54i dissenting opinions. He especially delighted, in the examination of legal questions, to in vestigate the subject historically, and his opinions abound in citations of authorities. Though positive and having confidence in his own opinions, he was kind and accommodating to a fault. He found more pleasure in the study than in the practice of the law, and it is said that after having mastered the law of a case, he would settle rather than try it.
George M. Carpenter.
the Supreme Court. His judicial service began in 1854, when he was elected an assistant magistrate of the court of magistrates of the City of Providence, — a local court of inferior jurisdiction. From 1855 to 1860 he was presiding magistrate of this court. During the early years of his professional life he wrote jointly with Joseph K. Angell a "Treatise on the Law of Highways." He was a representative in the General Assembly in 1863, Speaker of the House in 1864, and State Senator in 1865.
The literary instinct so strong in the elder Chief-Justice Durfee descended to the son.
Judge Carpenter was elected by the General Assembly, in 1882, an associate justice
During the Rebellion he was a frequent con of the Supreme Court, to fill the vacancy tributor to the papers, and his pen was caused by the death of Judge Potter. He powerful in support of the Union cause. In was educated in the public schools of Rhode 1872 he published a small volume of poems. Island and at Brown University, from which His literary talent has given to his judicial he graduated in 1864. Admitted to the bar J opinions a perfection of style that is not too in 1867, he practised law in Providence until common in judicial writings. He is a de his election as associate justice. He was a voted lover of Rhode Island, — her people, member of the commission which revised her institutions, and her history. His the statutes in 1882. In 1885, after having " Thoughts on the Constitution of Rhode served but three years as associate justice, Island " is a good example of his powers as he resigned to accept the office of judge of a controversialist, and is a vigorous defence the District Court of the United States for of the institutions of the State. In his ora the district of Rhode Island, which position tion delivered at the two hundred and fiftieth he now occupies. anniversary of the founding of Providence, Judge Durfee made a masterly defence of Thomas Durfee. the conduct of Roger Williams while a resi For three generations the family of the dent within the Massachusetts Colony. Per haps no better example could be given of his present Chief-Justice has had a representa style as a writer and of his skill and power tion upon the Rhode Island bench. The son in argument than that part of his oration of a chief-justice of the Supreme Court, and which deals with the controversy between a grandson of a chief-justice of the Court of the founder of Providence on the one side Common Pleas for Newport County, Judge and the clergy and General Court of Massa Durfee inherited a judicial mind, and was chusetts on the other. His " Gleanings from brought up in an atmosphere adapted to the Judicial History of Rhode Island " illus prepare him for judicial service. Born at trates his style as a writer of narrative, and Tiverton in 1826, his boyhood days were his skill in investing the commonplace with spent along the shores of Narragansett Bay, amid scenes of natural beauty and historic the charm of fiction and the dignity of his interest. He graduated with honor from tory. The characteristics of the early bench and bar are faithfully delineated, and the Brown University in 1846, and after study trial scenes of the olden times are vividly ing law for two years in Providence, was ad I mitted to the bar. In the year following he and picturesquely portrayed. His discussion was appointed reporter of the decisions of of the changes in the character of the busi
