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The Coîtrt of Appeals of Kentucky. his home within a mile of his birthplace. His early life and training have given him an erect frame and a commanding physique that betoken the vigorous mind and the up right life by which his judicial career was ever marked. He left the bench with a record in all respects, "like Caesar's wife, above suspicion." It would be impossible in this article to review even a small proportion of the im portant cases in which Judge Pryor delivered the opinion of the court. His independence of thought and his logical vigor are perhaps fully illustrated by his dissenting opinion in what is known as "The World's Fair Case," reported as Nor man г. Kentucky Board of Managers of World's Columbia Exposition (93 Kentucky, 555-578). In that case the validity of an appropriation in aid of Kentucky's exhibit at the World's Fair in 1893 was attacked on the ground that the bill had not been prop erly passed through the two Houses of the Legislature. The majority of the court held the act void on that ground but Judge Pryor in a strong dissent made a masterly review of principles and authorities and main tained that the court could not go behind the enrolled bill attested by the proper officers of the Legislative department, but must accept their authentication as conclu sive on all questions upon the passage of a law. Every lawyer knows what expansion has taken place in the law since the Civil Var. In every phase of that development Judge Pryor has shared. Thirty volumes of Kentucky Reports (8 Bush to loo Kentucky) record his decisions and of the whole series Judge Pryor can truthfully say "quorum magna pars fui." The discussion of the virtues and ex cellencies of the living seems always to be of questionable taste. Especially is this true, when the writer acknowledges a strong per sonal bias and a warmth of admiration that
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personal contact with Judge Pryor always gives. One cannot know him in his private and in his public life without feeling that he has elements of strength and leadership/given to but few men. His influence upon the court with which he was so long connected has made for that equal and even-handed justice that gives to each his due without fear or favor. M. R. HARDIN.
Judge Mordecai Robert Hardin—better known among his contemporaries as Judge "Bob " Hardin—was one of the most pop ular men that ever sat in the Court of Appeals. He was a member of the prom inent Hardin family that has given to Ken tucky so many of its most eminent citizens. He was born in Washington County on August 7, 1825, and after filling the office of commonwealth's attorney for his district with great credit to himself, he was when forty-one years of age, elected j udge of the Court of Appeals to succeed the venerable Chief Justice, Thomas A. Marshall. He served a full term of eight years, be ing Chief Justice of the court from 1872 to 1874. After his term expired he removed to Louisville and resumed the practice of law, but he died a few months later on January 3, 1875. Though less than fifty years old, he had enjoyed the highest judicial honors of the State. His many and varied talents commanded the admiration and re spect of all who knew him. Judge Hardin was a man of most attrac tive personality. He had a rare fund of humor, and the uniform courtesy of a gentleman " to the manner born " made him a most agreeable companion. Numerous anecdotes are told of him, while on the bench. On one occasion a case was called on the docket for argument, dressed when a the mancourt. of untidy He stated dress that aroseheand wasad^a lawyer, though « absolutely unknown to the court and to every other man in the room,
