1834.] •" [Vaux. 



There was no unanimity in the discussion of the pursuit best suited to the 

 youth -who had so early finished his school life. His father, a lawyer of 

 remarkable prominence, and the acknowledged leader of the criminal bar 

 of that day, did not wish his son Henry to studj"^ law. There were three 

 sons, and it was thought but one should adopt the vocation of the father. 

 But Henry, depending on his own ability as he measured it, was not satis- 

 fied till he became a student in his father's office. Before he had attained 

 his majority, only twenty years of age, he was admitted to practice at 

 the Philadelphia Bar. 



It would be difficult now even to guess at the feelings of this young 

 man who was thus placed in at least a trying and not very promising 

 position, at his age, at that daj^ as an attorney at law in Philadelphia. 



The Bar of Philadelphia was then admittedly the most remarkable of 

 the law associations on this continent. It had become a popular adage, 

 that no unsolvable problem would puzzle a Philadelphia lawyer. The 

 Bar was lustrous with the most brilliant minds, and the roll of its mem- 

 bers embraced not a few of the great jurists of that time. Masterly ability, 

 profund learning, a high order of forensic eloquence, marked the golden 

 age in lis history. 



Young Phillips at once began his legal career. The better to learn, he 

 accepted the position of clerk in the Court of Common Pleas, presided 

 over by a judge who has left a record of the most thorough mastery of 

 jurisprudence, and wonderful ability. Judge King's name has few, if any, 

 successful rivals in the profound respect of the bench and the Bar. 



Under such daily tuition Mr. Phillips absorbed the principles of the law, 

 and learned the truest method of their application. He became both art 

 adept in practice, and the proper relations of precedents to cases. He was 

 thus equipped for the contest before courts and juries. Very soon he 

 held an assvired place, and at the criminal bar and in civil courts he 

 secured a substantial standing. 



For nearly thirty years he advanced with progressive steps, till he 

 reached the level of the leaders in his profession. The opinion of his 

 brethren, as expressed at a meeting of the Bar, held October last, to honor 

 his memory, is probably the best, if not the truest estimate of his pro- 

 fessional and personal character that can be given. 



This minute was unanimously adopted at that meeting : 



"Tlie death of Heniy M. Phillips impels a sincere manifestation of the 

 unfeigned sorrow of the Bar of Philadelphia. He was a man of rare qual- 

 ities ; a lawyer of striking and marked character ; a friend of tried and 

 true earnestness ; a citizen of untiring devotion to all the duties imposed ; 

 faithful to every trust ; of large and liberal views ; he rose to a high ranlc 

 in his profession as the associate of the great lawyers of this Bar, and was 

 rightfully recognized as one of the foremost citizens of Philadelphia. 



"The quickness and activity of his mind, his wonderful fsiculty of seiz- 

 ing, as by intuition, the strong points of his case, the force with which he 

 elucidated them, the capacity for absorbing the principles of law which 

 reported cases enunciated, his most singularly retentive memory, gave to 



PROC. AMER. FHILOS SOC. XXII. 117. J. PRINTED JANUARY 3, 1885. 



