long judicial career, maintained. He subsequently filled the post and discharged the duties of Chief Justice of the State of New York; and on the 18th of March, 1823, a vacancy having occurred on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, by the lamented death of the Hon. Brockholst Livingston, one of the associate justices and presiding judge of the Circuit Court in the Second Circuit, on the 9th of December of the same year Judge Thompson was appointed his successor. It was while he served in the latter capacity that the opinions contained in the following pages were pronounced. They were given by Judge Thompson when he had attained the fullest maturity of judgment, and after many years rich in experience as well as in study; they ought, therefore, to possess, and doubtless do possess, a superior value.

This volume has been compiled from manuscript cases which the late Hon. Elijah Paine, jr., had collected, and partly arranged with a view to publication. The design of Judge Paine was, that they should form a second volume in the series of his Circuit Court Reports, and he had selected them with care for that purpose. They begin in 1827 and continue to 1840, thus commencing where the cases in the first volume of Paine's Circuit Court Reports leave off, and extending over a period of thirteen subsequent years. They were all decided in the Second Circuit with one exception-a case relative to the right of British creditors to recover claims which subsisted prior to the American Revolution, tried in the Virginia Circuit; and in which the general principles of international obligation which ought to govern in such cases, are discussed with great learning and ability by Chief Justice Jay. As this case had been marked for publication by Judge Paine, and was in itself of considerable interest and importance, it was not thought advisable to omit it; although it did not come within the original design and scope of the work, which was simply to report cases tried in the SECOND CIRCUIT.

The biographical sketch of the late Judge Paine, prepared by his brother, Dr. Martyn Paine, a physician of eminence of this city, will command attention for the feeling, yet truthful tribute of affectionate admiration and regard it pays to the memory of one whom, while living, the bar of New York delighted to honor, and the recollection of whose learning and virtues, now that he is no more, will long be preserved.

The duties of the present editor may be comprised as follows:-A careful and thorough revision of the manuscript; the preparation of an outline or statement of each case, except when rendered unnecessary by minuteness and circumstantiality in the opinion; ample and comprehensive, and yet concise head notes; a complete table of cases; and a very full index. Both volumes have also been annotated with a view to introduce the more recent cases. It is hoped that the notes, which are quite extensive, will prove useful, and that they will enhance the practical value of the work.

THOMAS W. WATERMAN.

NEW YORK, No. 77 Nassau

street, Feb. 11, 1856.

}

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

OF

HON. ELIJAH PAINE.

BY DR. MARTYN PAINE.

ELIJAH PAINE, second son of ELIJAH PAINE, (the United States Senator and District Judge,) was born at Williamstown, Vermont, April 10, 1796. After taking the degree of A. B. at Harvard University, in 1814, he began the study of law in the office of the Hon. Daniel Cady, an eminent lawyer of Johnstown, New York; subsequently went to the Law school at Litchfield, Connecticut, when that institution was in charge of Judges Reeves and Gould, and completed his studies with Messrs. H. D. and R. Sedgwick, in the city of New York, where he continued to reside till his death, in the steady pursuit of his profession. He became early associated in business with Henry Wheaton, the author of the "Northmen," "Law of Nations," &c., and was largely concerned in the Reports of the Supreme Court of the United States which bear Mr. Wheaton's name. He was also the author of "Paine's United States Circuit Court Reports," of which the present is a posthumous volume. In 1830 he published, in connection with Mr. Duer, a work in two volumes, entitled "Paine's and Duer's Practice in Civil Actions and Proceedings at Law in the State of New York." These works exhibit the legal attainments by which, in after-years, he rose to eminence at the bar.

In 1850 he was elected a Judge of the Superior Court

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of New York, and held the office at the time of his death, which took place at his house, from an acute congestive disease, October 6, 1853. While occupying a seat upon the bench there came before him for his decision the wellknown Lemon Case, involving the title to eight slaves, in which he illustrated, by an elaborate and erudite citation of authorities, the constitutionality and applicability of the Statute of New York, which liberates the slave when brought by his owner, under special circumstances, within the precincts of the State. The decision was as conscientious as it was remarkable for its opposition to the public construction of the law, for the case was closely allied to others where opposite decisions had obtained; and a decree in favor of the owner would have met with general approval at the North. Judge Paine was, however, ardently devoted to the harmony of the Union, and an advocate of the slavery provision in the Constitution of the United States, though he regarded slavery as a gigantic evil. He felt the hardship of the case; and no sooner had he disposed of the claim, than he set on foot and headed a subscription by which the owner was reimbursed the full value of the property which had been in ignorance forfeited to the law.

These incidents are mentioned, not only on account of the importance of the case, but as exemplifying the spirit of inquiry, justice and humanity, which presided over the whole course of Judge Paine's life. Though, like his father, he lived in high political times, and equally pursued a consistent and independent course; like him, also, he had never any conflict with party. In his social habits he had no sympathy with the gay, or fashionable, or idle amusements that prevail in society. He had great enjoyment, however, in cheerful and intellectual conversation; and as for the rest, he found his happiness in his daily avocations, or in his family, or in the solitude of the study, or in whatever is beautiful or grand in nature or in art. He was devoutly

a Christian, and was conversant with the Bible from early youth. He was deeply imbued with the orthodoxy which inculcates the divinity of Christ and the atonement, yet charitable towards all denominations, and the heathen world: and although he made no public display of religion, he was zealous in inculcating, in private life, the incalculable importance of Christianity. And the writer of this notice looks back, with intense happiness, to the many glowing disquisitions upon the Bible which fell from his lips, in their hours of social intercourse. At one of these frequent interviews, within a year or two of his death, he said that he "would willingly die in defence of Christianity." Nor may the statement be without its use, that when, in his last sickness, and when danger was not much apprehended, he was observed by the writer to be in tears, he remarked, on assurances of probable improvement, (as was the case,) that "he had no fear of death, but that he was thinking of the sufferings of our Saviour." Convalescence took place, and he went into the country; but relapsing there, he returned to the city: and a short time before his death, in reply to an interrogatory upon a subject which had long absorbed his hopes and happiness, he remarked, that "he had no anxieties respecting his son, as he was in the hands of a good Providence;" and farther assured the writer, that "he was perfectly resigned to the will of God either to live or to die." It was an eloquent display of the consolations of deep religious feeling, of the consciousness of parental duties zealously fulfilled, of the certainty of a well-spent life, and that all his prosperity, with the blessing of Heaven, was due alone to his own genius, virtues and industry. And so he died, in absolute submission, in full possession of his elegant, glowing mind, and without the least apparent suffering. It was a death for "the joy of the angels of God," and too important a testimony of the advantages of a well-disciplined faith, and of a pure conscience, to be suppressed.