docket of that Court, and 3,512 actions on the docket of the District Court. While he modestly attributes the result as due to the prosperity of the times, the community at large did not fail to see that it was largely due to the reform he had brought about in the manner indicated. The rules of evidence engaged his atten tion much earlier. In 1833 he began writ ing upon this subject to the "Jurist," and his articles were collected and published, in 1860, at Philadelphia, in " Appleton on Evi dence," by Johnson & Co. In it will be found the arguments and discussions which finally led to the change by which parties to causes, both civil and criminal, are ad mitted to testify in their own behalf. This rule now prevails, with some modifications, in all the courts of the country, both State and National; and the credit of the same is due to Chief Justice Appleton, more than any other one man. It must not be supposed that so impor tant a change did not encounter opposition. On the contrary, the hostility was active and lively. It was not adopted generally until time and experience in Maine and England had proved it to be wise and salutary. As illustrating this opposition, the following in cident told by the Judge himself will be in teresting : — "But the Bar were not alone smitten with the terror of change. Many years ago I sent to the editor of the ' North American Re view' — a learned professor of the leading University in this continent, a review of Greenleaf's treatise on evidence, criticising the work, and advocating the general prin ciple that all who can by any of the organs of sense perceive and perceiving can make known their perceptions to others should be received as witnesses to make known such perceptions, leaving their force and effect to the tribunal, whose duty it might be to judge of the trustworthiness of testimony. The article was sent back as dangerous and inflammatory in its character, with the cour
teous and complimentary suggestion on the part of the professor that he should as soon think of turning a mad bull loose in a crock ery shop as aid in spreading such heresies. But it was published in another review where the editor was less timorous. Some of the cracked earthen-ware in the shop has been demolished, more should be — the china is safe. "The article was not without its effect. Read and concurred in by Mr. David Dud ley Field, the chairman of the committee of codification, it was communicated to his as sociates, by whom its leading principles were adopted and incorporated in the statutes of New York." He was appointed to the bench of the Su preme Court, May 11, 1852. Maine was then a Democratic State, and the appoint ment was given to him, then in the minority or Whig party. During his thirty-one years' service on the bench, it may be said he had no friendships and no enmities. He endeavored to mete out impartial justice; protecting the young and inexperienced in his beginnings, and giving to the veteran experienced in foren sic strife no more than his just rights. He shrank from no labor, nor evaded any respon sibility. It is easy now to see that he would bring to the bench the same industry that marked his life at the bar. And such was the fact. This talent, almost amounting to genius, enabled him with an extraordinary, quick intellect to dispatch easily a large amount of business. He carried the same degree of zeal into his written opinions; and there, aided with a masterly knowledge of authorities, he was able to dispose of law cases with promptness. His motto in this respect was " Nulla dies sine linca." Buffon says " the style is the man "; so his written opinions often resemble himself in clear and forcible expressions, rising at times to a spontaneous grace of composition. This together with their wide range of topics, will be found in the following cases,
