Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 9.djvu/120

104 afflicted hailed her with thankfulness. For years she had been tried in the furnace, and they believed that she was cleared of all earthly dross. Susanna saw, as the years rolled on, the marks of age plainly in her face and form; and she called them mile-stones. And she counted many behind, and believed that there were few ahead: not that she wanted her life closed, she was happy now in a peaceful way; but she had thought of her own in heaven for so many years, that heaven had grown to seem like a home to her. She didn't expect to be surprised when she had crossed the dark river, but hoped for this from her Master, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

any reader of this magazine inform me who was the author of the book with the following title?

"New Vade Mecum; or, Pocket Companion for Lawyers, Deputy Sheriffs, and Constables; suggesting many grievous abuses and alarming evils, which attend the present mode of administering the laws of New Hampshire; together with the most obvious means of redressing and removing them. In nine numbers, humbly inscribed 'To all whom it may concern.' To which is subjoined an appendix, containing all the laws relating to fees, and those requiring oaths to be administered to attorneys and sheriffs' officers." By Publicola.

Boston: Published by Hews & Goss, and Isaac Hill, Concord, N.H. Hews & Goss, printers, 1819.

This is a 16mo volume of one hundred and fifty-five pages. The author opens his introduction with the following statement: —

"I have lived something more than forty years in one of the towns of this State, where there is held annually a term of the Superior Court, and of the Court of Common Pleas. The same town being, moreover, blessed with four or five lawyers, and some half a score of deputy sheriffs and constables, is likewise favored with a weekly session of one or more of those august and dignified tribunals denominated Justices' Courts."

The book is ably and keenly written, and shows that the author had been classically educated and was a practised writer. There are, it seems to me, also unmistakable indications, all through the book, that its author had been educated for the bar, and that he was entirely familiar with the methods of court procedure. The friendly personal references to Gov. Plumer, who was in office when the volume was written, would clearly imply that the author was of the same political party; at least, that he was anti-Federal. A good deal of correspondence had with elderly members of the bar in New Hampshire has thus far failed to discover the name of the writer; but it would seem that there must be some one, at least, of the readers of this magazine who will be able to recall the name of the author of one of the ablest books ever written in the Granite State. There is something more than a mere antiquarian or bibliographical interest connected with the subject.