statesman; Brooks, the most beloved preacher; and Butler, the most blatant lawyer. The statesman and the preacher do not fall within our purview, "but of Butler we may speak our mind. To us he stood for some of the most unpleasant traits of American char acter, — its "cheek," its vanity, its restlessness, its political versatility and self-seeking. He certainly was an extraordinary character. Nature had given him an unparalleled outfit. His brain was bigger, we believe, than Webster's or Cuvier's or Napo leon's. But the huge fruits and vegetables of Cali fornia are not so fine as the smaller products of the east, and it may be that intellect is not to be measured by the size of the brain. He was, however, a person of remarkable energy, audacity, administrative ability, and fertility of resources. Nobody ever supposed him much of a lawyer, except in a persistent, un daunted, and executive way. He was no general. The powder-ship off Fort Fisher nnd the Dutch Gap canal rendered him ridiculous as a military man, and yet as the governor of a turbulent and conquered city he was extremely successful, although somewhat ob jectionable to the conquered. He was no statesman. Even his claim to the invention of the term "Contra band." to illustrate the status of runaway slaves dur ing the war, has been disputed. He was a shifty and self-seeking politician, and yet he seems to have loved his country, — perhaps out of spite. His vanity was colossal, — riding behind tour white horses and bow ing to the newsboys and shoeblacks, when posing as a hopeless presidential candidate, was exactly his rôle. He was generally regarded with a sort of curious and amused wonder; so he was elected governor as a kind of joke by Republicans who were curious to see what queer things he would do. He loved a row and was always in one, and made rows to order with the politicians, the military authorities, and the courts, and died in a row with his publisher. The worst thing in his career was the way he got his money. When he was in command in New Orleans, his brother became enormously rich in trade in the great products, and dying left it all to Ben. We do not suppose he himself made much in " spoons " and the like : but his brother got very rich. We do not hear that Ben has left any of his millions to charity or religion or education. On the whole he was not a pleasing character, although it is said he could be very charming when he tried. It seems to us that his great defect was his lack of the moral sense. Men will not love to think of him, as they will of Blaine and Brooks, and he has left no works to praise him. NOVEL LAW. — In the November number of "Harper's Magazine " is a clever law story by Rich ard Harding Davis, entitled " The Boy Orator of Zepata City," in which the scene is laid in Texas. Mr. Davis got two matters wrong. In the district attorney's speech to the jury he scores the prisoner unmercifully for other crimes notoriously committed by him. This line of address would not be tolerated in Texas, and if objected to by the prisoner's counsel, would be ground for a new trial. Again, in Texas the jury '•assess the punishment" in all criminal cases, and the judge has nothing to do with it. So the prisoner's touching appeal for mercy was ad dressed to the wrong tribunal. It would seem quite worth while for an author to try to arrange these details correctly; but many authors, like Mr. Davis, know the law only by intuition. SUMMER LAW SCHOOLS. — Summer law schools are a new invention, and are to be credited, if we are correctly informed, to the venerable Pro!. John B. Minor, of the University of Virginia, the author of the well-known "Institutes." This untiring gen tleman, among his institutes, runs a law school in the summer months, at which he is the sole instructor, charging a fee of $50. It has been stated that he has two hundred pupils, and thus he rakes in the snug sum of Sio.ooo for the haying-season, when most lawyers are loafing, hunting, fishing, yachting, playing cards, and drinking spring- waters. We are not in formed whether he suspends instruction on the Fourth of July. Perhaps he cor descends to adopt that as his vacation. We only wonder the old gentleman does not engage to fill a pulpit on Sundays in his vicinity; but perhaps he crams on that day for the labor of the ensuing six. Probably the young gentle men get their money's worth. It has been intimated to us that the Cornell professors contemplate a simi lar course at Ithaca. N. Y., next summer. This would be an ideal place to study law in the warm weather, and the students would be sure of competent and varied teaching. Evening law schools, which are an established institution in the City of New York, have thus a rival in the art of "occupying the time." There is also one, the Sprague Law School, at Detroit, which teaches law by correspondence, and is a very flourishing and busy institution.
NOTES OF CASES. A PRESIDENT'S TOMB. — Having considered the case of Mary Washington's tomb, we are at leisure to take up that of President Polk's tomb. This chief-magistrate cannot possibly be remembered for anything he did, — unless it was to defeat Henry Clay, — but only for the acquirement under his ad ministration of a vast area of territory by the gov ernment. Probably feeling the danger of being forgotten, he provided by will that the remains of
