Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 02.pdf/92

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Sir yonah Barringtoris " Sketches!' have filled and are filling high places, — James D. Porter, lately Governor of Tennes see, and more recently Assistant Secretary of State; William B. Bate, at present a senator from Tennessee in the United States Con gress; James B. McCreary, recently Gov ernor of Kentucky, and now in the United States Congress; Howell E. Jackson, lately United States Senator, and now Judge of the Circuit Court of the United States; H. H. Lurton and W. C. Caldwell, Judges of the Supreme Court of Tennessee; R. R. Gaines, Judge of Supreme Court of Texas; Stir ling R. Cockrill, Judge of Supreme Court of Arkansas; F. N. McClelland, Judge of the Supreme Court of Alabama; and scores of judges of lower courts, State and Federal, and members of Congress. There is scarce ly a town in the States which have been rep resented in this Law School that does not

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contain one or more graduates. In the city of Nashville alone, are nearly fifty lawyers who received their legal education here. Up to the present time there have been thir teen hundred and four graduates; while more than two thousand young men have attended one or more terms. In closing this article, it may not be inap propriate to state that although no pains have been at any time taken to impress any peculiar religious views upon the minds of young men, yet as a fact every professor, living or dead, has been or is a decided Christian. By their influence and example, as well as by many incidental and unob trusive conversations, they have invariably taught that Jehovah is the Author of all law, that His great name should be reverenced, and that the " fear of God is the beginning of wisdom."

SIR JONAH BARRINGTON'S "PERSONAL SKETCHES OF HIS OWN TIMES.' By Austin A. Martin. THIS book, originally published in 18271832, and which I am inclined to think is but little read by the present generation of lawyers, contains much to interest and amuse the profession. Its author, Sir Jonah Barrington, born of an excellent Irish family, was called to the bar in 1788, and after prac tising in Dublin till 1803, was then created Judge of the High Court of Admiralty. This office he held till 1830, when he was re moved, and passed the rest of his life abroad. During his career in Ireland he was promi nent in politics, law, and society; and his "Sketches," written in a lively and enter taining vein, give a vivid and interesting description of the political, legal, and social life of Ireland during that period. The au thor's style is agreeable and polished, and pervaded with the thorough insouciance and

gayety of the true Irishman. His descrip tions of Ireland and the country Irish — with their duels, debts, carousals by night and hard riding by day — and of the more pol ished, but yet " hard-going " inhabitants of Dublin, are inimitable. I have always thought that Thackeray must have fre quently had this book in mind when he wrote "Barry Lyndon," — a work which, though somewhat neglected, is, to my mind, perhaps his most powerful production. Without dwelling further on the other parts of Sir Jonah's book, let us come at once to what more particularly relates to the bench and bar. Our author says of the Irish barrister : " I beg here to observe that the Irish bar were never so decorous and mild at that time as to give up their briefs in desperate cases, as I have seen done in