"The poet who had the boldness to assemble the whole human race before the throne of the Omnipotent and the Eternal for judgment, placed in the same category of guilt and of punishment

"The judge who takes a bribe

And the advocate who pleads his cause amiss.'

'Of a certainty we may pronounce our brother free from all danger of this destiny; and may we all strive, each in his place, to be equally exempt from such a doom when our final sentence is passed."

JOSEPH S. B. THACHER.

Joseph S. B. Thacher was a native of Massachusetts, and was reared and educated in the city of Boston, where his father held an important judicial office. He was a descendant of Oxenbridge Thacher, who was employed, in connection with James Otis, by the merchants of Boston, in 1761, to defend them against the Writs of Assistance, and whom, John Adams says, the advocates of the crown hated more than they did Otis or Samuel Adams. After having engaged in the practice of law for a short time in his native city, he removed to Mississippi, in search of those richer fields, which the fame of Prentiss, Walker, and other natives of the North, had clothed with dazzling inducements. Mr. Thacher settled in Natchez about the year 1833, where he enjoyed a thrifty practice, and in 1837 was elected to succeed John I. Guion as judge of the criminal court established by the Legislature in the counties of Warren, Claiborne, Jefferson, Adams, and Wilkinson. This office he held until 1840, when the Legislature abolished the "criminal court."

In 1843, after a spirited political canvass, entirely incompatible with the nature and dignity of the office, Judge Thacher was elected one of the judges of the High Court of Errors and Appeals for the term of six years. During his candidacy for this office charges of a serious nature were circulated, connecting him with some dishonorable transaction in the city of Bus

ton prior to his emigration to Mississippi. These, after a series of criminations, recriminations, and a lengthy vindicatory correspondence, were finally cleared away.

At the expiration of his term, in 1849, Mr. Justice Thacher was a candidate for re-election, and during the canvass was charged with having procured, during his candidacy in 1843, the publication of articles highly disparaging to the character of his opponent, and savoring of a detestable egotism.

These articles appeared in an "Extra" of the Gallatin Signal, and were secretly circulated a few days preceding the election, over the signature of the editor, who, during the canvass of 1849, upon application being made to him in regard to the matter by the gentlemen of the bar and others of Natchez, swore to the procuration of Judge Thacher, and disclosed his letter arranging the terms and suggesting a schedule for the circulation of the articles.

This unfortunate disclosure conduced, no doubt, largely to the defeat of Judge Thacher; for, being a Democrat, he was on the popular side of politics, while his opponent, Hon. Cotesworth P. Smith, besides being a Whig, was liable to the, at that day, further objection of being an avowed advocate of the liability of the State for the payment of the bonds of the Union Bank. But it must be remembered also that Mr. Justice Smith had already served one term upon the high bench, and the manifest disparity in the ability of the two judges was decidedly in favor of the latter.

It cannot be claimed for Mr. Justice Thacher that he was a lawyer of comparatively much depth of professional learning. His talents were more of the literary order than professional. He was a strenuous advocate of the cause of education, was much devoted to science and the fine arts, and wrote literary essays of considerable merit.

His election to the high bench, in 1843, was due, no doubt, more to his position upon the bond question than to any recog nized ability, or special qualification for the office, thus evincing the folly and absurdity of resting judicial promotions upon mere questions of politics and the prejudices of parties.

The career of Judge Thacher upon the bench was character

ized by uprightness, impartiality, and integrity. His decisions manifest a laborious effort to reach the utmost limits of justice. He was a close abider of precedent, and held fast to every constitutional feature. He was a man of pure morals, and in social life shone with a brilliancy which only the highest order of accomplishments could kindle.

WE have now arrived at a period the most brilliant in the history of the Mississippi bar; when its shining lights flashed an effulgence that attracted the gaze of admiration in all parts of the country; when it glittered with a galaxy of genius for which the scroll of oblivion has no place. It was during this period that the flush tide of speculation rolled its sparkling bubbles over the State, alluring thousands within its seductive but ruinous vortex; when banks of unlimited and baseless issues sowed, with lavish hand, the seeds of financial ruin, which finally fruited into one common and overwhelming crash.

It was now that the best legal talents were called for and aroused a genius that could baffle and expose the artifice of cunning, an integrity that could thwart the designs of villainy, and a love of justice that could rescue the innocent and unfortunate from the clutches of avarice. All these demands were fully met, and the bar of Mississippi during that period takes rank with any that graces the annals of the forum. Let us take note of some of these, and first of