his memory only the impressions made by the principal facts and the legal reasonings, of which also he took full fetes: after this he carefully examined all the .cases cited and others bearing on the subject, reviewing and fixing firmly in his mind all the prin- ciples of law which might govern the case. By the aid of these principles he prodeeded to examine the question on its merits, and to decide accord- ingly; always first establishing the law in his mind, lest the hardship of the case should lead him to an illegal conclusion."

This labour was undergone by a man not originally of robust health, and with a digestion so far impaired by early study as to impose dietetic caution through life, from a natural aptitude for work, a steady continuity when at work, and a careful husbandry of time. So strong had this aptitude become through long habit, that even when age was creeping on him, Judge Story could not bear to be idle or to contemplate a life of leisure. Yet mere moiling, though it might have produced as much in bulk, would have pro- duced it of a different quality, without the guidance of good taste and a sound judgment, as well as a judicious application of his time and means. His son thus describes his course of life at home.

"He arose at seven in summer, and at half-past seven in winter,—never earlier. If breakfast was not ready, he went at once to his library and occu- pied the interval, whether it was five minutes or fifty, in writing. When the family assembled he was called, and breakfasted with them. After break- fast he eat in the drawingroom, and spent from a half to three-quarters of

• Life and Letters of Joseph Story, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. and Dane Professor of Law at Harvard University. Edited by his Son, William W. Story. In two volumes. Published by Chapman.

an hour in reading the newspapers of the day. He then returned to his study and wrote until the bell sounded for his lecture at the Law School. After lecturing for two and sometimes three hours, he returned to his study and worked until two o'clock, when he was called to dinner. To his dinner (which, on his part, was always simple) he gave an hour, and then again betook himself to his study, where in the winter time he worked as long as the daylight lasted, unless called away by a visitor or obliged to attend a moot-court. Then he came down and joined the family, and work for the day was over. Tea came in at about seven o'clock ; and how lively and gay was he then, chatting over the most familiar topics of the day, or entering into deeper currents of conversation with equal ease. All of his law he left up-stairs in the library ; he was here the domestic man in his home. During the evening he received his friends, and be was rarely without company ; but if alone, he read some new publication of the day,—the reviews, a novel, an English newspaper ; sometimes corrected a proof-sheet, listened to music or talked with the family, or, what was very common, played a game of back- gammon with my mother. This was the only game of the kind that he liked. Cards and chess he never played. "In the summer afternoons he left his library towards twilight, and might always be seen by the passer-by sitting with his family under the portico, talking or reading some light pamphlet or newspaper, often surrounded by friends, and making the air ring with his gay laugh. This, with the inter- val occupied by tea, would last until nine o'clock. Generally, also, the sum- mer afternoon was varied three or four times a week, in fair weather, by .a drive with soy mother of about an hour through the surrounding country in an open chaise. At about ten or half-past ten he retired for the night, never varying a half hour from this time."

A methodical arrangement of time and even its employment are not much more than mechanical unless the mind is in the work. This was preeminently the case with Story. "Hoe age" was his practice, perhaps his nature ; for we think there is more in tem- perament and constitution than he is disposed to allow in the case of Mackintosh, which he touched upon as a warning in a lecture at Harvard College.

"What can be more melancholy, or more full of regrets, than the cora- templation of such a mind, so comprehensive in learning, so elevated in vir- tues, which has thus passed away, leaving so many admirable enterprises un- accomplished, and Bo many plans for immortality unfulfilled ?

"It may be said, that all this is the result of peculiar temperament. I think far otherwise ; it is the natural result of the seductive influences of which I have spoken, and of the profuse expenditure of intell■rtual power upon ends and aims incompatible with enduring excellence, whichis so much

fostered by the spirit of our age. How difficult must it be to resist the temp- tations to universal reading, and the fascinations of colloquial discourse, wheu they win instant_praise, and circulate freely to the very boundaries of the literary world. For one who with a stout heart, and determined persever- ance, could resist thein anedie, like Sir Walter Scott, with his pen in his hand, there are hundreds who would surrender themselves the willing or the reluctant victims to their influence, and resolve, and re-resolve, and yet close their lives in the midst of hopes deferred, and expectations blasted, and projects abandoned."

The life of Story was not very chequered or eventful. His merit WAS early acknowledged; his promotion to the highest court in the United States took place when he was only thirty-two ; and though the spirit of party prevented his appointment to the Chief Justice- ship on the death of Marshall, he was regardless of the honour. In private life, his principal griefs were the death of children ; which piety enabled him to support, and his public duties in some sense to overcome. His chief public troubles were the growing power and the unconstitutional practices of the Democrats. In early life he had been a "Republican" as opposed to the Federalists, and to an extent a supporter of Jefferson. Time, the development of the nature of the Democrats the growing power of the South over the North, and above all the administration of General Jackson, drove him into the Conservative ranks, though he hardly belonged to either of the two great parties that divide the United States, beyond wishing well to the Whigs. In truth, his sensitive, refined, and just nature, could not bear the political practices of either party. To use his son's expression, when he got "behind the curtain, he saw the reverse of the tapestry of patriotism "; and a sorry sight it was. His letters from Washington, where his judicial duties compelled him to pass the winter, have frequent complaints of the doings of politicians, latterly perhaps a little tinged by the spirit of the " laudator temporis acti." The leading epochs of Joseph Story's life are soon told. lie -was born in 1779, at Marblehead, Massachusetts, where his father was a physician in good practice. After some education at an in- different school, the future jurist was sent to Harvard College, in 1795; having given token of his future industry by making up in a few months for the bad system of his teachers. In 1798 he quitted -College, and, somewhat against his will, began to study law as a profession. When he embarked in business, in 1801, his prospects were not very promising. He was a Republican in p0- lilies; the people of Massachusetts in general, and of his part of the country in particular, were Federalists ; and party differences were quite as violent in America as in England at the same pe- riod. He was of the Unitarian persuasion ; and the stanch de- scendants of the Pilgrim Fathers looked upon such a person as little better than an Atheist. His purity of -life, his steadiness in study, his attention to business, and his great abilities, soon brought him into note. So clear, indeed, was his success to the ex- perienced, that when his course was discussed one day at a dinner- party, Judge Sewall, a stanch Federalist, said to a brother judge, "It is in vain to attempt to put down young Story. He will rise ; and I defy the -whole bar and bench to prevent it." In 1805 he was elected a member of the Legislature of Massachusetts, and in 1808 to Congress ;-his presence at which first raised his doubts of Republican virtue, and gave him a distaste for the trade of polities. In 1811 he was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court; and in 1839 Mr. Dane founded the Dane Professorship of Law, on condition that Story undertook the office. In both of these cases he sacrificed money to a sense of duty and a love of work. When he was appointed to the bench, his income was between five and six thousand dollars a year, with the prospect of increase ; the salary of an Associate Judge was 3500 dollars, raised in 1819 to 4500—about 1000/. a year. The salary of the professorship, after deductions, was only 600 dollars, although he soon increased the number of students from one to a hundred. Ile cannot be said to have died early, for death found him in his sixty- -sixth year ; yet he really died of over-work in the general and the particular. Ile was the sole surviving judge of his origi- nal colleagues—men of the school of Washington. Personally he had nothing to complain of; but his constitutional opinions were continually overruled, and he was reduced to the necessity of ap- pearing by silence to assent to what he disapproved of, or by pub- licly dissenting to run the risk of lowering the court in public es- timation. His health gave symptoms of being unequal to the tasks he was imposing on it: the trustees of the College had long since offered to raise the Professor's income to any sum he pleased; and he resolved to resign his seat on the bench in the autumn of 1845. Re naturally wished to leave his circuit business clear for his successor, and the over-labour in unfavourable weather brought on an acute attack, which at his age was too much for his consti- tution to resist. "To the severe labour necessary to clear the docket, he was urged, not only by his own ardent desire thoroughly to discharge his duty, but by the earnest urgency of parties and counsel, who were naturally anxious that their particular case should receive the consideration of his mind ; but the heat of the summer and the continuous and excessive labour entirely ex- hausted him ; and, while thus prostrated in strength, he took a slight cold in the beginning of September, which was immediately followed by a violent stricture and stoppage of the intestinal canal. From this very alarming at- tack, after great bodily suffering for many hours, he was at last relieved. Ills strength was, however, utterly exhausted. Hopes were now entertained that he might recover, and every device that medical skill could suggest was employed ; but although the pain had left him and the apparent difficulty removed, contrary to the expectations of the physicians, he did not improve in strength. Stimulating food and drink were now ordered, in the hope of reviving his system ; and on Sunday he sat up in his bed, and sucked the juice of a bit of beef-steak and took a little weak wine and water. As the domestic arranged his pillows and propped him up in the bed, to enable him to partake of this, he said, smiling, Well, David, they are trying to patch up this good-for-nothing body ; but I think that it is scarcely worth while.' From the first he thought that the attack would be fatal, and now, although he was willing to employ every means suggested for his relief, it was plain that he had little faith in their good effect. Soon after, he called my mother to him, and said, I think it my duty to say to you that I have no belief that I can recover ; it is vain to hope it; but I shall die content, and with a firm faith in the goodness of God. We shall meet again.' He then ceased, and lay, as in prayer, with uplifted eyes. In this calm state, and very feeble, he continued for about two days, not regaining his strength, but ap- parently not lo-sing it. All prescriptions failed in reviving him. During this time, he said, If I were not thus ill, my letter of resignation would have been now on its way to Washington. I should have completed my judicial life.' On Tuesday night, at about midnight, and apparently with- -out cause, a change took place ; and it was manifest that he could not live long. During the early part of Wednesday he gradually lost his strength, and he lay calm and peaceful, and without taking heed of the objects and friends around him. At about eleven o'clock, to a question, whether he re- cognized me, he opened his eyes and feebly smiled, stretching out his hand towards me and murmuring some indistinct words. Shortly after this he breathed the name of God, and this was the last word that ever was heard from his lips. Gradually he lost his consciousness, and, without pain, fell away into the arms of the good angel. At about nine o'clock in the even- ing of the 10th of September 1845, at the age of sixty-six, he breathed his last."

"The heart knoweth its own bitterness " ; it is not always that the external circumstances of fame or prosperity suffice for happi- ness. In the case of Story his friends have the pleasure of know- ing that he was satisfied with his lot, and that he so expressed himself but a very little while before his death.

"It was in the course of a conversation during the evening of Commence- ment-day, on his return to his home, after the exercises were over, that he said to my mother, have been a lucky fellow. There are few persons whose life has been so happy as mine.' 'Has it really then been so happy ? ' asked my mother. 'Yes, very happy,' he answered, very happy.' 'And yet we have met with great losses.' 'Think of the children we have lost,' suggested she. remember them,' he answered ; those sorrows were very sharp ; but who can say what might have happened had they lived. I believe that God, in his good providence, has ordered all things aright. Besides, I have had great compensations for these griefs. My fame, and the praise that has been so kindly given to me, have been a great delight. What right had I to ex- pect the prosperity and success that I have met with in life ? ' "

In a biography by a son, the reader is prepared to make allow- ances for filial partiality, shown both in commission and omission. In the case of Mr. Story the allowance needed is less than usual. lie takes a critical though a favourable view of his father; touching with truth, if somewhat undervaluing, his defects of diffuseness and want of condensed strength in composition ; which, indeed, naturally arose from the extent and multiplicity of his tasks. In the social aspect the man was probably as faultless as man can well be; his disposition to think well of everybody, and to be satis- fied with every effort, except latterly in the ease of Democrats, certainly not amounting to a fault. In his public and general character the reader will desire another view; at present the picture is, so to speak, almost without shade. The book exhibits the modern tendency to confound the life with the writings, and thus to overlay the pages with unessential mat- ter. Orations, reports, and other formal documents, are quoted more or less fully; and the correspondence is very freely used, ern when merely of a complimentary kind. The precise, prae- heal, and lawyerlike mind of Story and his friends, with the living subjects on which they wrote, gives a reality to the correspondence even when the subject is trivial. The letters, the anecdotes, and the narrative, combine to present a picture of American life, homely, • and natural as respects conventionalisms, with a good deal

of sterling worth and refinement, though the last may be tainted with a little finery. The career of Story carries the reader over

the salient points of American history and jurisprudence during the present century, not completely but by occasional glimpses' and often presents the real view of the moderate, or as they are called, the "exclusive " party in America. There are also glimpses of the practice and professional life of lawyers, which remind one of the anecdotes of the English bar when the lawyers as a body were a jovial set. These things place the bulky volumes of Mr. Story very far above the empty prosiness or sentiment-spinning of various late works on biography ; but what the book really tells of the life of Justice Story might have been told in much less space.