640 JOHN LOWELL. 



are perfectly able to understand it and to judge whether it is wisely ad- 

 ministered, and in the spirit of justice and fair dealing upon which it is 

 founded. Upon Judge Lowell's retirement from the bench in May, 1884, 

 the merchants of Boston invited him to a public dinner, that they might 

 have an opportunity of testifying their high esteem and affectionate con- 

 sideration for him as an administrator of the laws which most nearly con- 

 cerned them in their business relations, whose decisions and interpretations 

 of these laws had received the approval of the mercantile community 

 throughout the land. This unusual tribute, coming from the source from 

 which it emanated, was most gratifying to Judge Lowell as a proof that 

 his administration of the Bankrupt Law had not only been in accord 

 with the strong common sense of the business men of the community, but 

 also with the principles of justice and equity which it has been the aim 

 of every well-intended law of Bankruptcy to carry out. The mercantile 

 community still further showed its appreciation of him by requesting him 

 at a later date to prepare a new Bankrupt Act to be laid before Congress. 

 But this act was unfortunately not passed. 



The jurisdiction of the Circuit Court of the United States for the First 

 Circuit, of which Judge Lowell was appointed Judge in 1878, includes 

 the States of Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, as well as 

 Massachusetts, and his duties as Circuit Judge brought him in contact 

 with the members of the bar and the people of all these States ; that he 

 discharged these duties to their satisfaction was shown by the attendance 

 of lawyers from every State in the circuit, at the bar meeting in Boston 

 after his death, and by the abundant testimony they gave of their recog- 

 nition and thorough appreciation of his worth and ability, both as a mag- 

 istrate and a man. The business of the Circuit Court and the class of 

 cases tried there is quite different fi'om that of a District Court. It has 

 no original jurisdiction in Bankruptcy or Admiralty, but in these matters 

 sits only as a Court of Appeals. It deals more largely with cases at 

 common law and with civil suits for violation of the revenue law. It has 

 also jurisdiction of patent causes, a branch of the law which is thought 

 to require some special aptitude for and knowledge of mechanics as well 

 as of the physical sciences. Neither Judge Lowell's professional work 

 at the bar nor on the bench had ever brought him to the study of this 

 branch of the law, and he was at the outset and continued to be unduly 

 distrustful of his ability to master and properly decide the patent cases 

 that were brought before him. As he occasionally jocosely expressed it, 

 " he was afraid of only one thing in the law, — those infernal machines." 

 But he applied himself with the conscientiousness and thoroughness that 



