Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/177

 PRACTICE. 153

A mastery of practice was there regarded, not only as one of the first ac- complishments of the profession but as a prime necessity at the bar — for this reason all students were expected to attend daily sessions of the court during term and to take notes. Huge volumes on the subject were written by some of the most eminent men in the profession, among which were the great works of TiddjChitty, Archbold, Sellon and many others, besides Wentworth's pleadings and practice comprising ten volumes, Saunders three volumes, and a great variety of form books ; and the books on practice in the court of chancery.

The opinions on practice in the supreme court of the United States from 1 80 1 to 1S65, were regarded of so much consequence by the court and the profession that they were always written by the chief justice. The present act- ing attorney-general has published one volume on practice in that court. Besides this Abbott has published two, Bump one large volume, and Desty — a man of remarkable powers of compression — one small volume on " Proced- ure in the federal courts." Besides these we have the works of C'onklin on practice in admiralty, the two volumes of Parsons and others.

We have Dane's abridgment of the American law, comprising eight volumes, much of which is upon general practice. It is a muddy, ill-digested work, but in some respects of great value. We have, too, the seven or eight volumes on practice by Con. Robinson. The first edition was published in 1832. It is the work of one of the foremost lawyers of his day, to which the author has de- voted a large share of his time for nearly half a century. We have, too, the works of Mr. Wait, a small library in themselves. He died last year by his own hand, the result of matrimony and intemperance, and no greater loss has befallen the profession for many years. He was a man of immense industry, singular acuteness and power of compression, and seemed to have an instinc- tive grasp upon all the cases on any given subject he touched. Had he lived to complete the next edition of his works he would have been the greatest ben- efactor of his profession that we have known for the past fifty years.

The pioneer woik on practice in New England was that by Judge Howe, This was followed by Judge Colby's work ; and that in turn by Mason's ; and that, in Maine, by Spaulding's which is Howe's work with some of the modern improvements.

AH these give much valuable information, with much that never was of any use, much that is no longer of any use, and all omit much that is most essential to any practitioner.

The practice in New Hampshire has a history of its own.

The Provinces of Massachusetts and New Hampshire were in many things in general accord ; but in other things were at opposites. Massachusetts was in general at war with the home government, but New Hampshire, except so far as the same resulted from the Masonian and other great proprietary grants, was, in general, in accord with that government.

For generations the litigation was largely in relation to real estate. The people — the squatters — the land-holders — were substantially all on one side, and Mason, the governor and council and the small squad of royal favorites on the other. The people claimed that the juries should be elected at town-mee*:ing, and the court party that they should be selected by the marshal who was their tool. The people claimed, as Englishmen, the right of the jury to return a general verdict, in a word, that the jury should settle everything, while the court party claimed that everything should be determined in the last resort by the governor and his council.

The people for generations hated with a hate that knew no ceasing any idea of a court of chancery, because, as they regarded it, that court was created and Mason made chancellor to enable him to rob them of their lands. This

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