10 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



This short and simple narrative comprises all the leading events in 

 the life of our deceased associate, — so true is it, that a faithful and 

 exclusive devotion of time and talent to practice at the bar in this 

 country, while it is pretty sure to win great professional success, is 

 quite consistent with a quiet and uneventful life. It does not neces- 

 sarily lead, as in England, to wide-spread distinction. A lawyer, who 

 resolutely eschews active participation in politics and refuses to hold 

 official stations, rarely reaches an extended public fame. Nevertheless, 

 the qualities of mind and character which are requisite to forensic skill, 

 and to the attainment of a high position as a lawyer and advocate, are 

 in many respects the same as, and in none inferior to, those which dis- 

 tinguish the successful politician and statesman, although they are exer- 

 cised and displayed on a more narrow and less public arena. Intel- 

 lectual capacity, trained and disciplined, so that it may at all times 

 be ready for vigorous and efficient action, legal learning and wide 

 general culture, courage, good temper and knowledge of mankind, are 

 essential characteristics, without which the conflicts of the forum can- 

 not be successfully carried on, or its triumphs surely won. All these 

 qualities Mr. Loring possessed in an eminent degree. Endowed with 

 good natural powers, he had cultivated them by long and assiduous 

 study. His learning in all branches of the profession was affluent. He 

 was especially distinguished for his thorough knowledge of the rules 

 and principles of the commercial code. These he illustrated and ap- 

 plied to new cases with singular force, felicity, and success. The re- 

 ports of cases argued and adjudged in the Supreme Judicial Court of 

 Massachusetts and in the Circuit Court of the United States, for the 

 first circuit during the thirty years from 1825 to 1855, furnish ample 

 evidence of the fulness and extent of his learning, and of the impor- 

 tant part he bore in laying the foundations and giving shape and sym- 

 metry to that branch of American jurisprudence which embraces the 

 rights and duties of parties under mercantile and maritime contracts 

 and transactions. 



It was not solely as a sound and learned lawyer that Mr. Loring was 

 distinguished at the bar. He was also an eloquent and persuasive 

 advocate. His eloquence and power of persuasion did not consist 

 merely in a strict observance of the rules of rhetoric, or in well- 

 rounded periods, or special beauty of diction. He was master of a 

 higher and more effective order of advocacy. Strictly conscientious, 

 and governed in the performance of his professional duty by a rigid 



