The Supreme Court of Maine. Prentiss, he inherited the prudence and piety which entered deeply into the building up of his beautiful character, combined with a play ful wit which he used to the delight of all, without giving pain to any. He was prepared for college under the personal instruction of his father, and was graduated at Harvard College in 1784. His elder brother, Henry, and John Abbott, long a professor at Bowdoin College, were among his classmates. His commencement part was a forensic disputation in English, upon the question, whether the knowledge and practice of religion are not promoted more by. diversity in sentiment and modes of worship, than by an entire uniformity. The year following he was a private tutor at Barnstable, in the family of Joseph Otis, and at the same time began the study of law in the office of the eccentric lawyer, Shearjashub Bourne. He was admitted to the bar at Taunton, in October, 1788. By the custom then prevailing, students were required, upon their admission to the bar, to treat the judge and all the lawyers. We have his testimony that this ceremony was observed "with about half a pail of punch, which treating aforesaid was commonly called ' the colts' tail '." He began practice in his native town, but after a few months removed to Bridgewater, where he continued until November, 1791, when he went to Dover, N.H. He spent the winter and spring there with his brother, and in July, 1792, under the advice of Judge Thacher, then a member of Congress, he went to Biddeford, where he soon entered upon a successful practice w hich placed him at the head of the bar in Maine, and at the head of its highest judicial tribunal. He thus describes his humble beginning in Biddeford : " I opened my office in one of old Squire Hooper's front chambers, in which were then arranged three beds and half a table and one chair. My clients had the privilege of sitting on some of the beds."
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His celebrity as a leader soon called him into the neighboring counties in Maine and New Hampshire. In 1804, he began mak ing the circuit of Maine with the Supreme Judicial Court. In 1806, he removed to Portland, and from that time until his ap pointment to the bench in 1820, he practiced with eminent success in every county, being retained in nearly every important case. The law term for Maine was then held in Boston, where the records were also kept. His competitors were men of high legal attainments, of great natural abilities, and able and eloquent as advocates. Among them was the accomplished Parker, after wards chief-justice of Massachusetts; the grave and cautious Whitman, his distin guished successor on the bench; the sensible and acute Longfellow; Orr, shrewd, skillful and prompt; and the adroit and eloquent Wilde, late of the Supreme Court of Massa chusetts. " His most constant opponent," said Professor Greenleaf, " was Judge Wilde; their forensic warfare, adopted by tacit con sent, was to place the cause on its merits, produce all the facts, and fight the battle in open field. A generous warfare like this could not but create a generous friend ship." At the bar his manner was fervid and im passioned; his countenance lighted up with brilliancy and intelligence; his perceptions were rapid, and his mind leaped to conclusions to which other minds traveled more slowly. As a consequence, he was obliged sometimes upon more mature reflection to modify such conclusions. On one occasion Chief Justice Parsons remarked to him when he was ar dently pressing a point, " You are aware, Mr. Mellen, that there are authorities on the other side." " Yes, yes, Your Honor, but they are all in my favor." He identified himself with the cause of his client, and never for a moment neglected it, or failed to improve every opportunity in his opponent's weakness or errors, to secure a victory. His voice was musical, his per
