strong partizan sentiments, and adhered to them with legitimate firmness. But, on the bench, in the discharge of his judicial duties, party, politics, and friends were alike forgotten, and he stood the High Priest of the law, in whose censer unhallowed incense never burned.

The modest firmness with which Judge Wells adhered to his opinions, is exhibited in the case of Newell v. The People, in the Court of Appeals. The case involved doubtful questions of law, and attracted public notice. He dissented from the opinion of all the members of the court, standing entirely alone, and wrote an opinion of which the following is the concluding part:

"In the conclusions to which I have arrived, I regret to find myself standing alone among the members of the court of dernier resort, who take part in this decision. This circumstance, perhaps, should lead to a distrust of my own judgment, even if it failed to shake my confidence in the correctness of the views I have expressed. However this may be, I yield to the decision, if not willingly, yet respectfully."

He was in every sense, whether at the bar, on the bench, or in private life, the true gentleman. And he did much to establish those agreable amenities which now exist between the bench and the bar. The younger members of the profession will remember with pleasure the kindness, suavity and patience with which he listened to their first forensic efforts. Many who came, conscious of ability, but with shrinking timidity, were encouraged by him-their mental resources drawn out, and they were led up to a confidence and self-possession which now sustains them in the collisions of professional strife.

The faults with which, as a judge, he was charged, were principally that he was too slow in the dispatch of business at the circuit, and that he did not possess that rapidity of thought which was necessary for a

judge at nisi prius. Without doubt there were some grounds for this complaint; and yet the correctness with which he disposed of business, was an ample offset for this fault; and it is remarkable that his decisions made on the trial of causes, were seldom reversed by the appellate court.

His repeated election by the people sufficiently attests the esteem and confidence in which he was held in the district, and the record of those frequent elections, is the highest encomium that can be paid to his memory.

Judge Wells died at Penn Yan on the seventh day of March, 1868, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. Mrs. Wells survives him. Their family consisted of nine children-two sons and seven daughters. Of those, four daughters only are living. They are Mrs. T. B. Hamilton, Mrs. T. A. Johnson, Mrs. S. B. Robbins, and Mrs. J. B. Welch. The late Samuel H. Wells, an eminent member of the Yates County bar, was a son of Judge Wells. He died on the eighteenth day of October, 1867, aged forty-eight years.

There is a melancholy interest attached to the history of Mr. Wells. Within the space of a few years, his wife and all his children, three in number, were taken from him by the hand of death. His wife, an amiable, lovely, and accomplished woman, to whom he was tenderly attached, died a few months previous to her husband. The stricken husband and father thus beheld his household treasures torn from him, his earthly idols snatched away. In the depths of his heart he felt that they could never come to him, but that he should soon go to them. A few weeks he struggled with his sorrows, a few weeks he lingered around his desolated home, and then followed his loved ones, "where the beautiful fade not away.”

For many years, Judge Wells was a conscientious and an undeviating member of the Presbyterian Church. His religion, though strong and earnest, was in unison with his whole character, calm and

rational; though of adamantine firmness, it was attractive, cheerful, lovely. He was a most severe and critical judge of his own conduct.

He looked upon religion as intended to regulate our intercourse with one another here, by adding the ordinary sanctions of temporal morality; the rewards and punishment of another life, "according to the deeds done in the body." He was not satisfied with apparent religion, but was particularly interested in those instructions from the pulpit, which enjoin a deep, living, all pervading sense of Christian duty and responsibility; and he united with his Christianity a deep interest in the history of good and great men, a veneration for enlightened legislators— for the majesty of the laws, a sympathy with philanthropists, a delight in efforts of intellect, consecrated to a good cause. For he possessed that congeniality with spiritual and lofty truths, without which, the evidences of religion work no deep conviction, without which, faith cannot assert her heartfelt, her glorious work.

VINCENT MATHEWS.

His Birth.-Completes his Education with Noah Webster.-A Student in the Office of Colonel Robert Troup.-Burr.-Pendleton.-Yates.-Kent.-Spencer.-Contest for Governor between Judge Yates and George Clinton.-Called to the Bar. -Removes to Elmira.-Elected to the State Senate.-Appointed with Judge Emott to the Onondaga Commission.-Elected to Congress.-Appointed District-Attorney for Several Counties.-Daniel Cruger.-Mathews Removes to Bath. His Success as a Lawyer.-Removes to Rochester.-His Popularity.— Elected to the Assembly.-Appointed District-Attorney for Monroe County.His Politics. His Manner as a Speaker.-His Character as a Lawyer.-Anecdote.-His Private Character.-Letter from the Young Lawyer.-Anecdote.Scene of his Death.

VINCENT MATHEWS was born in the county of Orange, N. Y., June 29, 1766; hence his birth occurred in a solemn and eventful period; a period which determined the character of ages to comewhen powerful evils were struggling for the mastery ; when men gifted with great powers of thought and loftiness of sentiment-statesmen with broad and original views of human nature and society, imbued with self-denying patriotism, were summoned to the conflict. "Thus he was one of those through which one generation speaks its thoughts, feelings and appeals to another."

At an early age he was sent to a popular and flourishing high school, at Middletown, N. Y. Although fully prepared, he did not enter college, but finished his classical education under the instruction of Noah Webster. The acquisitions of that profound and accomplished scholar rendered him a proper tutor for a mind like that which young Mathews possessed. The steady improvement, the cultivated and

refined taste, the severe industry, and the courteous manners of the pupil, soon endeared him to his revered instructor.

Having finished his classical studies, he went to New York, and in 1786 commenced the study of law in the office of Colonel Robert Troup, a highly distinguished lawyer and politician, an early and undeviating friend of Aaron Burr. Here Mr. Mathews came in contact with Pendleton, Judge, afterwards Governor, Yates, Chief Justice Morris, Burr, and others whose names are brilliant in the history of New York, and distinguished in the annals of our nation. He had thus rare opportunities for learning from men as well as from books. It was his privilege to see how justice was administered by Morris, Yates, Spencer, Kent and Savage. He had opportunities to see Hamilton and Burr in the forum, and to observe how forensic questions were managed by those master minds.

While pursuing his legal studies in New York, the celebrated gubernatorial election between Judge Yates and George Clinton took place, which, after a severe and bitter contest, resulted in the defeat of the former by a very small majority. The prominent partizans of Judge Yates were Hamilton, Burr, Troup and Duer.

Previous to this election, the Federal party, under the lead of Hamilton, was dominant in the State. But so great was the popularity of Mr. Clinton that the Federal leaders were obliged to combine all political elements against him in order to secure any hope of success; and this is the only instance in which Hamilton and Burr ever acted together politically. Although the latter opposed Mr. Clinton's election with all the strength and power of his mind and influence, yet, shortly after his election, the Governor tendered to Burr the office of Attorney-General, which, after much hesitation, he accepted. In those days, that office was one of the highest and most important