decided,'" &c. Judge Spencer says, "the case from Roll. Abr. 29, 136, is a very bald case, and the case decided by Hale," &c.

On page 227, Hill v. London Ass. Co. should be Hills. Hilyard v. South Sea Co. should be Hildyard; Ashly v. Blackwell, should be Ashby. These two last mistakes are both taken from 1 Harr., Delaware, 47, to which he refers, and from which he doubtless got the unverified information he gives us in regard to Hildyard v. South Sea Co. While thanking him for what he has done for us, we must advise him to collate his next edition carefully with the "fountains." For an admirable review of the original work we refer our readers to an article in the North American Review, vol. 15, page 65, from the pen of a distinguished jurist now on the bench.

THE QUARTERLY LAW JOURNAL. A. B. Guigon, Editor. J. W. Randolph, Richmond, Va. Vol. 1. Nos. 1 and 2. January, April, 1856. This new quarterly, hailing from the Old Dominion, receives our hearty welcome into the field of legal periodical literature; the laborers are none too many, and there is harvest work, and pay too, we hope, for all. The quarterly for April contains reports of several new and interesting cases in Virginia, both in the federal and State courts, besides English cases, notices of books, and an index to Grattan's reports, continued from the first number. One of the chief aims of the quarterly, as stated in the prospectus, is to publish the decisions of other Southern States, as well as of Virginia, and the editor complains in the second number, that these have not been forwarded to him as readily, and in as great number as he had expected. He has certainly contrived to make a very good appearance without them, and as one able to help himself, and therefore deserving, we hope and believe he will receive help from his brethren.

If the editor is well sustained by such contributions, his journal, (already highly creditable), will be very valuable, and will circulate throughout the country just as our own journal, though its American cases have been of necessity chiefly derived from the Northern and Middle States, has always had a national circulation. We bespeak for the new comer a candid and cordial reception, and its own merits will soon, we doubt not, establish for it a permanent position.

We have received some books which deserve a more extended notice than we can give them this month; especially BISHOP ON CRIMINAL Law, and ROBINSON'S PRACTICE. They will be reviewed hereafter.

Obituary Notices.

THE HONORABLE OGDEN HOFFMAN, of New York, died after a short and sudden illness, at his residence in that city, on Thursday, May 1, 1856. He had been for many years one of the leading advocates in the State of New York, and at the time of his death was, if we may trust the unanimous judgment of his associates, the only orator at their bar. He was born in 1792-93, in New York, and was the son of Judge Josiah Ogden Hoffman. Early in life he entered the navy as

a midshipman, and was on board Decatur's frigate, the President, when she was captured by the British, off Long Island. He served with the same officer in the Mediterranean; but at the close of the war, he left the navy, and began under his father's guidance the study of the law.

Shortly after his admission to the bar, he was appointed District Attorney for Orange county, and was thus, very early in his professional career drawn into that branch of the law, in which he won his greatest fame. It may not be too much to say that there has hardly been an important criminal case in the city of New York for the last thirty years, in which Mr. Hoffman has not been engaged as counsel. About the year 1826 he removed to the city of New York, and there became a partner of Hugh Maxwell, at that time District Attorney. He soon distinguished himself by the part he took in the prosecution of the famous conspiracy cases against Henry Eckford, Jacob Barker and others, who were indicted for a conspiracy to defraud the public-cases which though now almost forgotten, made at the time no little stir in the community. And some years later he gained great, and at the time, unenviable notoriety, by the skill, eloquence and success with which he defended Robinson, indicted for the murder of Helen Jewett.

But notwithstanding the great reputation he had acquired for ability in the management and argument of criminal causes, he seems to have dissuaded young men from undertaking that kind of practice, and is reported to have said to one young lawyer who had taken a very creditable part in the defence of a criminal, where Mr. Hoffman had conducted the prosecution, "Take my advice, sir, adhere to civil business, and let the criminal courts alone."

Mr. Hoffman was twice elected a member of the legislature of New York, and did good service there in bringing about and perfecting the revision of the statutes of that State. He was a representative from the city of New York in the Congress of 1837, and also in that of 1839, and was again elected in 1848. He was distinguished in Congress as a prominent member of the committee on foreign affairs, and for his ready and persuasive eloquence. It was there that he is said to have retorted upon a representative who having changed his party and was very severe upon his old political associates, the question, "Would you have your old party, like Acteon, hunted to death by their own hounds?""

From 1829 to 1839, Mr. Hoffman was District Attorney for New York city. In 1840, he was appointed by President Harrison, U. States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and held the office for four years. He was also Attorney General of the State of New York, during the year 1844-5.

Mr. Hoffman was a natural orator: art may have aided and improved his natural powers, and culture may have adorned and enriched them, but nature had done more for him than either culture or art. He had a most persuasive and melodious voice, a fluent utterance, and great facility of expression. He could be sarcastic, witty, brilliant or profound; could move men's hearts to sympathy and tenderness, or make them burn with indignation at a story of crime. His influence over an audience was almost electric, and few jurors could resist his eloquence. As a lawyer he was always remarkable for his dexterous management of cases, for the directness and ability with which he seized the main points whether of law or fact, and the clearness and distinctness of his legal arguments. He was not

distinguished as a profound jurist, but he always brought to a case all the legal knowledge necessary to place it in its best light, and gave to it, for the time being, all the powers of an intellect originally active and acute, and strengthened by the study and experience of many years.

His strict integrity, his high sense of honor, his remarkable urbanity and courtesy at all times, and his real kindness of heart which never suffered him to attack or wound the feelings of an opponent at the bar, increased the respect which his great abilities called forth, and rarely has there been a more general and hearty expression of sorrow than that of the bench and bar of New York, at the unexpected announcement of his decease.

THE HONORABLE SAMUEL PHILLIPS PRESCOTT FAY, died at his residence in Cambridge, on Sunday, May 9, 1856. Judge Fay was born at Concord, Massachusetts, on the 10th of January, 1778, and was graduated at Harvard College in 1798, in a class abounding in men distinguished in the several walks of life, among whom we may name Judge Story, Drs. Channing and Tuckerman, and the Hon. Stephen Longfellow. Like Mr. Hoffman, Judge Fay entered at first upon a military career, and under the excitement of the then expected war with France, he applied for and received soon after leaving college a captain's commission in the army, and joined the troops on service in Massachusetts. Upon the conclusion of a definite and solid peace, he resigned his commission and studied law. He opened his office in Cambridge, and acquired a good practice and high reputation at the bar; he was distinguished by a ready and keen wit and a strong common sense way of handling his cases, which was very successful.

He was appointed Judge of Probate for Middlesex county on the first of May, 1821, and held that office until about two months before his death. To most of us the professional career of Judge Fay is connected with this office, which he administered with great ease and in a homely but very effective manner, to the satisfaction of his large, populous and busy county. During most of his long service in this office he had the good fortune to be associated with his classmate and friend, Isaac Fiske, Esq., as register of probate. Judge Fay was for a long time a member of the board of overseers of Harvard College, and held many other offices of high honor and trust. His life was adorned with all the domestic virtues, and blessed with great domestic happiness, so much more valuable to the possessor than any professional honor or public success, and he earned and enjoyed many attached friends, beyond the wide circle of his family connections.

THE

MONTHLY LAW REPORTER.

JULY, 1856.

THE CASE OF WILLIAM PALMER.

THE recent trial of William Palmer, for the murder of John Parsons Cook, deserves more than a passing notice. The extraordinary circumstances under which the crime was committed, the universal interest excited by it among all classes of persons in England, and the character of the trial, all combine to render the case one of uncommon importance to the whole community as well as to the legal profession.

Palmer, the convicted murderer, is a man about thirtyone years old. He was originally possessed of some property, received a good medical education, and began to practise as a physician. He married early in life a young girl, an heiress, and very soon abandoned the practice of his profession for the more exciting and congenial occupation of the turf. He owned race horses, attended all the races, and betted largely. In this pursuit he soon lost whatever fortune he had; and in the year 1853 was forced to raise money to enable him to carry on his racing speculations. To obtain funds he had recourse to usurers, and from one of these he obtained money at the enormous rate of sixty per cent. per annum. This rate of interest, which seems to men in legitimate business so frightful, is said by persons of experience to be rather a moderate premium for

VOL. IX. NO. III. NEW SERIES.

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