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He never experienced the slightest inconven ience from that or any other extra effort that he made. Such was his endurance." John K. Porter. John K. Porter wrote a few superb opin ions, rich in research, masterly in argument, exquisite in style; but it was felt that he was greater as an advocate than as a judge, and

he found himself more at homeat thebar than on the bench, and re signed his judgeship to resume his leader ship at the bar. He has long since retired from practice. Cer tainly he was one of the most influential and admirable advocates of this country, and his name will long be re membered from his association with the great cases of the Parish Will, Tilton v. Beecher, the Whiskey Frauds, and the Guiteau prosecution. I endeavored years ago to estimate his genius in an article in the "Albany Law Jour HENKY E. nal," vol. 12, p. 4, en titled " Three Great Advocates," contrasting him with Evarts and Beach. He is an accomplished scholar, a brilliant wit, and a charming companion. He lighted up the commonest case by the blaze of his beautiful genius, and the greatest speech I ever heard in a court-room was made by him on the question of the good faith of an assignment for creditors, of which nothing is left but the echo, but which at the time ex torted from his powerful antagonist, Beach, the exclamation, " I wish I had the brains to make such a speech as that " As a judicial writer Porter may be seen at his best in Hu-

lett v. Swift, 33 N. Y. 571, on the liability of an innkeeper for the destruction of his guests' goods by an accidental fire; Bascom v. Albertson, 34 N. Y. 583, on charitable trusts and conflict of laws; Ernst v. Hudson River R. Co., 35 N. Y. 9, on negligence at a railroad and highway crossing; Tyler v. Gardiner, 35 N. Y. 559, on undue influence over a testator. It is easy to select from Judge Porter's opin ions many sentences as felicitous as the fol lowing from Bascom v. Albertson : " They had been warned by the experience of their ancestors that the free alienability of property is as essential to the healthful condition of a State as the flowing of the tides to the purity of the sea, or the circulation of the blood to animal life." William B. Wright. William B. Wright was one of the very best judicial writers who have illuminated the DAVIES. pagesofthelaw reports of this country. In a memorial address Alfred B. Street, the poet, said of him : " His taste was cultured by much and varied reading, and he twined the fresh roses of literature with the dry lichens of the law. As a writer his style was beautifully con cise and clear, his ideas showing through the clearness like objects through crystal water." He was of Irish extraction, of small school ing; was apprenticed a printer, and then became an influential political editor. His mind was not alert, but his conclusions after deliberation were just and weighty. His body was ponderous, and kept pace with his