must be a remarkable man. I have no suggestions to make in regard to it. (Meredith was then sixtynine)."-Flower's Life of Carpenter, p. 114.

War Attorney General of Pennsylvania-Confidence of Banks.

"He became Attorney General of Pennsylvania in 1861, in war time. A disastrous crash of ruin was imminent. No bank would take up the State loan. During a memorable evening known to few, this danger was what persuaded Mr. Meredith to leave his practice and accept the position; and when in the morning it became known that he had consented to be Attorney General, every bank took up the State loan."-From Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, by Owen Wister: February, 1891, Green Bag.

SAMUEL FREEMAN MILLER, IOWA.

(1816-1890.)

Twenty-eight years an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Pronounced, "The most eminent expounder of the Constitution since Marshall." Born of pioneer stock, amid humble surroundings, at Richmond, Kentucky, April 5, 1816, he died in Washington, D. C., October 13, 1890, aged seventy-four. A farmer's son, he had slight educational advantages, graduated a doctor of medicine at Transylvania University, and practiced medicine ten years, but changed to law, and commenced its practice at thirty-one. In 1850 he moved to Iowa, where he ranked high as a lawyer. He was commissioned to the Supreme Bench by President Lincoln, July 16, 1862. Several colleges conferred upon him the degrees of LL.D. and D. C. L.

The position he early acquired and ever maintained on the Supreme Bench was that of a truly great lawyer. He wrote more opinions of the court than any judge, living or dead, and participated in more than ten thousand. Had great capacity to seize upon the vital points, and a command of general principles.

Of the forty-five Associate Justices during his time, only Catron equaled, and five others excelled him in length of service. The year he commenced the practice of medicine Taney was made Chief Justice, and when he began the practice of law Wayne and Catron had been on the bench fifteen and fourteen years, respectively. Miller later sat as an associate with them all. His decisions (2 Black to 136 U. S., seventy volumes), seven hundred and sixteen in number (the most important being the Slaughter House cases, Lovejoy v. Murray, Kilburn v. Thompson, in re Nagle), including one hundred and twenty-six dissents (notably Gelpcke v. Dubuque), are marked by "strength of diction, keen sense of justice, and undoubting firmness of conclusion." Says ex-Attorney General Miller: "His most striking feature was the logical faculty. Others, perhaps, had more culture, more learning; none had more legal wisdom." In the words of Charles Lamb, descriptive of an Old Bencher, "His step was massive and elephantine, his face square as the lion's, his gait peremptory and pathkeeping, indivertible from his way as a moving column."

The Influence of a Great Judge.

"The influence of a great judge, embodied in the reports of a court of high character, will be felt as establishing rules of conduct and the decision of important questions, and will be commented upon and appreciated by a large class constituting a learned profession long after contemporary addresses or public efforts, of whatever character, shall have passed into forgetfulness."-Remarks made by Judge Miller at the death of Chief Justice Waite, 1888.

His Letter to a Methodist Minister.

Justice Miller was severely criticised by many people for joining in the "original package" decision. The Rev. J. P. Teter, a Methodist clergyman at Oskaloosa, Iowa, a personal friend of the justice, received from him the following letter:

"I regret to find that you are in trouble about my concurrence in the recent decision of the Supreme Court in regard to the sale of goods imported from abroad or from another State in the original packages. I venture to hope that I shall not wholly forfeit your esteem, because, in obedience to that sense of conscientious duty which I have felt bound to follow the decision made by this court more than sixty years ago, which has never been doubted or departed from from that day to this. Indeed, that decision, in addition to being a decision of this court, was one which fell from the lips of the greatest Constitutional

lawyer that this Government ever had. It was based upon the construction of the Constitution of the United States. This Constitution has not been altered since, and the judgment of the court has remained without question from that day to this, now sixtythree years ago. Many people like you, I think, have the idea, that the Supreme Court is only bound in its decisions by the views which they may have of abstract moral right. But we are as much sworn to decide according to the Constitution of the United States as you are bound by your conscience to a faith in the Bible which you profess to follow."

The Lawyer's Estate.

"The true lawyer is seized of an estate as secure and venerable as an estate in lands; its income, better than rents; its dignity, higher than ancestral acres.” —A common saying with Judge Miller.

High on Injunctions.

A young lawyer who applied to Judge Miller in the United States Circuit for an injunction, to establish his right to a restraining order, was reading from High on Injunctions. When the judge, stopping him, asked, "Young man, what are you reading from?" The attorney answered, "From High on Injunctions." "Well," said the judge, "you needn't read any further. I was making law before the author

of that book was born!"