Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 07.pdf/563

 522

price, the passions and temper, not only of the warden, but of his agents and servants and employees. It is not an answer, that an appeal lies from the warden to the over seers. The convict is in no position to make an appeal. ' Bondage is hoarse, and may not speak aloud' says the great poet.". . . The law of water and water-courses forms a large body of the decisions of the Maine court. I hazard but little in saying that no state has furnished a superior line of author ity, or been more often quoted by other courts. A new question arose upon this branch of the law in Pearson v. Rolfe, 76 Maine, 380 I refer to the opinion of Chief-Justice Peters as exhibiting his strong handling of the subject in a manner that has forever settled the principle in this state. The question relates to the rights of navigation and ripa rian owners. The decision holds that when ever logs cannot be driven over a particular portion of a fresh-water river above the ebb and flow of the tide, while in its natural con dition, such portion of the river is not at such times navigable or floatable; and the use of the water at such time and place, so far as he needs the same for his own pur poses, belongs exclusively to the riparian proprietor, who in this case was the mill owner and had erected a dam. But I must forbear from further citations of his opinions as being foreign to the pur pose of the present article. Of his charges to the jury, the reader will find some selec tions in Drew v. Hagerty, 81 Maine, 231, which will richly repay a careful study of the law in causa mortis and inter vivos gifts. I have alluded to his ease and perspicuity of style; there is, besides, an individuality that stamps it wholly as his own; a happy faculty of condensation at the conclusion of a sentence, or an idea, that, like the Goddess of Liberty on the American coins, fits it for circulation. His opinions are studded with them like jewels. They are live epigrams. Speaking of a description in a deed, claimed to be void for uncertainty, he says, " It

is not a roving half-acre." Of an early Eng lish Act, he says, " Its meaning is greater than its words." Again, " Easements are of flexible adaptation," and of accepting a char ter, " Late events show the earlier intention." "They were appropriators and not owners," he thus calls the claimants of property under tax-titles. Of an amended declaration he remarks, " It was a skeleton bare, it is now the skeleton clothed." And occasionally we find a pithy idea thus expressed, "There are but few strictly and purely legal presump tions." These are but indications of Bacon's "full mind." There is also the "ready man." His conversation and speeches for fifty years are replete with wit, humor and mirthfulness. In the presidential campaign of 1864 he said : "If McClellan couldn't take Rich mond making Washington his base, you may safely swear he will never take Washington, making Richmond his base." In the fusion campaign of 18 5 5 that elect ed Samuel Wells governor, he addressed a large gathering at night when his fellow cit izens rallied en masse with torch-lights in the street. Upon being introduced he bowed and began with, " Fellow Democrats." But at that moment a sudden gust of wind extinguished the torches. It became inky dark. For an instant it was very still. Peters might have been astonished; but he wasn't. He began again. " Fellow Demo crats," he shouted. "The wind has blown out our lights. It is so dark that I cannot see my hands before my eyes. I cannot see you, fellow Democrats, but I know you are all here. I can smell you!' He never carries into social life the anx ieties of his position and duties, or any trace of them. One who should meet him for the first time, and who did not know him, would be sure to think he belonged to the leisure class. He has always had easy and leisurely manners, and a way of meeting mere acquaint ances as if they were friends, yet with sim plicity and with no affectation.