324 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



WiLLARD Phillips was born on the 19th of December, 1784, 

 at Bridgewater, Mass. His childhood and youth were passed, in 

 various towns in Hampshire County. After such training as the 

 common country schools could give, at the age of eighteen he com- 

 menced teaching such a school. His second engagement as a teacher 

 was in Chesterfield, where began his acquaintance with WiUiam 

 Cullen Bryant (ten years his junior), which ripened into an intimate 

 and life-long friendship. Here he received his earliest lessons in Latin ; 

 and he continued alternately teaching and studying, until he was pre- 

 pared to enter Harvard College in 180G. He graduated with high 

 honors, and was shortly afterward appointed to a tutorship, which he 

 held for four years. He was during this period a frequent contributor 

 to the current periodical literature, and was among the eai'liest writers 

 for the " North American Review," of which he was for a short time 

 proprietor and editor. 



On leaving Cambridge, Mr. Phillips entered upon the practice of the 

 law in Boston. In 1825 and 182G he was a member of the les-islature. 

 In 1837 he was chairman of a commission, appointed by Governor 

 Everett, for codifying so much of the common law as falls within 

 the range of criminal jurisprudence. In 1839 he was appointed by 

 Governor Everett Judge of Probate for Suffolk County, which office he 

 resioned in 18-17, to become President of the New Ens^land Life In- 

 surance Company, continuing to serve in that capacity till the growing 

 infirmities of age made it expedient for him to resign all active duty. 



Judge Phillips was an able and learned lawyer, and while at the bar 

 was distinguished for prompt and keen insight into the legal bearings 

 and merits of the cases in which he was concerned. In 1823 he pub- 

 lished the first edition of his treatise on Insurance, which has passed 

 through many successive editions, greatly enlarged, and kept on a level 

 with the new legal learning of the day. This book has, from its 

 first appearance, been regarded as a standard work in England as 

 well as in the United States. Judge Phillips's son on a recent oc- 

 casion received in London distinguished attention from prominent 

 members of the Bench and Bar, in recognition of his fother's just 

 claims to I'espect and honor. In 1829 Judge Phillips published "A 

 Manual of Political Economy," which manifested no little research, 

 erudition, and acumen, but was vitiated for permanent and general 

 reception by its partisan advocacy of the system of high protective 

 duties. In 1850 he published, in the same vein of thought, a volume 

 entitled " Propositions concerning Protection and Free Trade." In 

 addition to these more important labors, he- edited several legal works 



