was as brave as he was true; he was as courageous as he was gentle; he was as conscientious as he was just. With a strong and active intellect, with the power to labor, and the love of work such as are found in few men, he investigated patiently and thoroughly every case submitted to him. His opinions, to be found in sixteen volumes of this court's reports, will stand for all time as the best monument to his memory. "It is not the language of eulogy, but the words of simple truth, to declare that the striking char acteristics of his judicial career were his patient labor, his integrity, his incorruptibility, his sense of justice, his sublime courage, which would always dare to do right against all opposition. "In private life Judge Anderson was unexccptionally pure, and in all its relations as husband and father and citizen his whole life was an example worthy of all imitation. God impressed upon his very face the noble virtues which shone from his heart. Gentleness, kindness, charity — not only to his own household, but to all mankind — was exhibited in his every-day life. The poor never went empty-handed from his door; and many a young man who was struggling against poverty, and reaching in his aspirations to a higher and more useful plane in society, was encouraged and aided in a substantial way by the charity and sympathy of this noble benefactor of struggling youth. "To the graces of a kindly and gentle nature were added the Christian graces of a godly life. These graces softened and adorned the strength and dignity of his character, like a blossoming vine entwined around a column of granite. He was a Christian in the highest sense of the word. His daily life, his private life, and his public life were guided and moulded by Christian principle. An ardent and zealous Presbyterian, lie was no bigot, but recognized a brother in every Christian church. "He lived and died in the faith of his fathers, and after a long life of honor and usefulness, has gone to his reward. "Few of us can hope to live to his green old age, but we may emulate his virtues and seek to follow his noble example, if we always remember that —
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.'"
Edward C. Burks was born in Bedford County, Va., on the 2Oth day of May, 1821, and has resided in that county ever since. He is of a highly respectable family of Irish origin. At a very early age, when he only knew his A B C's, he was sent to school and kept there until he attained his majority. He was sent to at least nine different schools, most of them " Old Field" schools, as they were formerly called in the country in Virginia. When ten or eleven years of age, the classics were taught him. He attended several sessions at the New London Academy in Bedford County, a part of which time Henry L. Davies was the prin cipal, then George E. Dabney, afterwards a professor at Washington College, Lexington, Va. In the fall of the year 1838 he matricu lated as a student at Washington College, now Washington and Lee University, and . graduated in June, 1841, delivering the Cin cinnati oration, the highest honor in the graduating class. In the latter part of that year he entered the Law Department of the University of Virginia, and graduated in 1842. Immediately commencing the practice of his profession in Bedford and the surrounding counties, he steadily rose, by his honesty, ability, and industry, until, in December, 1876, he was surprised by being elected by the Legislature a judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia. Judge Burks remained in that position for six years, when the Readjuster Party having come into power, with which party he was not in sympathy, a question was raised as to whether he had been elected for a full term of twelve years or for an unexpired term, and the question was decided against Judge Burks, in Burks v. Hinton, 77 Va. 1. As has been before stated, he was one of the revisers of the Code of Virginia of 1887, along with Judge Staples and Major John W. Riely. Since that time, with his office in Bedford City, he has been engaged in the practice of his profession, chiefly in the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia. He was a member of the House of Dele
