scale, and was brought before Judge Richardson, who discharged him, after inflicting a small fine.

Profiting nothing by these admonitions, he at last committed the crime for which, as has been stated, he was convicted. When Bill was brought in to receive his sentence, he was ordered to stand up.

"You have several times been before this court," said the judge, "and the light punishment you received has been of no advantage to you, and now the people have come to the conclusion, that they must either lock up their property or have you locked up, and they have concluded to have you locked up; and therefore the sentence of the court is, that you be sent to hard labor in the State prison for the term of ten years, and the court indulge the hope, that during this term, you will reform, or at least forget how to pick locks, or in case your memory continues intact, we hope that during your imprisonment, locks may be invented which you will not be able to pick."

Judge Richardson was tall and commanding in his person. His features strongly resembled those of Andrew Jackson, and indeed, he resembled the old hero in his manners and general appearance. He possessed those qualities that endeared him to his family and to his friends. He was a true, unvarying friend, but as an enemy, unrelenting and bitter while the reason for enmity continued; yet generous and prompt in his forgiveness of an injury.

He possessed that congeniality with spiritual truths, which is the best evidence of a Christian life. His love of the church to which he belonged, his ardent devotion to her ancient, ever-living, fresh, and beautiful ritual, evinced his strong attachment to the worship of his Maker, his allegiance to the great truths of revelation, and his delight in its lofty and purifying manifestations.

Judge Richardson died at Auburn on the 15th day of April, 1853, in the seventy-seventh year of his age.

DANIEL S. DICKINSON.

How the Master Spirits of Our Times may be Divided.-The Qualities of Mr. Dickinson's Mind.-Considered as an Advocate.-Ruskin's Comparison.-Statesmen Degenerated into Politicians.-Dickinson's Birth.-His early desire to become a Lawyer. His Father decides to Apprentice him to the Trade of a Clothier.-His Conversation with his Father on the Subject.-He Commences a Trade and his Education at the same time.-His Progress.-Learns Surveying.-Completes his Trade. Commences Surveying and School Teaching.-Dickinson a Witness in Court. Amusing Cross-examination. Who were your Teachers? - Farrand Stranahan.-His Advice to Dickinson.-Dickinson decides to commence the Business of a Clothier.-His sudden change of Purpose.-Makes the Acquaintance of Lot Clark.-Enters Clark's Office as a Student at Law.-Discouraging Circumstances.-Clark proposes to assist him.-Visits Albany with Clark.-Interesting Interview with Chief Justice Savage.-The Pleasing Result.-The Prediction.-Dickinson Admitted to the Bar.-Commences Practice.-His Success.— Removes to Binghamton.-Professional Progress.-John A. Collier.-Incident before Chancellor Walworth.-Dickinson Elected to the State Senate.-Senatorial Career.-Speeches in the Senate.-Dickinson as a Member of the Court of Errors. -Nominated for Lieutenant-Governor.-Defeat.-Again Nominated and Succeeds. Character of his Speeches.-Anecdote of Lord Tenderden.-Dickinson's Knowledge of the Scriptures.-Speech at an Agricultural Fair.-Political Activity.-Nominated for United States Senator.-Is Confirmed.-First Speech in the Senate. His other Speeches. -Amusing Scene.-Senator Badger.-Senate in Session not to be sneezed at.-His Relations with Mr. Webster.-Pleasing Letter from Mr. Webster.-The Reply.-Convention of 1852.-Dickinson Sustained by Virginia for President.-Retires from the Senate.-The Civil War.-Dickinson's Efforts in behalf of the Union.-Elected Attorney-General.-Important Trials Conducted by him as Attorney-General.-A Judgeship in the Court of Appeals offered him.-Declines.-Declines several other Important Positions.-Appointed District-Attorney for the Southern District of New York.-Nature of the Office and incidents connected with it.-Attacked with slight illness.-Sudden Death.Action of the New York City Bar on his Death.—Meeting of the Broome County Bar.-Effect of the Intelligence of his Death at Binghamton.-In the Senate and Legislature at Albany.-The Events of Thirty-eight Years.-Mr. Dickinson's Literary Talents.-An Accomplished Letter Writer.-Extracts from Letters to his Wife and Daughters.-Dickinson as a Poet.-Extract from the Preface to his Poetical Works by his Daughter, Mrs. Mary S. D. Mygatt.-Poem written a few days previous to his Death, and dedicated to his Wife.

It has been said that the master spirits of our times may be divided into three great classes, the characteristic features of which are sometimes blended in a single individual, but generally strongly distinguished from each other. First, may be ranked those whose

genius is kindled by the divine enthusiasm of poetry, eloquence, and the faculty of selecting and combining lofty, pleasing images, with that creative faculty which embodies and animates them; faculties, which, displayed in various modes, and evolved in different degrees, by exercise and cultivation, are the sources of all that adorns and much that gladdens life.

Distinct from these may be placed the men of theory and abstraction--the discoverers and teachers of great truths and general principles. Lastly, those born for the management of affairs, and formed by nature for the collisions and contests of active life; who, without waiting for the gradual formation of particular habits, assimilate themselves at once to their station, and discharge whatever duties may be imposed upon them, with as much ability as if their whole lives had been spent in the minutest detail of that single employment. This last appears to have been the most usual form in which American genius has hitherto exhibited itself.

Daniel S. Dickinson possessed a mind which united many of the brilliant qualities of the first, with some of those of the third order. On his moral portraiture are discovered those features which render him a representative of our general national character.

With many qualities in common with the poet, and partaking somewhat of the character of the philosopher, the discipline of the logician, the practicability of the statesman, he may be placed, if not at the head, certainly among the first of the men formed for the discharge of great duties at the bar, in legislative business, and in the diversified scenes of active life.

Inspired by a consciousness of his own mental powers, aided by an iron determination, and prompted by a laudable ambition, he submitted to the vigils of the lonely, self-taught student-penetrated the depths of science and philosophy-entered those classic fields where the accomplishments and graces of the mind can only be attained-mastered the great principles of

judicial knowledge-laid his hands upon those honors which dazzled his youthful ambition-raised himself to the sphere of the ablest lawyers and the most gifted statesmen of his times.

The purity of his private life leaves little room for those exceptions and deductions, which too frequently detract from the fame of the gifted and the great. Not that his was a faultless character-no such character exists; but his imperfections were so controlled by a dominant integrity, so subdued by an unassuming piety, that his better nature triumphed over them all, holding them subservient to the dictates of that being "unto whom all hearts are open, and from whom no secrets are hid."

Considered as an advocate and orator, he certainly had few superiors. He knew how to touch those chords of the human heart which vibrate responsive to sympathy; he was unseduced by imagination, though no stranger to its inspirations-untainted by passion, though susceptible to all healthy and legiti mate emotion-enthusiastic, but guided by a discerning and well balanced mind.

As Ruskin said of a certain architect, it was one of his chief virtues, that he never suffered ideas of outside symmetries and consistencies to interfere with the real use and value of what he did. If he desired a window, he opened one; a buttress, he built one. His intellect could fit itself to all service, hight of shaft, breadth of arch, or disposition of ground plan. It could shrink into a turret, expand into a hall, coil into a staircase, or spring into the towering spire, with undegraded grace, and unexhausted energy. Whenever he found occasion to change in form or purpose, he submitted to it without the slightest loss, either of unity or majesty. So with the oratorical powers and capacity of Daniel S. Dickinson, he could adapt them to time, place, or circumstances, with the undefined flexibility of Ruskin's architect.

An English writer has said, that the world is

wearied with statesmen degraded into politicians, and orators who pander to the tunes of the times for popularity which their abilities and endowments cannot command. There was nothing of this searching after ephemeral popularity-this distinctive feature of cunning politicians-in Mr. Dickinson; he occupied a higher and better sphere-a sphere that can only be attained and held by the power and influence of a commanding intellect.

Whoever met him in the social circle, whoever listened to his fresh, happy thoughts, uttered in the unstudied facility of familiar conversation, replete with epigram and point, whoever saw him amid those home scenes, where, as the husband and the father, he was the center of the deepest affection, and where the sunlight of his nature was undimmed by the cares of state or professional duties,-could discern those powers of mind which commanded the respect of "listening senates," but they would see in his playful humor, in his loving gentleness, little of that spirit, which, when crime was to be punished, iniquity exposed and fraud lashed in its lurking place, could be roused into storms of the most terrible invective, or changed into withering, blighting sar

casm.

Daniel Stevens Dickinson was born at Goshen, Litchfield county, in the State of Connecticut, in the year 1800. His father inherited the stern, inflexible virtue of his native New England. When Daniel was six years old, he removed with his father to Guilford, in the county of Chenango. As soon as he was old enough, he was sent to a common school in the neighborhood, where he continued until he was sixteen years of age. At this period he began to seriously consider what vocation would be most congenial to his taste, and he decided to adopt the legal profession; his decision was permanent, though the limited means of his father then prevented him from commencing a course of studies which he so much desired.