LITERARY NOTICES. 



755 



plications of physical forces. The book is 

 done in the same splendid style, and we 

 should wonder where so expensive and 

 luxurious a scientific book could find buy- 

 ers, did we not remember that the two edi- 

 tions in French and English make it acces- 

 sible to the largest portion of the readers 

 of the civilized world. It is difficult to 

 convey a just idea of the scope and detail 

 of this work, with its thirty-eight elaborate 

 chapters and its four hundred and sixty- 

 seven admirable illustrations, and we can 

 only say that it is the most elegant and ex- 

 haustive pictorial work on the applications 

 of science in its great leading departments 

 that has yet appeared. 



The Bench and Bar of Saratoga County ; 

 or, Reminiscences of the Judiciary and 

 Scenes in the Court-room from the Or- 

 ganization of the County to the Pres- 

 ent Time. By E. R. Mann. Ballston, 

 New York : Waterbury & Innman. Pp. 

 391. Price, $2. 



Besides its waters, which are of interest 

 to chemists, geologists, and invalids, and 

 its gay summer life, so dear to the devotees 

 of fashion, which combine to make Sara- 

 toga famous, the place is also celebrated 

 for its lawyers. A county which has given 

 to the bench such men as Cowen, Wal- 

 worth, Willard, Bockes, and Spear, and to 

 the bar such pleaders as Hill, Reynolds, 

 Porter, and Beach, certainly deserves to 

 have its legal history written out, and Mr. 

 Mann has accordingly done it in a very 

 creditable manner. In giving a sketch of 

 the legal profession of the county, which 

 has of course been closely associated with 

 the growth of its population, the author 

 has brought out various points of incidental 

 interest. It appears that about 1790, be- 

 fore Saratoga Springs or Ballston Spa had 

 yet been heard of, the town of Ballston in- 

 cluded all the western and northern por- 

 tions of the county, stretching away tow- 

 ard the Adirondacks. In that year two 

 man, named Palmer and Gorden, were can. 

 didates for the supervisorship of this ex- 

 tensive region. The election for that spring 

 was called to be held in the Milton Hill 

 meeting-house. The day was bright and 

 balmy, and so it was suggested that the 

 election take place outside the church, and 

 one of the justices, taking a suitable posi- 



tion, declared the polls open. The votes 

 were taken viva voce, and " the people " 

 went strongly for Gorden, who had been 

 supervisor for several years before. Palm- 

 er, seeing he had no chance, drew off one 

 of the justices, quietly went into the church 

 and opened another poll, where thirteen 

 men voted for him. The town-meeting had 

 been appointed to be held in the church, 

 and so Palmer was proclaimed unanimously 

 elected by the citizens of Ballston. Gor- 

 den protested, but Palmer was " counted 

 in," the same as nowadays. A feud fol- 

 lowed between these office-seekers, the pub- 

 lic espousing the causes of the rivals, and 

 promoting their ambition. The knavish 

 trick of the town-meeting ended in making 

 both men county judges, and in sending 

 each for two terms to the National House 

 of Representatives. It is evident that Sara- 

 toga early furnished an excellent soil for 

 the production of lawyers. 



The first court - house and jail were 

 erected at Ballston Centre, at a cost of 

 $6,500, and were ready for use in 1*796. 

 Justice was dispensed there for twenty 

 years, when it was burned down, with the 

 following accompanying circumstances : 

 Raymond Taylor, the jailer, was a man very 

 full of the dignity and importance of his 

 position, and would tolerate nothing that 

 derogated from it in the prisoners under 

 his charge. One named Billings had ruffled 

 the jailer's complacency by some disre- 

 spectful words, and so Taylor had him se- 

 curely fastened to the floor by a large ox- 

 chain, riveted round his body by a black- 

 smith, and riveted also to the sill of the 

 floor. Another prisoner set fire to the 

 wall of his cell to burn his way out, and, as 

 the flames rapidly extended, efforts were 

 made to rescue Billings, but they could not 

 lQOsen the chain, and so he was consumed 

 with the burning court-house. As a fur- 

 ther illustration of how modern politics is 

 developed from its early germs, it may be 

 stated that there was a law forbidding the 

 jailer to furnish the prisoners with lights, 

 so Taylor arranged with another man to 

 furnish them, and divided the profits. 



In a history of nearly a hundred years, 

 only two men have been publicly strangled 

 in Saratoga County in the interest of jus- 

 tice, and the first of them, hanged in 1820, 



