Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/790

 776 V. BENCH AND BAR

civil law he habitually resorted for suggestion and compari-son and analysis. Withal, his vast learning was his servant, not his master. And he could be as forcible with brevity as he was impressive in learning. Although his opinions are generally full and completely reasoned, his conclusion in the bankruptcy case of Marks v. Feldman, 5 Q. B. 284, is one of the shortest opinions on record : " Dolus circuiter non purgatur." He constantly drew upon his vast store of case law for illustration and argument, to the unfailing interest of the profession, if not with uniform success with reference to the issue; but he never relied on mere authority where a principle could be discovered. An occasional tendency toward academical refinements, apparently inseparable from most scholastic minds, may be observed in his work, but it is almost invariably confined to the details of his exposition. His substantial conclusion is always marked by sound com-mon sense. Unlike so many of his associates, whose technical learning was inferior to his own, he had no respect for tech- nicalities, which he never hesitated to brush aside when they interfered with an obvious principle. It was this combination of mastery of detail and good sense which led to his employ-ment in the preparation of the common law procedure acts. No one less familiar with the useless subtleties and effete tech-nicalities of the legal system of that time, or less endowed with the breadth of mind necessary to free himself from their trammels, could have effected so completely and satisfactorily the revolution brought about by those acts.

Although reserved in disposition, among his intimates he seems to have been a singularly attractive personality. The authority of judicial station never dimmed the finer sensibili-ties of his nature. He was a man of the broadest culture, and seems to have taken all knowledge for his province. The classics were his familiar companions, and he found time to master all the spoken languages of Europe. The tone of his mind is largely reflected in the poetry of Wordsworth, of which he was a diligent student and admirer. In the unre-mitting performance of his judicial duties and the indefati-gable pursuit of knowledge his over-worked mind finally gave way, and, in a moment of temporary insanity, he committed