1876.] -■-" [Strong. 



I do not propose to call your attention to any of the 

 cases In which he was engaged, though many of them 

 were of much interest. Grateful as the work would be, 

 I have not time for its performance. 



In reference to his arguments, however, I make a 

 single remark. Some of them have been preserved 

 by the reporters in a condensed form. To estimate 

 them justly they should be compared with the condi- 

 tion of legal knowledge and legal reasoning when 

 they were made. And when thus compared, many of 

 them, I think, will be found to have been, in exact ex- 

 hibition of legal principles, and of the reasons upon 

 which those principles rest, much in advance of what 

 was generally known, and in advance even of what had 

 been expressed in judicial decision. 



The war of 1812 brought with it the usual fruits of 

 war: destruction to commerce, embarrassment to trade, 

 rash speculation, and consequent profit to the mem- 

 bers of the bar. Unhappily their direct interests are 

 rarely injured by national adversity. This, perhaps, is 

 one of the " principal deductions from the general 

 popularity of the profession, and one of the reasons 

 why it receives more respect than love," without fault 

 of its own. Mr. Binney shared largely in that profit, 

 and the close of the war in 181 5, found him in 

 possession of all that the profession of law could give 

 to its professor, whether of reputation or emolument. 

 The eminent leaders of the bar, whom he encountered 

 at his entrance into the profession, had, in a great 



