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judicial history of the state previously to 1805, are very scanty, and are chiefly traditionary. The practice in the supreme court was modeled after that of the king's bench in England, and its complexity and uncertainty rendered it difficult of attainment. Not only was the practice in the court of chancery more mysterious, but the principles of judicial equity, and the rules controlling their application, were to be learned by the few only who at that day had access to expensive English works. The science of the law at that early period was less understood than now, while its professors were held in high veneration, as the priests of mysteries too profound to be explored by common minds. In 1794, "A Treatise on the Practice of the Supreme Court of Judicature of the State of New York, in Civil Actions," was published "by William Wyche, of the Honorable Law Society of Grey's Inn, London, and citizen of the United States of America," with the motto "Lex mundi harmonia." This little work was well executed, and there are yet some among us who found it useful in relieving them from the difficulties of separating what was applicable here from the intricate forms of practice in the English courts.

William Coleman and George Caines, in 1794, commenced collecting reports of cases of practice in the supreme court, and published the results in 1805. George Caines also gathered notices of important cases adjudicated in the court for the correction of errors. The same author, in 1808, published a treatise on the practice of the supreme court. The occasional reports thus published, prepared the way for more regular and careful reports by William Johnson, of the decisions made in the three higher tribunals of the state. Those of the supreme court, and the court for the correction of errors, now fill fifty volumes, of which twenty were published by Mr. Johnson, nine by Esek Cowen, twenty by John L. Wendell, and one by Mr. Hill, the present reporter.

Chancellor Kent introduced the system of reporting in the court of chancery, and we have now fifteen volumes of such reports, seven of which were prepared by William Johnson, one by Samuel Miles Hopkins, and seven by Alonzo C. Paige. These various reports contain a large mass of adjudications on constitutional law and statutory enactments and the application of the common law, and principles of equity, to the multifarious

questions of right and duty arising in a rapidly-increasing community; and are held in the highest respect by the people of this state, and deemed a necessary part of the library of every lawyer in the United States. The talents and learning of Judge Benson have always been held in high respect; but the honor of introducing method and order into our jurisprudence, and elucidating its principles and their application, rests chiefly with James Kent and Ambrose Spencer, and their associates on the bench of the supreme court. Since their retirement from the judiciary, the responsibilities of judges have vastly increased in regard to the number of causes to be heard and adjudicated; and although generally it is hazardous to speak of contemporaries, yet we may safely affirm that the courts have continued to maintain an eminent character for profound and varied learning.

The names of some of our lawyers have been already mentioned. We may add those of Richard Harrison, Richard Varick, Thomas Addis Emmet, John Wells, John V. Henry, Elisha Williams, Abraham Van Vechten, Henry R. Storrs, Samuel Miles Hopkins, and Thomas R. Gold, who are deeply lamented not only as eminent lawyers, but as useful and honored citizens. Our contemporaries will, perhaps allow us to add the names of some who, although living, have withdrawn from the contests of the forum, and whose established fame is now the property of the bar of the state, such as Samuel Jones, Thomas J. Oakley, Martin Van Buren, John Duer, and John C. Spencer.

Chancellor Kent retired from the arduous and honorable duties of the court of chancery, unwearied by judicial labors and unimpaired by age, although he had reached the climacteric at which the constitution declares an incumbent disqualified. He then employed himself in reducing to a system the confused mass of American jurisprudence, as it was found in the reports of the United States tribunals, and of the courts of more than twenty of the states. This great work he accomplished so successfully, that his commentaries have superseded, as an elementary book, all other compilations, and are received with the respect due to authority throughout the Union. Our law libraries are chiefly made up of English works, reprinted with notes of American decisions and statutes. There have been few original publications on elementary law, and the list of writers in the legal profession is by no means extensive. We have a profound and philosophical

Essay on the Law of Contracts, by Gulian G. Verplanck, who has also distinguished himself by many elaborate opinions, delivered while he was a senator, in the court of errors; a Treatise on the Constitution of the United States, by Alfred Conkling; an Essay on New Trials, by David Graham, and a Treatise on the Practice of the Supreme Court, by David Graham, junior; a Manual of Law for the Use of Business Men, by Amos Dean; "The Office and Duties of Masters in Chancery," and a Treatise on the Practice in Chancery, by Murray Hoffman; Blake's Chancery Practice; Dunlap's Practice; and a work on the same subject, by Paine & Duer.

Leaving this imperfect notice of the bar and its learning, and returning to the subject of political science, we may mention "A Sketch of the Finances of the United States, by Albert Gallatin," published in 1796, which, on account of the general views it contains in respect to revenue and taxation, deserves to be classed among discussions in the science of political economy. The sketch referred to contained a very comprehensive and lucid view of the financial system of the United States, as put in operation after the organization of the government under the constitution. It did not merely set forth the actual condition of the finances, but was interspersed with much clear and forcible reasoning in relation to the wisdom of particular features of the revenue system, as it then existed. The subjects of taxation and public debt and their effects, the different species of revenue, and the expenditures of the government, were discussed by Mr. Gallatin with a degree of ability and acuteness, which indicated a familiar acquaintance with financial questions, and strong powers of reasoning. The work contained pointed objections to some of the early measures of the federal government, which were recommended by General Hamilton, and particularly the assumption of the debts of the states by the general government; but its tone throughout was calm, dignified, and elevated.

From its bearing upon one of the great questions of the dayviz., the extent to which protection to the manufacturing industry of the United States was necessary- the following position. assumed by Mr. Gallatin is deemed worthy of notice: "As every further increase of population in many of the states diminishes. the relative quantity of land and of produce raised, and promotes the establishment of manufactures; our exports of raw materials,

our importations of those articles we can manufacture, and the revenue raised upon such articles, although all of them gradually augmenting, will, unless favored by accidental causes, increase in a ratio less than our population." He, however, maintained that, for the purposes of revenue, the impost should be the principal reliance of the country; and that when this was carried as far as prudence would dictate, the great source of taxes upon consumption must be considered as nearly exhausted, and that the other great branch of revenue, lands, must be made to contribute by direct taxation. On the subject of public debt and its effects, Mr. Gallatin's observations are able and philosophical.

In the year 1826, a discourse was delivered at Schenectady, before the literary societies of Union College, by Samuel Young, Esq., on the subject of political economy. It traced the rise and progress of the science through its various phases, from the commercial or mercantile theory, to the more orderly and rational system introduced by Adam Smith. The discourse was written with purity and beauty of language, and illustrated with great clearness the received principles of the science. Mr. Young pointed out the evil effects of a public debt upon the community, and the indispensable duty of governments to practise the most rigid frugality and economy. He objected to usury laws, as tending to promote the very evil they were designed to eradicate, and to eleemosynary establishments, maintained at the public expense, as encouragements to pauperism. The general scope of Colonel Young's address was in harmony with the principles stated by Adam Smith, though he conceded that, in the incipient stages of a domestic manufacture, it might need and properly receive the aid of government, being left, as soon as it had passed the precarious period of infancy, to that free competition and that keen-sighted self-interest, which he believed to be the best regulators of human industry.

An Essay on Credit, Currency, and Banking, by Eleazer Lord, published in 1834; a Treatise on Political Economy, by the Rev. Alonzo Potter; and Suggestions on the Banks and the Currency, published within the last year, by Albert Gallatin, deserve a place among the writings of citizens of New York, in the department of political economy. These several works discuss questions which yet remain subjects of political controversy, and present the various arguments by which many conflicting opin

ions of the day are supported; but all are distinguished by the spirit of candid inquiry, or honest conviction.*

The convention which assembled in 1821, to revise the constitution of the state, presented an occasion when many of the fundamental principles of the science of government before regarded as settled, were subjected to a close and searching examination. Rufus King, who had been long distinguished as a senator from this state in the senate of the United States, and as a representative of the United States at the court of St. James, expressed in an opening speech what were probably the prevalent feelings of the convention. "Although," said he, "I fully concur in the fitness and expediency of this convention, and although I am fully of opinion that the change of circumstances and political relations in our country have imperiously required the interposition of the people to revise the constitution, yet it is my hope that the convention may proceed with great caution and moderation. "Not only," said he, "are the great principles of free government which arise from, and are sustained by, the intelligence and virtue of the people, denied by the great nations of the Old World, but a contrary and most slavish doctrine is proclaimed and enforced by them; a doctrine which falsely assumes that a select portion of mankind only are set apart by Providence, and made solely responsible for the government of mankind. In contradiction to this theory, it is our bounden duty to make it manifest to all men, that a free people are capable of self-government; that they can make, and abate, and remake their constitution; and that, at all times, our public liberties, when impaired, may be renovated, without destroying those securities which education and manners, our laws and constitutions, have provided."

The governor, chancellor, chief-justice, and justices of the supreme court, under the old constitution, were a council to revise bills which passed both houses; and bills which were returned with objections failed to become laws, unless they received the votes of two thirds of the members. A committee proposed to abolish this part of the constitution, and to confide the revising power to the executive alone, but to retain the provision declaring that bills should become laws if passed by two thirds of the

*Notes on the history of the science of political economy were received from the Honorable John A. Dix, and from Horace Greeley, Esq.

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