:^v^^- ^^jA^^inss! &i"(-l!S^^.?^ » • • • *: L:i.i^-v--5 Cornell University Law Library. THE GIFT OP The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924018811335 Cornell University Library KF 368.B84I35 In memoriam, F. Carroll Brewster. 3 1924 018 811 335 3^ Sa/^a-^^ /^ykz.^^cHi^;^ V ^ C \ %S IFn flQemotiam F. CARROLL BREWSTER /^jm Press of Allen, Lane & Scott, Philadelphia. This Memorial Volume is Affectionately Inscribed to the Memory of the Late F. CARROLL BREWSTER. At a meeting of the "Associated Students" held at the Lawyers' Club, No. 1326 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Monday, January 2d, 1899, it was moved and duly seconded — "That a committee of seven be appointed by the Chair (Henry C. Terry, Esq.) to perpetuate the memory of Judge Brewster by a memorial of his life and services." Motion unanimously carried. The Chair appointed Franklin L. Lyle, Thomas R. Elcock, Samuel M. Hyneman, A. Atwood Grace, Isaac N. Solis, I. Hazle- ton Mirkil, and Horace M. Rumsey to act as the Committee on Memorial. This volume is published by the "Associated Students," "Lawyers' Club of Philadelphia," and "^Five O' Clock Club of Philadelphia." f. Carroll Brewster. Ecclesiastical liberty had its birth in the brave struggles along the North Sea against Spanish domination. Constitutional liberty was born on the bosom of the stormy Atlantic, in the cabin of the Mayflower. To maintain religious and political free- dom, the Pilgrim Fathers drew up a solemn compact, to which all subscribed. Prominent among them was Elder William Brewster, whose descendants have contributed much to the professional and literary life of our free country. Elder Brewster was one of the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth in 1620. He had been educated in Cambridge University, in England ; had served as a diplomat in the Low Countries ; had, during his exile for conscience sake at Leyden, established a printing press ; and he was the first acknowledged teacher in the little colony. He brought with him to Plymouth his wife and four children. Their descendants spread through the Eastern and Middle States; one, a worthy and popular physician, settled in Deerfield, Cumberland County, New Jersey, where was born Francis Enoch Brewster, a son of this physician, and the father of F. Carroll Brewster. Francis Enoch Brewster was sent to Philadelphia and there educated. He read law and was admitted to the bar, and for many years enjoyed a large and lucrative practice. As an advocate, he was distinguished for close reasoning and ready wit, F. Carroll Brewster inherited his great qualities and ability. F. Carroll Brewster was born in Philadelphia, in the old city proper, May 15th, 1825. In early boy- hood he was regarded as bright and promising. He was sent to the Old Friends' Select School, at Fourth and Arch Streets. There he was carefully trained and rapidly fitted for college. He entered the University of Pennsylvania, then located in the old Ninth Street buildings, while Rev. Dr. Ludlow (the father of the late Judge Ludlow) was Provost. The young student displayed wonderful industry and aptness for learning, and in 1841, when about sixteen years of age, he was graduated with honors. He always maintained an active relation with the Uni- versity, and frequently evidenced his interest in the reputation and welfare of his Alma Mater. In 1868 he was elected President of the Alumni Society of the University, which office he filled during a number of successive years. In June, 1871, he was the orator at the laying of the cornerstone of the new University buildings in West Philadelphia. He was honored by the University with the degree of Doctor of Laws. Upon finishing his college course, he at once began the study of law in his father's office. He was ad- mitted to the Philadelphia Bar September 7th, 1844. At the time Judge Brewster emerged from student life into the professional arena, he had not reached the barrier which separates infancy, in a legal sense, from manhood ; yet no one ever entered it with greater confidence, and truly no one ever labored more earnestly to win distinction and to acquire a competency. The proverb, labor omnia vincit, he adopted as his own, and his achievements were at- tained by unceasing toil and indomitable energy. In his profession he commanded marked success. His position was at the head of the Bar of Pennsyl- vania. His practice was largely confined to the civil courts, but in his early history he was interested in some of the leading criminal trials, at a period when a case which involved the safety of human life at- tracted general interest and had great significance. During his career he managed cases with an ap- plication and careful study that rarely failed to secure his purpose, and his first great criminal suits were red-letter days in his legal life. Among those which excited public attention were the trials of Robert Smith, charged with the murder of John Hunter, in 1855 ; of Dr. James McCourt, charged with the mur- der of Alice Hallowell, in 1856; of Jacob Lenairs, charged with the murder of William J. Hatch (in the Oyer and Terminer of Camden, N. J.), in 1856; of James Logan, charged with the murder of James Ferguson, in 1857 ; of James Diamond, charged with the murder of Edward Muldoon, in 1857; of Robert Thompson, charged with the murder of John Capie, in i860; of William Burke and Bishop Rutter, charged with the murder of Andrew Johnson, in i860; of Edwin Walton, charged with the murder of Jacob N. Maybury, in 1864. In 1859 occurred the trial of Samuel H. Cunning- ham, charged with the murder of James McCrory. The facts were these : Samuel H. Cunningham, a po- liceman, was sent to arrest a mechanic. The warrant lO was served upon him in his workshop, when he was inebriated. He resisted the policeman, ordered him from the premises, and finally attacked him with a knife. Cunningham shot and killed him, and was tried for murder. The case aroused popular excite- ment to fever heat ; the legal question was the nature of the resistance that would justify an officer of the law in taking human life, to enforce the law or protect himself Mr. Brewster secured the acquittal of the policeman. A point of law settled by that trial, as a precedent for many subsequent cases, was the princi- ple that a well-founded apprehension of the intention of an assailant to inflict bodily harm is sufficient cause for the exercise of self-defense, even to the ex- tremity of taking life. Similar, also, was the great trial of Lenairs for mur- der. The interest that attended this case extended to both sides of the Delaware River. The garden farms in New Jersey were objects of frequent pillage, which, with undue harshness, was laid by the people of New Jersey at the doors of the people of Philadelphia, Lenairs, while gunning near Camden, crossed meadow land belonging to a farmer, whose melon patch had been subjected to unwarranted harvesting, and who was keeping watch over the remaining fruit. He accused Lenairs of trespass, and ordered him to sur- render into custody. This was refused, and the farmer attempted the arrest. He was a man of large frame and threatening presence. Lenairs was of lighter build, and nervous almost to weakness. He fled from the farmer, until forced into the marsh that bounded the river, and at that extreme point of re- treat he shot his pursuer. The truck farmers com- II bined to secure the conviction of Lenairs, and enlisted against him the ablest criminal lawyers of the New Jersey Bar. They were resisted almost single-handed by Mr. Brewster, who secured the prisoner's ac- quittal. The young advocate eloquently pleaded the same principle of self-defense successfully asserted in the Cunningham case. In 1858 the Kirkpatrick poisoning case stirred Philadelphia society to its centre. The principal par- ties were brothers, Edward and Robert D. Kirkpat- rick; but the case involved several others. The brothers had been partners in business, but separated in anger, and a family feud resulted. On Christmas morning a large pie was left at the house of Edward Kirkpatrick. That gentleman and some of his house- hold ate a portion, and found it of bitter though pleas- ant taste. Severe sickness ensued, and the remainder of the pie was analyzed. It contained large quantities of arsenic. Robert D. Kirkpatrick and others were ar- rested on the charge of conspiracy to poison. In this case public opinion exercised peculiar force, and ex- clusively against the defendant. It was established that the brothers had dissolved partnership in anger, and had subsequently maintained strife. It was proved that the poisoned pie had been left at the house of one brother by a negro who was employed as a confidential messenger by the other, and it was shown that pecuniary advantage would result to the remaining brother should either die. Judge Kelly and George A. Coffee, Esq., prosecuted this case with unflagging purpose to convict. They were aided by the most efficient auxiliaries — public opinion and the press — and yet they lost the cause. Mr. Brewster, 12 at the close of a month's trial, succeeded in acquit- ting his client on all the points included in the indict- ment for conspiracy. His management of the case was thorough in every respect, and the sober second judgment of popular thought justified the verdict. To him, it was a victory that established his reputation as a leader of the criminal Bar. In 1856-57 the celebrated contest for the District Attorneyship between William B. Mann and Lewis C. Cassidy was pressed to a successful issue by Mr. Brewster. In many election cases which have oc- curred in this city since that date, this cause has been a precedent. The suit was attended by extreme political excitement. Philadelphia rarely holds an election without the struggle at the polls being sup- plemented by an appeal to the courts, but few subse- quent contests have equalled the political stir which this litigation created. This great cause was heard before Judge Allison, and lasted for months ; Mr. Brewster brought it to a successful termination for Mr. Mann. In the contested elections for City Controller, Sheriff, and Clerk of the Orphans' Court in 1860-1861- 1862, he successfully maintained his clients' rights to those offices. In 1858 came the collapse of the Pennsylvania Bank. Thomas AUibone, the president of this in- stitution, had enjoyed to its fullest extent the con- fidence of the public. When the fiscal corporation under his management failed, the populace con- demned him as bitterly as it had theretofore confided in him. The press assailed him. On all sides he was denounced, and by all parties regarded as a 13 swindler of uncommon depravity. The Grand Jury found a true bill. An indictment charging AUibone, Thomas A. Newhall, and George Peabody with con- spiracy to defraud the bank was framed, and the defendants were arraigned before Judge Allison. Joseph P. Lloyd, Esq., pressed the case for the prosecution with all his well-known energy ; the defense, led by Mr. Brewster, was equally earnest. Eminent legal talent was retained for the defense : Hon. William M. Meredith, ex-Chief Justice Lewis, Judge Thayer, and George M. Wharton, Esq., were Mr. Brewster's colleagues. It appeared that during his presidency, Mr. Allibone, as president of the bank, executed a draft for fifty thousand pounds sterling upon Mr. Peabody in London. The draft was ac- cepted, and the money duly accredited to the Penn- sylvania Bank. In the indictment against the presi- dent of the bank it was charged that the proceeds of this draft, nearly $250,000 of American gold, were ap- propriated by Mr. Allibone to his individual use. This charge was refuted. The trial lasted three weeks, in which time Mr. Brewster and his colleagues proved that the bank had received the sterling exchange. The result was unexpectedly favorable. The jury, without leaving the box, acquitted Mr. Allibone. After these great suits came the war and its vast legal issues. In the need for means to prosecute the struggle laid at the Nation's door, the United States issued paper money, stamped with the broad seal of the Treasury, and made it a legal tender for the pay- ment of all indebtedness, public and private. Con- sequent upon the issue of paper currency came the rapid appreciation of gold and silver, the metals 14 named as the stipulated payments in deeds and bonds and mortgages throughout the Union. Holders of such securities refused legal tender in liquidation of their obligations and demanded specie. This brought before the courts the constitutionality of the Legal Tender Act, a question freighted with more impor- tance to the success of the Nation than the safety of an army. A test case was argued in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1864. A lady named Brin- ton had a ground-rent deed requiring interest to be paid in silver coin and containing a clause of extin- guishment upon payment of the principal in "lawful silver money of the United States of America." Un- der the deed Mr. Shollenberger was ground-rent tenant. In the winter of 1862 he offered payment of the principal of the ground rent in legal tender notes, and demanded the execution of a deed of extinguishment, which was refused. He thereupon filed a bill in equity praying that the defendant be decreed specifically to perform the conditions of the deed and to extinguish the ground rent upon paying the stipulated sum and arrearages of rent. A de- murrer was filed and overruled. An appeal was taken. Mrs. Brinton was represented by Hon. Will- iam M. Meredith and Joseph B. Townsend, Esq. Mr. Brewster represented Mr. Shollenberger, and ably argued and won the case. He successfully claimed that Congress, the law-making power of the Nation, had authority to make paper money, legal tender, and to pass a law which could change a contract executed before the date of the law. The question carried with it consequences, which in the extremity of the country's necessity, no man could then have estimated. 15 Until 1862 Mr. Brewster had held no political office. He had been repeatedly pressed for nomina- tion to high public trusts, yet had steadily declined to enter the political field. But at that period a spe- cial necessity arose. Vital legal questions were be- ing forced to the surface by the war. The city of Philadelphia was issuing millions in loans to further the enlistment of troops. Financial interests of a value unknown in previous years were demanding attention. The Girard Trust was in peril. The Chestnut Street Bridge Act was questioned by inter- ested capitalists, and issues, in the proper solution of which the people of Philadelphia were deeply con- cerned, were agitated by the press, and foreshadowed in the courts. It was necessary to commit the in- terests of the city to safe hands. The Democratic party, recognizing the fact, placed Hon. William L. Hirst in nomination for City Solicitor. The Repub- licans, without any consultation with Mr. Brewster, nominated him for City Solicitor. An independent movement, outside of party influence, was at once organized to elect him. The most prominent mer- chants and business men of the city indorsed the nomination, and, laying aside party influences, recom- mended his election. He was elected by a large majority, and sworn into office January ist, 1862. His course as City Solicitor gave to that office great credit and importance. Soon after his induction into office he was called upon to argue the validity of the bequests to the city of Philadelphia under the will of the late Stephen Girard. That merchant, at the close of a long and successful life, distributed his fortune in princely charities. To i6 Philadelphia he gave the bulk of his wealth, stipula- ting that it should be employed to educate poor white male orphans. The legacy was known as the "Girard College Trust," and included large tracts of real estate consisting of the block of ground between Chestnut and Market — Eleventh and Twelfth Streets, the corner of Third and Chestnut Streets, known for many years as the newspaper headquarters of Philadelphia, and other valuable properties in Philadelphia, and a broad belt of the coal fields of Schuylkill County, no less than twenty-eight miles square. The heirs of Stephen Girard sought to overturn the will of the founder of the Girard College, and divide the estate which is the source of the income to that institution. They com- menced operations in the District Court of Schuylkill County, and attacked the will upon the ground that it created a perpetuity. The case was tried before Judge Higgins, and decided in favor of the heirs. The best men of the Pennsylvania Bar were engaged in the controversy. H. D. Foster, Esq., ex-Judge Parry, Frank Hughes, Esq., ex-Judge Knox, Mr. Dewees, and Mr. Coats were retained for the heirs. E. Olmstead, Esq., Hon. J. H. Campbell, Hon. Will- iam M. Meredith, and David W. Sellers, Esq., repre- sented the city. This was the situation when Mr. Brewster entered upon his duties as City Solicitor. He at once appealed the case to the Supreme Court. In 1863 it was re-argued before that tribunal at Har- risburg, and Mr. Brewster conducted the appeal. The same eminent counsel were employed, and every effort made to break down the will of Stephen Girard. Mr. Brewster rested upon the grounds : [a] that the charity saved the perpetuity and that the alienation 17 of the lands was sustained by the charity ; and (d) that if the condition of alienation could not be sus- tained, and the lands had to be sold to avoid a per- petuity, the benefit of the sale would belong not to the heirs, but to the city of Philadelphia, to be em- ployed in trust for the support of Girard College. The legality of the devise was affirmed by the Supreme Court, and the city retained the magnificent dower of its noble educational institution. The wisdom of those who induced him to become the legal guardian of the city's interests was abundantly proved by his management of this great suit. Following closely on this came the Chestnut Street Bridge case, in which the right of the city to bridge the Schuylkill was regarded as so serious a question that only one majority of the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States saved to Philadelphia this invaluable privilege. The Legislature, at differ- ent times, had authorized many bridges over this river. Of these, few were built. The old Permanent Bridge first wedded the lands on either side of the Schuylkill, and after it came the bridges at Fairmount, Gray's Ferry, and Girard Avenue. To the erection of these, no opposition was made. The railroad bridge was provided with a draw, but the rest were closed bridges. When, however, it was proposed to bridge the Schuylkill at Chestnut Street, trouble arose. A Mr. Gilman owned a wharf on the river near Market Street, and owned also a schooner, which could not pass under the proposed bridge without abbreviating her rigging. He, therefore, appealed to the courts, and finally to the Supreme Court of the United States, to restrain the city from i8 erecting the bridge. The case was one of peculiar interest to Philadelphia. The need of the bridge was imperative. Mr. Oilman claimed that under a clause of the Constitution, vesting in Congress jurisdiction over navigable rivers, the State had no voice in the matter. Mr. Brewster, as City Solicitor, conducted the case for the city, assisted by David W. Sellers, Esq. George Harding, Esq., and Hon. Courtland Parker, of New Jersey, were counsel for the claimant. Judge Brewster's argument in this case was pro- nounced one of the ablest legal efforts made before the National Supreme Court during Mr. Lincoln's administration. He argued that the Schuylkill tidal, seven and a half miles from its mouth, lying entirely within the boundaries of the Commonwealth of Penn- sylvania, and the outlet of its great coal fields, was exclusively subject to State jurisdiction, and the United States Supreme Court so decided. To the city, the results of the decision were immeasurable. In 1863 and in 1865 he represented the city in the Broad Street cases, and wis successful in securing injunctions to prevent North Broad Street from being torn up and rails laid for a passenger railway. He thus secured this splendid highway against the en- croachments of all street railways. In these suits were associated with him Hon. William M. Mere- dith, Attorney-General, and Hon. M. Russell Thayer. In 1865, as City Solicitor, he argued, in Speer vs. School Directors, before the State Supreme Court, in favor of the constitutionality of the Bounty Act of April 25th, 1864, authorizing cities to negotiate loans for the purpose of facilitating the enlistment of vol- unteers by the payment of bounties without the 19 necessity of a draft, and this view was maintained by the court. During his public services in behalf of Philadelphia, Mr. Brewster conducted also many private causes. One of them, perhaps, was the most exciting trial of his career, and one in which he displayed his finest powers. It was a case that had no public interest, and few knew by name the contest attached to the will of Adam Mintzer, a retired merchant, of large means and respectable connections. He had three grown daughters, and over this family presided a housekeeper, by whose agency the deepest distress was brought under his roof. She was a woman of intriguing disposition, destitute of charity. Mr. Mintzer married her, and, as his wife, gave her authority over his children. One she drove from under her father's roof into a house of ill fame. Another she expelled to find refuge with strangers, and the third died broken-hearted at the sorrow which had entered the once happy home. Even upon this dead girl, the stepmother poured the venom of a pitiless woman's tongue. Mr. Mintzer died, leaving a will bequeathing to his wife all his estate. This the living daughters contested, claiming that undue influ- ence had been exercised to induce the testator to cut off his children without a penny. The case came before Judge Ludlow, with Hon. William Henry Rawle as the advocate of the wife, and Mr. Brewster the counsel for the children. The third daughter, then dead, had no connection with the case, but when the contest over the will was heard, Mrs. Mintzer calumniated the dead and traduced her chastity. Mr. Brewster's counter to this came with terrible force. 20 He denounced the living for its slander of the dead. He said that "more than three thousand years ago it was written in letters of gold upon a heathen idol, 'Say nothing of the dead, save that which is good.' The heathen, learning their lesson from nature, saw that in the animal kingdom respect was paid the dead. The king of beasts, the lion, met his foe with tame- less fury, but passed by the dead bodies of his enemies with softened tread. The tiger fought with savage desperation until its adversary lay lifeless by its side, when it stepped from the corpse that in death it could not mutilate. Only to one animal, the hyena, was it given to feed upon the dead. The time will come," he said, "when this woman shall stand before a Judge greater than your Honor, when she will be tried by a Power mightier than yours, gentlemen of the jury, when she will be met before the judgment seat of Christ by this poor, homeless girl, who was driven from her father's door into a life of prostitution and shame; and when this poor girl comes to that judg- ment seat, with her bleeding hands uplifted for justice against her destroyer, this woman will call upon the mountains to fall upon her and forever cover her from the sight of God and man." The spell in the court room was intense. The jury were in tears. Sobs were heard from every part of the room, and Judge Ludlow wept. When the argument of Mr. Brewster was concluded, the jury with one voice gave a verdict against the will. Mr. Rawle appealed for a new trial, and in his application gave the almost unexampled reason that so irresistible had been the eloquence of Mr. Brewster that' no twelve sane men in the world could have failed to be controlled by it. The new 21 trial was granted by Judge Ludlow upon that point, that inflexible arbiter stating that it was impossible for any jury to resist so eloquent an appeal as had been addressed to their feelings by the counsel for the chil- dren. The case was, however, never re-tried. Mrs. Mintzer compromised it, ceding to the contestants the major portion of her husband's estate. In 1865 Mr. Brewster represented William B. N. Cozens before a court-martial, organized for the trial of persons charged with frauds against the Govern- ment in furnishing supplies for the army. Out of this case arose the arrest of Cozens upon the order of the President. Application was promptly made for a habeas corpus, and a conflict between the civil and mili- tary authorities appeared imminent, the latter contend- ing that the right to the writ of habeas corpus was sus- pended by the Act of Congress of March 3d, 1863. Mr. Brewster argued that the War of the Rebellion had closed, and the court was entitled to take judicial cognizance of that fact, without a national proclama- tion, and, therefore, the order should be made. The court sustained this view. In the same year he was retained by the United States Government to act with United States District Attorney Gilpin in prosecuting employes of the Navy Yard, indicted for embezzling and unlawfully appropriating Government property there. Mr. Brewster's argument list in the Supreme Court, during this time, was always a heavy one ; be- tween 1858 and 1865 there are more than seventy reported cases which he argued before that tribunal, and this does not comprise all the causes he argued during that period. At that time such a list was unusual. 22 At the close of his first term as City SoHcitor, in 1865, Mr. Brewster was re-elected, but his second term was very brief. An additional judge was required in the Philadel- phia courts, and the Legislature provided for the election of another member of the judiciary. To this position Mr. Brewster was elected in October, 1866. As judge he presided over many celebrated trials, among which may be mentioned the trial of George W. Winnemore, convicted in 1867 of the murder of Dorcus Magilton; the Haskell lunacy case, in 1868, involving the question of the liberty of the citizen ; the Twitchell murder trial the same year, in which George S. Twitchell, Jr., was convicted of the murder of his mother-in-law, Mary E. Hill. He also decided many intricate questions as to the contested elections of 1867 for Clerk of the Orphans' Court, Register of Wills, and City Commissioner, and the contested elections of 1868 for District Attorney, Prothonotary, City Controller, Mayor, Receiver of Taxes, City Com- missioner, and City Solicitor. He sustained the con- stitutionality of the Act of April 4th, 1866, under which the city condemned the land which was after- ward given to the United States for the League Island Navy Yard. In the case of Commonwealth vs. Lyndall, he contended, against the majority of his brethren on the Common Pleas Bench, that a mandamus would not lie to compel the City Controller to countersign a warrant, a view which was afterwards adopted by the Supreme Court. In 1868 he decided that, in a proper case, the Girard Estate could make mining leases for a longer period than five years, the latter being the longest 23 term authorized by Girard's will. This decision was of great value to the trust, and has since enabled it to make profitable and advantageous leases. His rulings in all cases were noted for their justice, clear- ness, and soundness ; his opinions were remarkable for their research and learning, and for their vigorous expression ; his manner toward the members of the Bar was kind, courteous, and dignified; he was jealous of a prisoner's right, while he enforced the law with firmness and impartiality ; to use his own words in a case where the defendant was not represented by an attorney, "the court is always counsel for the prisoner." His judicial record was pure ; he was eminently a great jurist, upon whom the spotless ermine fell and touched nothing less spotless than itself After serving, with great satisfaction to the people of Philadelphia, as judge for more than three years. Judge Brewster was appointed by Governor Geary, Attorney-General of the Commonwealth. This office he filled during the years 1869, 1870, 1871, and 1872. While occupying this responsible position, he was called upon to conduct many cases of great impor- tance, and some involving the determination of con- stitutional questions. He managed with great ability a number of important cases involving the right of the State to tax corporations. As a member of the Board of Pardons, it is worthy of notice that during the time of his incumbency the number of pardons granted was conspicuously less than had occurred for a like period for years before, thus manifestly showing that he had given due attention to this matter of extra duty, and had sought to check the use of the pardoning 24 prerogative, the too free exercise of which had been the subject of great complaint and frequent criticism. In 1870 he successfully attacked the Credit Mobilier of America, an incorporated institution, created to evade State taxes against corporations by an ingeni- ous subterfuge of intervening trustees authorized to carry into effect financial contracts. In 1872 he argued the constitutionality of the Local Option Law of May 3d, 1871, and sustained the rights conferred under that Act. In 1873 he successfully contended for the constitutionality of the Act of August 25 th, 1864, permitting the Commonwealth to levy a tonnage tax and also to tax the gross receipts of Pennsylvania corporations. These cases were argued before the veteran Judge Pearson in the Common Pleas of Dauphin County, in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and in the Supreme Court of the United States. It is noteworthy that the State Supreme Court Reports contain more than thirty important causes which he argued, as Attorney-General, before the Supreme Court. Upon his retirement from the Attorney-General- ship he at once resumed the active practice of his profession, and was concerned, up to the very moment of his death, in cases involving great in- terests. In Swasey vs. North Carolina Railroad, the State of North Carolina had subscribed to ^3,000,000 of the stock of the North Carolina Railroad Company, and had issued bonds to pay for such stock, pledging the dividends upon the stock to the payment of the in- terest on the bonds. The State defaulted in the pay- 25 ment of the interest, and Swasey, who was a holder of a large part of the bonds, retained Judge Brewster and brought suit. An injunction was secured to restrain the railroad from making any further pay- ments to the State of dividends on its stock, and also a decree to sell so much of the stock as would pay the plaintiff. In this case, was affirmed the principle that a citizen could sue a State when the State had descended to the level of a trader, and that the sovereignty of a State will not exempt her property from the jurisdiction of the courts to enforce a lien thereon. This cause was argued in June, 1871, and December, 1873, at Raleigh, N. C, before Hon. Morrison R. Waite, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and Hon. Hugh L. Bond, Judge of the Circuit Court of the United States for the Fourth Circuit. On September 13th, 1869, on the organization of the Board of City Trusts, he was elected its Solicitor, in which responsible position he continued until the time of his death. In 1876 he represented the Girard Trust in its opposition to the opening of public streets through the grounds of Girard College, and secured a decision against the right of the city to open such streets. In 1877 he tried, with matchless skill, the Brinckle divorce case, in which the question of what constitutes a contract of marriage was involved, and secured a verdict in favor of his client and against the alleged marriage. In 1885 he was engaged for the petitioner in the Martin Weaver lunacy case, and successfully main- tained that a finding in lunacy by an inquisition could 26 not be set aside on the ground that there was in- sufficient testimony to sustain the finding. In 1880 he represented the defendants in the legis- lative bribery cases ; in 1881 he represented the defendants in the Gas Trust suit; in 1882 he repre- sented the defendants in the Almshouse investigation ; in 1887 he was concerned for the defendants in the Shackamaxon Bank case, charged with conspiracy to defraud the bank ; in 1888 he secured a favorable decision, after a long contest, in the Ruddach will case ; in 1890 the case of Hoyt vs. Hoyt, an important trade-mark case, was decided in favor of his conten- tion that there was no trade mark in a method of packing nor in a sign, device, or mark originated and in actual prior use by another; in 1890-1892 he suc- cessfully contended for the charity established by the will of the late Benjamin Franklin; in 1891 he repre- sented the Girard Trust and Jayne Trust Estate in the Belt Line htigation ; in 1894, with Hon. Charles B. McMichael and Hon. James C. Carter, of New York, he represented the plaintiffs in the Elevated Railroad litigation. It is noteworthy also to state that in 1891, with the late Hon. George W. Biddle, he courageously and successfully urged the appointment of court stenographers, against the strong opposition of the Bench of Philadelphia County. Among the suits in which he was interested at the time of his death were the celebrated contests over the will of George Dawson Coleman, involving the owner- ship of a large part of the Coleman ore banks and mine hills in Lebanon County in this State ; the Evans will case, affecting the establishment of the Thomas Evans Dental Institute ; and the Bennett will 27 case. These suits in the aggregate involved several millions of dollars. The record of his many cases need not be further recited in this brief sketch. The Reports attest his busy, useful life. Judge Brewster enjoyed a large popularity as a law preceptor. Upwards of ninety gentlemen studied law in his offices and have been admitted to practice. His system of instructing was careful and thorough. Besides the great respect his students entertained for him, there existed the strong tie of affection and good fellowship, and as the result of his influence, a strong friendship is maintained by his students for each other. Judge Brewster used his diplomacy and charming social nature to promote good feeling and sociability. Year by year it was the custom for preceptor and students to meet together in social reunions, recount their ex- periences and reminiscences, and resolve for better and more determined professional exertion in the future. In 1894 his students organized as a corporation under the name of "The Associated Students of F. Carroll Brewster." This organization is strong and promises to exist so long as its members live. It is an unique corporation. In the midst of his active life, he found time to enrich his profession by legal contributions. His legal works comprise a digest of cases decided by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, as reported from 3d Wright to 5th P. F. Smith ; four volumes of reports on equity, election, and other important cases argued and determined principally in the courts of the county of Philadelphia, known as "Brewster's Re- ports " ; Blackstone's Commentaries for American 28 students in the form of questions and answers, pre- faced by questions and answers on the introduction to Robertson's Charles V., together with a treatise on the Rule in Shelly's Case, as applied in Pennsylvania ; a treatise on Practice in the Courts of Pennsylvania, in six volumes, comprising Practice in the Common Pleas, Practice in the Orphans' Court, and Practice in Equity. These will live as a great monument to his industry, learning, and love for the profession. He also published " Moliere in Outline," being a translation of all important parts of Moli^re's works, with introductions and notes, and arguments of the plays; and "Disraeli in Outline," being a biogra- phy of Benjamin Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield) and an abridgment of all his novels. In 1894 he wrote a series of articles on the Su- preme Court of Pennsylvania for the Medico-Legal Journal. Judge Brewster was a great traveler. Few sections of the habitable world were unvisited by him. One season it would be his own country, another Europe, another the Orient, another the South American States or the islands of the sea. He thoroughly enjoyed travel, and wherever he went, he gathered knowledge. He would come back from the Western plains or South- ern fields or rocky shores of our own country, the hedgerows of England, the plains of Damascus, the shores of the Mediterranean, the banks of the Nile, or India's coral strand, with a description of new phases of life and history, to charm his many friends with his magnetic recitals. In 1887 he visited the Holy Land; and in 1895 took a trip around the world, and published upon his re- 29 turn a brief account of his travels, under the title, "From Independence Hall Around the World." In the midst of his busy life, he did not forget the duty he owed others, whenever he was persuaded duty called him, and his eloquent and courageous tongue was ever found to direct and urge the right. Among his pamphlets may be found a number of his addresses: "The Rights and Duties of Lawyers," an address delivered before the Law Academy of Phila- delphia; " Religion and Justice," an address delivered before the Washington Literary Society of Lafayette College ; an address before the Dickinson Law School ; an address before the Philomathean Society of the University of Pennsylvania; "Baca," an ad- dress before the Young Men's Hebrew Association ; and an address before the Law School of Temple Col- lege of Philadelphia. In November, 1895, when the Orphans' Court took possession of the new quarters in the Public Build- ings, he was designated with Hampton L. Carson, Esq., to offer the congratulations of the Bar. In No- vember, 1895, he was the orator at the unveiling of the tablet erected in Girard College to the memory of the late Stephen Girard. Judge Brewster was a classical student and linguist of no mean ability. He was familiar with the Latin and Greek poets in their own tongue. He spoke French and German fluently. He was familiar with Spanish and Italian. Above all, he had mastered his own language, and few have had the gift to speak English as perfectly and beautifully as this master word-painter and rhetorician. Judge Brewster was a social man. He delighted 3° to gather his friends around him. It was a great pleasure to him to bring the members of the Bar into closer social relations. During the last twenty years of his life, he gave many princely entertainments, gathering, upon occasion, two or three hundred of the members of the Bar together at his board. This gave rise, in 1891, to the sentiment in favor of creat- ing a Lawyers' Club, and in 1 892 the club was organ- ized, and duly incorporated. Judge Brewster was chosen its first President, and he held that office at the time of his death. It may be fairly said that, owing to his great labors in behalf of the club, its life and permanency have been assured. At the time of his death he was a member of the Union League, the Art Club of Philadelphia, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, the Law Association of Philadelphia, and the only honorary member of the Five O' Clock Club of Philadelphia. He was greatly loved by the Bar, and, in consequence, in the last twenty years, probably the most dined and fgted man in Philadel- phia. In May, 1891, the Bar of Philadelphia gave him a magnificent banquet in the Bullitt Building, Philadelphia ; and in May, 1895, on his return from his journey around the world, the Bar again tendered him a royal banquet at the Lawyers' Club, then located in the Betz Building. At the same place, in March, 1896, he presided at the Bar dinner given in honor of Hon. M. Russell Thayer, President Judge of Court of Common Pleas, No. 4, of Philadelphia County. On September 7th, 1894, Judge Brewster celebrated the semi-centennial of his admission to the Bar, and gave a large reception in the afternoon of that day at the M 31 Bellevue, and in the evening received the con- gratulations of his friends at a superb dinner at the same place. At that celebration he was presented by his former students, and those then studying under him, at his offices (No. 214 West Washington Square), with a magnificent loving cup. In October, 1894, one of the Law Clubs of the University Law School was named in his honor, " F. Carroll Brewster Law Club." He always manifested great interest in its welfare. His life was a record of continuous success. He possessed to the highest degree natural abilities, thorough training, and conscientious industry. He shone with conspicuous light in every branch of his profession. He was found equal to and honored in every position to which he was called. His knowl- edge of the science of jurisprudence was profound and extensive, his arrangement of details, clear, logical, and convincing. He was a lawyer of consummate ability and address. His personal manner in the trial of a case was courteous, patient, and considerate. He believed in thorough preparation as the most important part of a lawyer's duty, and named "imperturbability" as the one great quality of an advocate. He was easy, affable, self-possessed, and equal to any emergency. He believed in fidelity to the court and to the client, and practiced it. He was a man zealously devoted to the public welfare. He linked the present generation of lawyers with the illustrious past, and courageously maintained and preserved the ideals of professional ethics, eloquence, industry, learning, and success. 32 He died at Charlotte, N. C, December 30th, 1898. On January 3d, 1899, the funeral services were held at Calvary Protestant Episcopal Church in German- town, Philadelphia, and the remains were interred at " St, James the Less," Falls of Schuylkill, Philadelphia. He left surviving him three sons and two daughters : F. Carroll Brewster, Jr., Esq., and Francis E. Brewster, Esq., both of the Philadelphia Bar ; Dr. William Barton Brewster, of Salt Lake City, Utah; Mrs. Alfred Guillou, of Hueneme, Cal. ; and Miss Esther Sergeant Brewster, living in Germantown, Philadelphia. The formal announcement of the death of Judge Brewster was made January 3d, 1899, in the Orphans' Court of Philadelphia County, by Samuel M. Hyneman, Esq. ; in Common Pleas, No. i, of Philadelphia County, by Henry C. Terry, Esq. ; in Common Pleas, No. 2, of Philadelphia County, by William H. Staake, Esq. ; in Common Pleas, No. 3, of Philadelphia County, by John L. Kinsey, Esq. ; in Common Pleas, No. 4, of Phila- delphia County, by Hon. Thomas R. Elcock ; in the Quarter Sessions of Philadelphia County, by George S. Graham, Esq., the retiring District Attorney, and P. F. Rothermel, Jr., Esq., the newly-installed District Attorney. The courts ordered appropriate minutes to be en- tered upon the records. In the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania the an- nouncement was made the same day by Hon. Samuel Gustine Thompson, a former justice of the Su- preme Court. He said: "I have been designated to perform the sad duty of announcing to this court the sudden death of the Hon. F. Carroll Brewster. Judge Brewster for nearly half a century has been 33 conspicuous in the affairs of our city and our Com- monwealth. As City SoHcitor he represented our municipality, and as such carefully and thoroughly guarded her interests. As a judge of the Court of Common Pleas of our county, he performed the judi- cial functions with an ability which placed him in the front rank of our distinguished judges. As Attorney- General he brought to the performance of the duties of that office the learning and ability that made the office itself conspicuous. I do not exaggerate when I say that in the performance of duty he reached the highest standards and never sank into mediocrity. It is difficult to fill the void occasioned by his death. By it the city suffers a loss; by it the Commonwealth suffers a loss ; and by it our profession loses a splendid exemplar of ability and learning. I am sure I do not exceed the just limits of eulogium when I say he was a brilliant orator, he was a learned lawyer, he was a distinguished judge, and he was, above all, an accom- plished and attractive gentleman." The Supreme Court thereupon ordered a minute of the foregoing to be placed on its records. Chief Justice Sterrett briefly addressed the assembled Bar, suggesting the great professional ability, profound learning, and spotless character of Judge Brewster. 'LABOR OMNIA VINCIT." [This was read by the author at a dinner tendered to Judge Brewster by the Bar of Philadelphia, on May 15th, 1891.] OUR GUEST. A TRIBUTE TO THE HON. F. CARROLL BREWSTER. Not he who triumphs on the battle field With flashing sabre and with crimsoned shield, Not he who seeks the tyrant's robe to wear And dims the light of freedom everywhere, Not the proud lordling who disdains his kind And bears contempt for treasures of the mind, Not these are great in any royal sense Or worthy of a righteous eminence : But rather he who, born with noble parts, Seeks to erect his throne in human hearts, Acts well his part with honor ever bright, And wields his polished lance to win the right ; Whose native genius can no master own. Nor spurns the weak, nor cringes to the throne. Serene and firm, armed with a conscious power. His sturdy intellect doth grandly tower. When called to wear the ermine, he is blest With thoughts of many wrongs to be redressed. The laws untangled, and the right made clear, And Justice vindicated without fear. No advocate more courteous or refined Or powerful, in clash of mind with mind. E'en in his youth he wins a royal fame And thousands are familiar with his name. When come the whitening locks that tell of age They are a fitting crown to mark the sage. With life well rounded and with mind well stored His presence gladdens many a festive board. With health and honor and well-earned renown The mellow years bring myriad blessings down. Youth doffs its hat 'neath his benignant gaze And e'en the elders name him but to praise. With fame and honor will he e'er be blest. What need to name him ? Lo ! he is Our Guest. fF. CHANNING NEVIN. [This was written for the banquet tendered Judge Brewster, May 15th, 1895, by the Ear of Philadelphia, upon his return from his trip around the world.] Hail, Brewster, from thy journey 'round the earth. Whence thy resplendent fame had gone before thee ! Thy friends within the land that gave thee birth Proudly unfurl their loving banner o'er thee. W. CHANNING NEVIN. (34) MINUTES MEETINGS HELD IN HONOR OF THE MEMORY OF THE LATE R CARROLL BREWSTER The Associated Students of F. Carroll Brewster The Board of Directors of City Trusts The Philomathean Society of the University of Pennsylvania The Five O'Clock Club of Philadelphia The Lawyers' Club of Philadelphia The Philadelphia Bar The Brewster Law Club fllleettna of *'ttbe associate& Students of 3f, Carroll Brewster," A meeting of "The Associated Students of F. Carroll Brewster" was held at the Lawyers' Club, 1326 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Monday, January 2d, 1899, and the following minute unanimously adopted : — In the death of our dear preceptor, the late Hon. F. Car- roll Brewster, we have sustained a great personal loss and affliction. His great learning, spotless public life, brilliant professional attainments, long and honorable career, and zeal for the public welfare, added great lustre and distinction to the Bar of Philadelphia and gave him an enviable place as a representative American lawyer and citizen. He was dis- tinguished by many endearing qualities, which commanded our afifection and respect. His great industry, consummate ability, sterling integrity, lofty sense of honor, broad humanity, private worth, many deeds of love, and Christian life and character have created for his name an imperishable record and left an impress of a rare intelligence and strong and winning personality. Resolved, That we tender to the members of the family of our late preceptor our sincere sympathy in their great sadness; Resolved, That a committee of five, including the officers of this meeting, shall be appointed to deliver an engrossed copy of this minute to the family. Under the terms of the minute, the Chair appointed A, Atwood Grace, William C. Strawbridge, I. Hazle- ton Mirkil, to act as the committee together with the Chairman, Henry C. Terry, and the Secretary, Horace M. Rumsey. (37) IRoII Of students of tbe Honorable ]f. Carroll Brewster. Watson Ambruster, James B. Anderson, Jr., Loftus G. Armstrong, Joseph K. Arnold, Thomas C. Bailey, William Barns, Harry K. Blake, Samuel A. Boyle, John A. Boyle, Francis E. Brewster, F. Carroll Brewster, Jr., William W. Britton, Curtis P. Calver, Samuel E. Cavin, B. Frank Clapp, Emanuel Cohen, Cornelius Conrad, Jr., J. Burrwood Daly, Henry Darrach^ Thomas Donaldson, Harold C. Durar, Will- iam M. Durar, Frederick G. Dussoulas, George J. Edwards, Jr., Thomas R. Elcock, William G. Foulke, John H. Fow, James Fulton, A. Atwood Grace, Jonas H. Grater, Cornelius P. Haggarty, Jr., Edward R. Helmbold, Samuel M. Hyne- man, Henry Johnson, Ned Llewellyn Kaufman, George E. Kirkpatrick, C. Tyson Kratz, Charles S. Langstroth, James H. Langstroth, J. Spicer Learning, H. Clay Lippincott, Henry Livezey, Milton Loeb, William E. Love, Ernest Lowengrund, Franklin L. Lyle, Thomas H. McBride, James F. McCahen, Richard J. McCallion, Thomas B. McCor- mick, James A. McNulty, George W. McPherran, David Mandel, Jr., I. Hazleton Mirkil, Joshua Mitchell, William Murphy, E. K. Nichols, John E. Norcross, Emmet R. Olcott, Charles D. Phillips, J. H. Pomeroy, James W. Powell, John A. Purcell, George W. Reed, W. H. T. Reeves, R. L. P. Reifsneider, D. Stuart Robinson, Horace M. Rumsey, James R. Shepherd, Charles A. Sidler, D. Wilbur Smith, W. O. Sny- der, Isaac N. Solis, Weightman Stelwagon, William C. Straw- bridge, John E. Sulger, Henry C. Terry, A. Adolph Van Kleeck, Charles H. VintoUj Horatio O. Walker, Samuel H. Wallace, Harvey C. Warren, George Warrington, Henry W. Watson, Elisha M. Whiteside, John A. Wolbert, Richardson L. Wright, Jr., David T. Young, Irving E. Ziegler. (38) flDecting of tbe Boarb of Dlrectore of Citi5 ZCrusts. Minute adopted by the Board of Directors of City Trusts at a special meeting held in the Stephen Girard Building, 21 South Twelfth Street, Philadelphia, Tues- day morning, January 3d, 1 899 : — The Board of Directors of City Trusts, called in special meeting for the purpose of taking action upon the death of its Solicitor, the Hon. F. Carroll Brewster, places upon its records a brief minute, in recognition of the long, faithful, and efficient service rendered by that officer in the interest of the trusts confided to its care. Called, at one of its earliest meetings, to assume the im- portant duties of Solicitor of the Board, Judge Brewster has continued to the day of his decease to give to these duties the close, patient attention and prompt and well-considered action which have so well served to defend the rights, pre- serve the integrity, and conduce to the well-being of these Trusts. Always kind, courteous, and considerate, yet firm, fear- less, and decided in all his dealings. Judge Brewster has com- manded not only the respect and confidence of this Board and of its individual members and officers, but, in addition, has won from each, personal afifection and regard to a degree rare in business relations. As a recognition of his distinguished services and also as an expression of our personal feelings, it is ordered that this minute be entered upon the records of the Board of Directors of City Trusts, and that a certified copy be sent to the family of the deceased. (39) fllleetino of tbe pbilomatbean Sodeti?, IHniversitie of pennsi^Ivania. At a special meeting of the Philomathean Society, of the University of Pennsylvania, held January 3d, 1899, the following resolutions were adopted : — Whereas, God in His all-wise providence has seen fit to remove from among us our honored friend and senior mem- ber, Frederick Carroll Brewster, of the Class of '41 : There- fore, be it — Resolved, That we, the junior members of the Philo- mathean Society, express our heartfelt sorrow and sympathy for his family in their deep afHiction; Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to his family and published in the College papers. The Chair appointed the following committee to forward the resolutions and have them published: Francis Drexel Langstroth, Herbert Adams Gibbons, Daniel Martin Karcher, James Morton Boice. (40) proceedings of tbe five ©'Clocft Club. (COMPILED BY J. HAMPTON MOORE, SECRETARY.) On receipt of the sad news of Judge Brewster's death, the Five O' Clock Club, of which he was the only honorary member, was called to meet Wednes- day, January 4th, 1899, i" ^^e Mayor's office, the Chief Magistrate of the city, the Hon. Charles F. Warwick, being the Club's President, Mayor Warwick, in a few appropriate and impres- sive words, called the meeting to order. He spoke of his last greeting from Judge Brewster, and of the sudden death of that brilliant man in a distant State. The loss to the community and to society, he said, would be severe. The dead jurist, he added, was one of the truly great men of his time, and the Club which had so often enjoyed his presence and which felt so honored by his membership should take action. Thereupon the Secretary presented for adoption the following minute : — The Hon. F. Carroll Brewster, whose sudden death at Charlotte, N. C, occurred on Friday, December 30th, 1898, was the only honorary member of the Five O'Clock Club. Upon no other man had this distinction been conferred, and since his election, October 20th, 1893, it has not been be- stowed upon any other. The tribute, therefore, was his and his alone. It was the logical sequence of unusual courtesies in which the social side of Mr. Brewster's character was most charmingly displayed. It was the highest honor a party of gentlemen could express for one of their number. (41) 42 During the years of fellowship that followed his election, Mr. Brewster maintained in the fullest measure the admira- tion of his companions of the Five O'Clock Club. His scholarly attainments, combining a mastery of law, literature, travels, and the sciences; his unfailing courtesy and consid- eration of the comfort and pleasure of others; his unstinted hospitality — all these were attributes of a character at once noble and commanding, gentle and generous. The Five O'Clock Club sincerely respected him. His presence at its meetings was a symbol of strength and dig- nity, his absence was noted with regret. The Club knew and acknowledged his great personality, not only in all its power, but in its most generous and kindly light. It is, therefore, with sadness and a sense of irreparable loss this minute of his death is made. To the members of Judge Brewster's family the Club ex- tends sincerest sympathy. The first member to speak upon the minute was John L. Kinsey, Esq., City Solicitor of Philadelphia, and an ex-President of the Club. He said : — It would not, perhaps, be inappropriate that I should say a few words upon this occasion, especially as but a little while ago Judge Brewster performed in my behalf his final public service, and gave to me what, alas, has proven to be his parting benediction. Cruel, indeed, is that law of com- pensation that brings me here to-day to do for him, in sor- rowing reciprocation, this last sad act. Only a week ago last Saturday I called upon him to solicit that service. It was about midday. I found him alone in his study on the floor above his office, sitting at his desk reading a massive book. To an apology for my intrusion, he said, in his cus- tomary elegantly urbane way: "I try to read this book through yearly (it was the Bible in the French tongue), and as the end of the year approaches I have a few chapters un- completed." At his hand were small sheets of notes he had been making, such as was his habit always to make, not only 43 in relation to all that he read, but also in reference to all things that he did. In the little while that I was with him, and wherein the conversation was general and discursive, I said to him: "Judge, you are almost the last one left that links the Bar of our day to that grand old Philadelphia Bar of the past; why don't you fill in these later hours of leisure by writing your memoirs? In your long and wonderfully active career, you have seen and known so much that would be interesting and instructive, that you ought to let us have it." He replied: "My dear boy, I have often thought of doing that, and if my life is spared me a little longer, I will, I think, for I have seen and heard many strange things in my time, and have had many odd experiences." With a prompt and cordial acquiescence in the purpose of my visit, and with some kindly words of compliment to myself, he clasped my right hand warmly between his two and walked with me to the door, where we parted; unhappily, as it has proven to me, forever. The crowding memories that now throng upon us must here be repressed. It is not possible at this time to recall all that he has been to so many of us. The truest symbols of sorrow are not found in words. No language can portray grief; that must be left unuttered. Yet it seems to us to- day — for I speak for many of my contemporaries as well as for myself — as if we had lost in him the one most near and dear to us. I had known him all my professional lii€. Even before I knew him personally, the melody of his name was familiar to me and had impressed itself on memory; I had clothed him with those majestic attributes in which youth always enshrines distant greatness, and when I came to know him in a full and perfect intimacy, not only was none of that idealistic aureola dispelled, but all that fancy had conceived of him was more than realized; for, to take him in all his marvelous qualities, he was a man to whom, in our day, we have not found an equal. Even the excesses of eulogy that are always pardonable upon an occasion like this could not justly and befittingly describe certain of the mental characteristics that were his, and his alone; for in- 44 corporated within that unusual individuaUty there was the learned and acute lawyer, the broad-minded and patriotic citizen, the exquisitely cultured scholar, the chastely classic orator, and in these respects, as in his lifetime, he had no peer, so in his death he has left no worthy successor. In any sphere, under whatsoever circumstances you met him, he was a well-spring of inspiration. That splendidly- disciplined precision of thought and action and utterance stirred the will to emulation and thrilled you with fervor as you were charmed by the rhythmus of his stately, incisive diction, and felt the magnetic vigor of his tense vitality. He could summon all those wondrous powers and faculties and ac- quirements of his mind at the emergency of the instant, and marshal them in working order as at the sound of a trumpet. Piquant and forceful illustration, alluring analogy, epithets, which in themselves were arguments and flashed conviction upon the reason, were ready upon necessity. What has been said of Lord Erskine, between whose por- trait and that of Judge Brewster, in lineament, if not in feat- ure, there is more than a remote resemblance, can as ap- propriately be said of Judge Brewster: "He was of medium height, with finely-turned figure, animated and graceful gesture, a voice beautifully modulated, a countenance beam- ing with expression, and an eye of piercing keenness and power." Lord Brougham's description of Erskine is also, to those who knew our friend more intimately, peculiarly befitting: "Juries," said Brougham, "have declared they felt it impossible to remove their looks from him when he had riveted, and, as it were, fascinated them by his first glance, and it used to be a common remark of men who observed his motions that they resembled those of a blood horse, as light, as limber, as much betokening strength and speed, as free from all gross superfluity or incumbrance." This pierc- ing power of eye was a most noticeable feature in his manly and handsome face. It riveted the attention of every one to whom he spoke; and when he listened with that aspect of profoundly fixed and respectful attention, it stimulated the one addressing him to finest accuracy of utterance, because 45 he felt that each word was being considerately weighed and accurately appreciated. Furthermore, in every respect, as I knew Judge Brewster, he was the highest type of cultured gentleman, whose com- munion with others was marked by all the manly grace and old-time noble dignity of chivalric courtesy. Good manners with him were not art merely, but a part of the science of ethics. To him, his duty in demeanor due to others was more exacting even than their rights were entitled to expect, and this pure and perfect altruism was the rule by which he lived under all conditions. This made his character gentle and genial, and assured for him a welcome everywhere, and men felt better for his presence, or even for his passing greeting. Once, in fact, when some one saw fit to comment upon certain peculiarities wherein he was charged with an effusiveness so lavish as to seem to ordinary men assumed, his only reply was — but it is one that should silence every critic, because it illuminated as by a great light the true honesty of purpose that gave it being — ^that it was his wish always to drop seeds by the wayside from which might spring up flowers of love and kindliness and goodwill to bless life, rather than to plant therein thorns of hatred and malice and bitter spite to curse it. This shows the real manhood that lay in the heart of Judge Brewster, and which blossomed in numberless acts of un- forgotten beauty for those for whom he had affection. So much opens itself to thought upon this sad occasion, that one feels oppressively the limitation that must here be re- garded. If I were asked to define in him one quality with which he was endowed more conspicuously than another, I should, I think, say it was loftiness and nobility of mind, love of great things, of high ideals, of those subjects that arouse in our natures the feeling of the sublime. This cast of mind is revealed even by the pictures that hang about his apartments, all suggestive of massiveness : a bleak and bare Alpine summit — ^the Matterhorn; the head of a massive lion; copies of some of the heads of those royal dogs of Land- seer. Crowded on his library shelves were works of the great 46 masters of all literature — more than thoroughly read, as their profuse and thoughtful marginal notes attest. In that last interview with him I asked: "Do you still read Jeremy Taylor as in days gone by?" "Yes," he said, rais- ing hands and eyes in the attitude of adoration, "for he .'s, and ever will be, the prince of the world's prose poets." I would that I might speak of his literary studies and creations; of that curious book of excerpts from Disraeli, so original in its method, so interesting in its execution, and to the production of which he was brought, as he says in the preface, by his admiration of the author for his interest in America. I would like to speak of his legal qualities and his profound and accurate professional culture, for, though less eloquent than Erskine, he was, for that very reason, by far a greater lawyer. I would like to speak of his social qualities, of his strangely delightful individuality that brought all those who knew him into loving fellowship, that led that great guild of students to form themselves about him into a body to perpetuate his memory and their love of him. One of the lessons taught by the unusual type of his life was ceaseless and orderly activity. He was ever busy. He loved labor for its own sake — for the glow and ardor it brought to his mind. He never played a part for the sake of the transient honors of the hour. Fame and the world's plaudits he knew were but vain glory, and in him the desire for them was subordinate to that higher law of fidelity to one's own better instincts; the approval of conscience for work well done he well knew alone brought peace. His primary effort was to make his work, whatever it might be, perfect in itself; and for the sake of that perfection only he wrought, if not with a sad, at least with a solemn sincerity. For having first attained this, he felt that "all other things would be added unto it." The autumn hours of life he devoted to travel. In the beginning of that little book entitled, "From Independence Hall Around the World," with a modesty that he always exhib- ited and always truly felt, he remarks that the traveler should possess "the learning of the historian, the geographer, the 47 astronomer, the student of architecture, painting, statuary, and all the arts," and then goes on to say that the "author possesses none of these mental qualifications." But, as the simple and natural story falls from his pen, every page, every line almost of it, offers a contradiction to its opening sen- tence; for he, within himself, possessed all these attributes, and this it was that made travel for him so welcome, and that awakened in his well-stored mind such manifold and in- teresting associations with everything he saw. All these things and many more must be passed over now unnoted, and left for some future eulogist to come forward, more gifted for the noble work. For us to-day, all that we can say is, that Judge Brewster, our benefactor, is dead. A few hours since, far away in a lonely churchyard, they lifted a portion of this mantle of snow and laid him beneath it, and so left him. Spring may come and bestrew that spot with fairest blossoms; Summer may clothe it with verdure; Win- ter again may enfold it in a shroud of white, but not the less, as the months pass and the years, shall be our sorrow; not the less vivid shall be the grateful and enduring memories of our beloved friend. The Hon. Henry J. McCarthy, Judge of Common Pleas Court, No. 3, of Philadelphia County, said : — "I have come from my seat upon the Bench because of my great admiration and respect for our departed friend. The news of his death was a personal shock which, I have no doubt, was shared by every member of the Club." Judge McCarthy then referred to his early acquaintance with Judge Brewster: — "I can never forget him, if only for the encouragement he gave me as a young practitioner at the Bar, when he, occupying a distinguished place, might easily have passed me by. But Judge Brewster was gentle and kindly in those days as in later years. To me, his warm greetings and friendly interest in my youth shall always be held in grateful memory." 48 Another point referred to by Judge McCarthy was the esteem in which he held Judge Brewster as a classical scholar. "I always felt,"^said he, "an inspiration in his presence. The style of speaking which some of my friends of the Club have been pleased to attribute to me, was a style which, I believe, appealed to him. He was a student as well as scholar, and when speaking in his presence, especially upon the classics, I always knew I was speaking in the presence of a critic and a master. He was unquestionably a great scholar, a master of law, of literature, and of languages. He was, moreover, a warm and generous friend. In his death we have suffered an irremediable loss." The next speaker was Mr. Joseph Culbert, who had long been a warm and admiring friend of Judge Brewster. He spoke earnestly of the latter's genial and hospitable character. At the conclusion of the addresses the minute, on motion of ex-City Treasurer, Richard G. Oellers, was adopted. The Secretary was directed to have it en- grossed in the form of a memorial volume, with the understanding that it should be signed by all the members of the Club, and then be presented to Judge Brewster's family. Subsequendy, at a regular meeting of the Five O'clock Club, Saturday, January 14th, 1899, at the Hotel Bellevue, Mayor Warwick, the President, again called attention to Judge Brewster's death. District Attorney George S. Graham spoke eloquently of Judge Brewster's strong personality. He dwelt upon the literary and legal labors of the distinguished jurist, and feelingly alluded to the encouragement he always extended to younger men. The Hon. William A. 49 Redding, of New York, also spoke briefly to the same effect. William H. Staake, Esq., an ex-President of the Club, who had been closely associated with Judge Brewster at the Bar, and who enjoyed his warm per- sonal friendship, said : — It is peculiarly appropriate that at this annual meeting of the Five O'Clock Club such a tribute should be paid to the memory of our only honorary member, oiir dear friend and exemplar, the Hon. Frederick Carroll Brewster. In the minute adopted by the members of the Lawyers' Club of Philadelphia, I tried to express my appreciation of the character of this noble and gifted man. After all that has been said of him at the meetings of his professional brethren and of other organizations with which he was connected, one must confess that this was so great a man that his picture has not yet been completed to per- fection. There were two incidents in connection with my own ex- perience with Judge Brewster, which I believe have not been referred to at any of the meetings held in his memory. One of these was the fact that, almost thirty years ago, the friends of Judge Brewster, while, I believe, he was still upon the Bench, believed him to have been lost at sea. The vessel on which he was returning from abroad had been long delayed, and the newspapers of the day, I can remember, contained frequent references toi the possibility of the loss of the ship and of its distinguished passenger. It developed, however, that the fears of Judge Brewster's many friends were not well-founded, for at length the vessel arrived, with the distinguished judge in most excellent health, after a pleasant vacation. His friends, however, felt they must give expression to their joy in having their friend with them, instead of, at that early day, mourning his loss, through a disaster at sea. Quite a number of them, by pre-arrangement, met in the so large court room, in the then new Court of Quarter Sessions, on Sixth Street, opposite Sansom Street. That veteran jurist and distinguished type of the old Phila- delphia lawyer, William L. Hirst, was called to the chair. As he took his seat upon the Bench, I remember that genial and eloquent lawyer, William H. Ruddiman, addressing him and congratulating him upon his temporary elevation to the Bench. After an informal organization, the gentlemen present, ac- companied by Beck's Band — at that time possibly the most noted brass band in Philadelphia — and by Augustin, the well-known caterer, with a bounteous supply of refreshment, proceeded, in several large four-horse coaches, to the resi- dence of Judge Brewster, on Manheim Street, where he was tendered the compliment of a serenade by the band, his breth- ren of the Bar surrounding the band until the serenade was completed, when all were warmly greeted by Judge Brewster as they entered into his hospitable and attractive home. Here, after some time spent in that fraternization which cannot be described in words, but which is only possible among the members of the Bar of Philadelphia, Judge Brew- ster, as the guest of his brethren in his own home, was es- corted into the dining room, where a most inviting luncheon had been spread. Here Mr. Hirst, in eloquent terms, welcomed Judge Brew- ster back to his home and his friends, pictured the anxiety of his friends during the time they feared he had been lost at sea, and wittily concluded his remarks by assuring Judge Brewster that "had their fears been well founded, they would have given him a most excellent funeral." This seemed to give a cue to the other speakers; one of them, the talented Mr. J. Gordon Brinckle, at once arose, and, assuming the monotone of a gentleman of the Bar who at that time was prone to speak at almost every Bar meeting, he delivered the address, which he assured Judge Brewster was the one he had prepared to deliver at his Bar meeting. This address, which was practically a most excellent piece of mimicry of the funereal orator whom the speaker had in mind, was received with great applause. SI At the close of a most brilliant evening, the band again complimented Judge Brewster with several performances, whereupon, with hearty cheering for the judge, the guests departed in the same coaches, having, it is unnecessary to say, had a most pleasant evening, and one which none of the participants who are yet living will ever forget. The other incident in Judge Brewster's life, Mr. Chair- man, to which I desire to refer, was the complimentary din- ner tendered by his friends of the Bar of Philadelphia to him on the fifteenth day of May, 1895, on his return from his journey around the world. It was at this dinner — a remarkable one of its kind, as being tendered to a member of the legal profession, not then occupying any judicial or official position, but being a spon- taneous tribute of respect by the Bar to an individual mem- ber of the Bar — that our jurist poet, W. Channing Nevin, Esq., presented his — " Hail, Brewster, from thy journey 'round the earth, Whence thy resplendent fame had gone before thee ! Thy friends within the land that gave thee birth Proudly unfurl their loving banner o'er thee." It will be remembered that, by a happy coincidence, the day selected by the committee for this dinner was the seven- tieth anniversary of the birth of Judge Brewster. Who will ever forget the remarkable post-prandial addresses on this occasion, when Judge Brewster's life-long friend, dear Judge Thayer, uttered those never-to-be-forgotten words: — " Old wood to burn, Old wine to drink. Old friends to trust." And when that veteran of the Bar, the late Col. William B. Mann, joined with the eloquent Warwick and Beck in paying magnificent tributes to the life, character, and services of Judge Brewster. The addresses will ever remain as one of the most beau- tiful tributes paid to a living member of the Bar. 52 And this compels me to say, Mr. Chairman, that Judge Brewster was a man who, in a greater degree than any other whom I can think of, exempHfied that passage of Holy Scripture, wherein it is said we should "present our bodies a living sacrifice." If we could unite the one word "loving," we could say of him that his "life was a living and loving sacrifice for others." He lived for the sake of making others happier and better by reason of his having lived. Princely in his generosity, un- exampled in hospitality, it was his chiefest concern in life, next to his recognition of the fatherhood of God, to remember the brotherhood of man, and to show forth his appreciation of that brotherhood by doing good on every occasion that God vouchsafed to him the opportunity of doing good. When I think of how many men are ready to die in behalf of country or religion, and of how few have the moral strength and character to live correct and exemplary lives for either, and when I find that here there was at least one man who did live for God, for country, and for his fellowmen, I can truly say here was, indeed, a man who richly merited, as he entered the portals of another world, a hearty "Well done, good and faithful servant." The Hon. A. Loudon Snowden, being called upon, replied as follows : — The very touching remarks that have been made by the close friends of Judge Brewster to-night would seem to leave very little for me to add. I knew Judge Brewster intimately for many years, and especially esteemed him for that tenderness and kindliness to which such eloquent reference has been made. It is true that I have thought, as others have, that he was rather extravagant in his personal references and kindly speeches, but the more opportunity I had for estimating his character the more was I satisfied that what he said, although perhaps extreme, was from the fullness of his heart and from a desire to strew roses, rather than thorns, in the pathway of his friends. S3 From what I know and from what I have heard here to- night, it is very manifest to us all that Judge Brewster did not live in vain. He has taught us the lesson which it seems difficult to learn — ^that the kindly things, the generous and the tender things of Ufe, are those that longest survive after a man has passed away. In our modern civilization, particularly in a hustling, bust- ling, rushing country like ours, the selfish side of mankind is most manifest — at least, there seems little opportunity to exhibit the kindnesses and tendernesses of which I speak. It cannot be said that our people lack in sympathy, for they are the most sympathetic people in the world when they are touched, as is manifested on every occasion in which an appeal is made. But with us here, and elsewhere through- out the country of late years, there seems to be a disposition to say things on public occasions which, if not intended to be unkind, are unkind. It seems to be the vogue to say something smart, to provoke a laugh, regardless of the fact that it may leave a sting that will rankle for a long time. I do not know whether any of us, or all of us, are liable to this charge or are free from it, but at any rate, the life of Judge Brewster, his intercourse with men, and the sweet fragrance that hangs about his memory to-night, indicate that the opposite is by far the best course — the best for us while we live, and certainly the best for our memories when we shall have passed away. I, and doubtless many of you, have had occasion to regret exceedingly the manifestation at public dinners of what is called "wit," but which is ofttimes nothing but brutality, from men who either do not appreciate the amenities of life, or are too gross to understand that they have no right to in- flict pain upon others, even if their rude jests and jokes find response in some of those present, who, perhaps, if they had carefully considered the matter, would not have approved of the sentiment, but who laughed because it was supposed to be the thing to do. I recall at this moment a lesson taught me when a very young man that I have never forgotten. I had just left col- 54 lege — possessed, I think, with generous impulses — but on the occasion to which I refer I was disturbed by circumstances which were very trying, and I committed a blunder which occasioned me sincere regret. I left a friend at a pubUc house whilst I went to have an interview, which turned out to be a painful one, and on my return, my friend told me that an employ^ of the hotel had been talking a good deal about me — saying that at one time he had gone to school with me when I was a mere lad. Without appreciating the situation, I, in a thoughtless way, turned to the young man and said, "What is your name?" He replied, "My name is Hamilton." I repeated the name several times, and then said, "I don't remember you. Order the horses and let us go." When we had gone some distance my friend said, "There are so few opportunities in life to strew flowers, and so many to throw thorns in the paths of others, that when one has an opportunity to scatter a few flowers, he had far better do so." I assented to this, and he then said, "You have just failed to do so. The young man in the hotel was feeling very happy over his having known you at school. He had been talking a great deal about you in a very admiring way. When you came in, if you did not remember him, you could have passed over the fact in a kindly way, but instead, you grufHy said you did not remember him, and ordered your horses." I felt the rebuke, confessed it, and wanted to turn back, but it was too late. Too late for that opportunity which I had let pass — ^but not too late, I trust, for the many oppor- tunities that have presented themselves in after years. For, although I may have made mistakes and been misunder- stood by many, as I no doubt have, there has never been since that day an opportunity by which I could scatter flow- ers and could take out thorns from the paths of others that I have not done so. This is the lesson of Judge Brewster's life — a life full of sweet tendernesses and kindnesses. To those nearest to him, I need not tell this. The hold that he had upon his 55 students, who annually gathered at the table with him, is a unique thing to remember. Their love and tenderness to him was the result of his love and tenderness and sympathy for them; and if this night is only embalmed in our memo- ries, if its lesson leaves an impress upon us, as I feel it will, it has been a night well spent. It is fortunate for us that we had a friend like Judge Brewster, who, when dead, still re- peats to us the lesson of sweetness, tenderness, and kindness he exemplified in life. Mr. James Pollock, an ex-President of the Club, was the next speaker. He said: — I had not intended saying anything upon the subject of the death of our valued friend, Judge Brewster, had not the Sec- retary of the Club reminded me of my duty in this respect. There are so many of the members of the Club who are connected with that honored profession of which he was an ornament, and who met him daily in his round of duty, and who are so much better qualified to speak, and I feel that anything I might say would not be of value, and at best would only be a repetition. After the eloquent speech of our learned City Solicitor, in whose service Judge Brewster rendered the last public act of kindness, and the tribute of the able and distinguished District Attorney, you will agree with me that no words of mine could add to the lustre of a career which has been unequaled at a Bar noted for its great men. Mr. Staake more than maintained his reputation as a eulo- gist. When he spoke of those qualities of head and heart for which our dead friend was noted, and when I saw the tear- drops in his eyes, I felt that he had lost more than a friend, and was moved to sorrow because of the departure of one to whom he owed a debt of gratitude that feeble words could not repay. It would be well, perhaps, if some of us could imitate the beautiful example of Judge Brewster in many respects, and especially in his habit of saying kind and sweet things to his S6 fellowmen, as he met them day by day, while they yet had ears to hear them. The friends of many a man fail to appre- ciate his lovely character until he is dead, and it is too late to respond to the kindly look, or the gentle voice, that helped them along in the rugged path of life. Indeed, I begin to feel myself that as I get older I do not want to antagonize men as in the years gone by, and while at our social dinner parties I have been rather expected to say sharp and stinging things, for the purpose of creating merriment, I had better adopt Judge Brewster's habit of always saying the sweet and complimentary things that left no sting. And yet I am per- suaded in my own mind that I have never intended to offend any man with malice, and have never failed to defend a friend behind his back. I have often felt that Judge Brewster had especially picked me out as a favorite of his, and as I have heard the testi- mony of others, I am convinced that he had many favorites. I have been invited at times to his delightful dinner parties, when I was the only one present that was not a member of the Bar. I have heard him say to me that I might draw on him for twenty-five dollars for a reply that I had made which pleased him, to a speech 'delivered by a distinguished member of the newspaper profession. After listening to one of the delight- ful speeches of Judge McCarthy, in a line in which he has no equal, at one of our dinners, he has said, "Pollock, there is not another man in Philadelphia that could make that speech but McCarthy," and so he went his daily rounds, say- ing the kind words and leaving a sweet fragrance wherever he went. The Club loses its most distinguished member, the Bar its brightest ornament, and the city a man whose place will be hard to fill. Before proceeding with the business of the even- ing several of the members spoke briefly, including ex-Presidents William Henry Sayen and Henry F. Walton. 57 The minute upon the death of Judge Brewster, pre- sented to the family, was artistically engrossed and bound in solid morocco, the outside cover being stamped in silver letters : — HON. F. CARROLL BREWSTER, LL.D. Facing a speaking likeness of Judge Brewster, the frontispiece bore this inscription in chastely illuminated letters : — IN MEMORIAM. Frederick Carroll Brewster, LL. D. Honorary Member Five O'Clock Club, Philadelphia. Born Died Philadelphia, May 15, 1825. Charlotte, N. C, December 30, 1898. On the last page the autograph signatures of the members of the Club were appended, as follows : — Charles F. Warwick, President. M. Richards MucklS;, Franklin M. Harris, Robert M. McWade, Abraham M. Beitler, Franklin Smith, William A. Redding, Joshua R. Jones, Robert Stewart, Henry J. McCarthy, Richard G. Oellers, B. Frank Breneman, George S. Graham, John L. Kinsey, Thomas M. Thompson, James Pollock, James M. Beck, J. Hampton Moore, Thomas Dolan, Joseph Culbert, Henry C. McCormick, William H. Staake, C. Stuart Patterson, William Henry Sayen, Robert H. Foerderer, Henry B. Gross, William J. Roney, John Mundell, Jr., Rudolph Blankenburg, Francis Fenimore, William M. Barrett, Henry F. Walton, A. Loudon Snowden. Charles A. Porter, 58 [This poem was written by the Secretary of the Five O'Clock Club of Philadelphia, and presented to the Club at a dinner on November 27th, 1893.] O, Brewster, 'tis by thee, And thy sweet dignity, We are undone. Thou hast made great a name, Brought State and city fame ; Shall we not here proclaim Thy honors won ? Thou hast improved the store Of rich and classic lore And deeds profound ; And with thy mind of might Thou hast infused the light. Where all was as the night, In darkness bound. And from thy gen'rous heart Thou dost good cheer impart Whate'er befall. Thy hospitality Doth warm mankind to thee, Thy faultless courtesy Surpasseth all. Then shall we wait 'till death Implants its tardy wreath Upon thy brow ? And shall false modesty Withhold our love of thee? Nay, thou shalt know that we Esteem thee now! flDeeting of tbc Xawijere' Club ot pbUabelpbia. [Addresses made on January 4th, 1899, at the Lawyers' Club, 1326 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, commemorative of Hon. F. Carroll Brewster, deceased.] The meeting was called to order by Hon, Samuel Gustine Thompson, Vice-President of the Club. Emanuel Furth, Esq., the Secretary of the Club, read the call for the meeting. Judge Thompson said : — Gentlemen: — This meeting has been called for the pur- pose of expressing the sorrow felt by the members of this association for the loss of its President. Judge Brewster, as you all know, has been closely connected with this associa- tion from its inception up to the hour of his death. The interest that he manifested in this Club was extraordinary, and, perhaps, may have been a source of some surprise. It is not usual for gentlemen to display the deepest interest in a mere social organization. We can understand why a man is devoted to a party; it is because the party represents a prin- ciple that may guide him in his civil duties. We can under- stand why a man is devoted to his church; it is because the faith that it represents is that which is to guide him in this world, and may, possibly, be a guidance hereafter. But when we come to a social organization, it is difficult to understand why one should, as Judge Brewster did, take a profound in- terest in such an association. The secret of Judge Brewster's profound interest in this Club lay in what was the ultimate purpose of it. He saw a body of lawyers capable, if united, of producing wonderful results; he felt that if the Bar was a unit, its power for good would be very great. And he felt that some instrumentality should be resorted to for the purpose of producing that unifi- cation in order that the result that I have suggested might (59) 6o be accomplished. He knew that association and fellowship would produce unity, and, therefore, he conceived the thought that this association would bring the Bar together, produce fellowship, and cause the making of a compact body that would result in united action of the Bar and produce the results that he contemplated could be accomplished by such unity. Again, he had another thought. The legislation of the Commonwealth is always a subject of profound interest to the Bar. He had found, doubtless, that in England skilled men prepare legislation, the result being that there legislation is skillfully and aptly drawn. He found, too, in this country, that legislation was inaptly drawn, carelessly drawn, and he thought that if there could be an agency by which legislation could be accurately given to the people, that the Common- wealth would be advantaged. He therefore conceived the thought that this Club might become an agency in accom- plishing the result I have indicated — ^the better preparation of our laws, so that legislation should be accurate and effective. He also had a tliird thought: that in the reform of judicial administration the Bar should be a factor. He knew we were all scattered, and that each man in matters of reform did nothing; he believed that this association might thus be- come an efficient factor in the reform that might be neces- sary in the administration of justice. Thus these purposes naturally created in him a deep in- terest in this Club. Judge Brewster did not feel this interest in this Club simply because it was an association of gentle- men joined together for social purposes, but he did feel such interest in this Club because he believed that its purpose was one that would advance the Bar and advance the community's interest. Assuredly, when we understand the motives that controlled Judge Brewster in this regard, we can understand the profound interest he took in this Club, and that interest was most striking in every way. It was his great pleasure to have the members of the Club here; and it was his greater pleasure to welcome every man with a cordiality and genial manner that can hardly be well described. He recognized 6i each man, no matter whether he was great or humble; he made no distinctions; and the humblest man that entered the portals of this Club found, when he met its President, that he was received with as great cordiality and kindness as if he were a leader of the Bar and a strong man in our com- munity. It is pleasant, of course, to think of intellectual power, of great learning, of magnificent ability; it is a fine picture which is composed of these elements; but I am not sure, after all, if it is not quite as good, if not better, to find in it the genial character, the kind feeling, the heartfelt expression, and I am not sure whether the picture that contains the heart, the kind thought, the genial fellowship, is not a picture in- finitely more attractive than the picture with the genius, the learning, and ability in it. Judge Brewster has left in this community a very remark- able monument of labor, of energy, of learning, and ability; but he has done something,^ I think, quite as good and a little better: he has put into the heart of every man of this Club a monument of affection, because of his kindness and his geniality, and while the other may disappear, I am quite sure that monument will last as long as most of us last, and will be suggestive of kindness, of genial conduct, and of true- heartedness. With these suggestions, I will ask some gentlemen here to speak to the resolution that will be offered to this meeting. Mr. Terry has the floor. Henry C. Terry, Esq. : — Mr. President and Members of the Lawyers' Club : — It is with a heart almost too full for utterance, that I essay to speak in your presence a few words commemorative of our deceased leader and friend. I have been more fortunate than some of you in a very long acquaintance with Judge Brew- ster. I had the good fortune to read law in his office, and to have had a short acquaintance before; in the year 1863, I became associated with him as a student. Judge Thomp- 62 son has spoken somewhat briefly of his wonderful learning and ability, and the position that he held at the Bar and in the community, and others that are to follow will probably, as they are older than I at the Bar, and have been more for- tunate in their professional association with Judge Brewster, speak of what they know of his learning and ability in his profession, and yet others of his' attainments in literature, of which he was no mean ornament; but, feeling as I do, I can hardly do more than voice the afifection that I felt for him personally, which affection began almost with my ac- quaintance with him, and continued without interruption. As time went on, I am proud to say, our intimacy increased, as did our affection, until he joined the great majority. Judge Brewster, at the time I first became acquainted with him, was in the height of his practice. He was engaged in the argument of momentous questions that affected not only this community, but the entire nation. And, as we all know, and are proud to say of our friend, his success was as marked as we would expect from our personal knowledge of his pro- fessional attainments. Later on, he filled^ with distinction, offices in the gift of his fellow citizens: first. City Solicitor, then Judge, and afterwards, under the appointment of the Governor, Attorney-General. And in all of these positions, we look with pride upon his career, knowing that he filled to the full, in every one of them, the measure of all his duties. As an instance of the popularity of our lamented President, I recall a labor of love in which I was engaged at one time, which had for its object the giving of a banquet to him on the occasion of his sixty-sixth birthday. He was then in the ranks; he was not in office, and had more than once publicly announced, in reply to the inquiry of ardent friends, that he had no further ambition in that direction; he had no gifts to bestow, except in evidence of that ever-ready kindness of heart which prompted the doing of generous and noble deeds for which he was famed, and which seemed to more delight the giver than the recipient. As one who knew him so well and esteemed him so highly, it was a real labor of love to acquaint my fellow-members of the Bar with the desire a 63 few friends had, to publicly testify, in the mode mentioned, to our affectionate regard for our friend. The favorable re- sponses came promptly, and the Committee on Invitations grew to unprecedented length. This committee included such names as Joseph Allison, William B. Mann, Furman Shep- pard, Edward M. Paxson, David W. Sellers, William B. Hanna, Mayer Sulzberger, Richard P. White, George S. Graham, William Henry Lex, every one of whom I saw, and each and all spoke of our deceased friend in glowing terms, and of the pleasure it gave them to thus act, and the happi- ness they had in making public; acknowledgment of their friendly and professional regard. In a few days we found that between two hundred and three hundred judges and members of the Bar had subscribed to and sent acceptances for the dinner, and as many of you who hear me to-day will recollect, with such a theme as Judge Brewster, with such a band of his dear and earnest friends as hosts, the speakers did not and could not fail to give their hearers an intellectual treat. There was one thought which seemed to permeate all the addresses of that night (and I think it will be found in all the eulogiums of our friend), and that is affection. One and all seemed to feel a sincere regard for him, and while making just estimate of his transcendent professional ability and profound learning, the underlying thought with all was his great kindness of heart, his many acts of friendship, which had made all anxious to do him honor. I remember very well when the question of the formation of this Club was mooted. I was one of those whom he hon- ored with a discussion of the subject, and I was the bearer of a message from him to one of our most eminent members of the Bar, who became a charter-member of the organiza- tion, the Hon. George W. Biddle. I went to see Mr. Biddle at Mr. Brewster's request, in order to ask that he might accept the position of President of the Club. But Mr. Biddle recognized, as all did, that there was but one man at the Philadelphia Bar who could successfully lead such a move- ment, and he said to me in his familiar way, talking about Judge Brewster, whom to me he called Fred: "Tell Fred I 64 wish him God-speed. Tell him to become President. I will do anything I can; I will do anything for the Club, but he is the man to lead this movement, and he alone can lead it to success." I reported this to Judge Brewster, and the move- ment went on successfully, as we all know. I think that I may be permitted to say, especially at this time, when I am just about re-entering professional life, from which I have been debarred by sickness for nearly seven months, that he many times sat at my bed and talked to me about the Club and the plans that he had for its improve- ment. While he did not propose in the future to be as active as he had theretofore been, he had certainly the interests of the Club at heart, and he never passed me or never spoke to me on any occasion without inquiring as to what the Club was doing or thinking of doing, if he had not been there within a very recent period; and it was his custom to be there as frequently as other duties permitted. Indeed, gentlemen, you will find in the book which lies upon our table in the room below, within a week, an entry in his hand, showing that he brought another organization into this Club in the exercise of that genial hospitality for which he was so famous. I think that I can voice the sentiment of all when I say that, while he is gone, the best evidence of our friendship for him, our appreciation of his abilities, will be to take up the work where he has laid it down; for us to go on and on in the good work we have started, and endeavor to do that which, through the weight of years and misfortune of death, he has been prevented from completing. I have a minute here which I will ask you to adopt. I am much indebted to William H. Staake, Esq., for his assist- ance in its preparation. If you please, I will read the min- ute: — "The Lawyers' Club of Philadelphia, specially assembled at its clubhouse. No. 1326 Walnut Street, Wednesday, Jan- uary 4th, 1899, to take action upon the sudden death of their beloved President, the Hon. Frederick Carroll Brewster, which occurred on Friday, December 30th, 1898, near Char- lotte, N. C, in affectionate remembrance of his many noble 65 qualities, make this minute of their sense of the misfortune sustained by the Club, the legal profession, and the commu- nity in the loss of this brilliant, able, and experienced lawyer, faithful, genial, generous friend, and eminently public-spirited citizen. "In the death of Judge Brewster, who has so worthily held from its organization the office of President, the Lawyers' Club has sustained a severe and irreparable loss. It is note- worthy that in the organization of the Club, of all the Bar, he was unanimously selected to fill its chief office as the man most fitted to lead and guide to success an organization which had for its object 'elevating the standard of professional ethics, aiding in all movements looking to the prompt and efficient administration of justice, the promotion of legislation for that purpose, and the maintenance of a club-house and library for the use of its members.' "Judge Brewster was a man of many attractive qualities and accomplishments. Not only was he a leader of the Bar, which he adorned by his scholarship, and with which he had a popularity without precedent; an author, whose published volumes of legal lore have made him the mentor and helper of judge, practitioner, and student; a scholar, whose cul- tured literary efforts hold valued place in many libraries; a faithful, skillful, and diligent public official, who always, whether as City Solicitor, Judge, or Attorney-General, gave the public the highest character of service which the position demanded; an orator of pleasing diction and convincing manner, with a voice sympathetic and melodious, a presence dignified, manly, gracious, and attractive, but he possessed social characteristics which had a great fascination for all who were honored by his friendship or fortunate in his acquaint- ance. "He was a type of the highest, truest, and best manhood, possessed of the most charming and endearing qualities of mind and heart. In generosity, he was unexcelled; in hospi- tality, munificent, but yet simple and unaffected in its dis- pensing, always unassuming and expressing himself as your debtor, in that you had honored him in becoming his guest. 66 As an example of sincere friendship and sympathy, when shall we see his like? To the young he was an exemplar, to the needy a helper, dispensing unostentatious charity in bounteous abundance, to all who wished an ever-ready guide and wise counselor. "He was a man of great culture and large experience, much of it derived from extensive travel and close observance of the people of many lands. While a diligent reader and stu- dent, he was yet a man of humor and mirth, who, amid proper surroundings, could charm by his ready wit and inexhaustible fund of anecdote and story. "Who can ever forget his charming personality, his grace- ful figure, dignified bearing, his pleasing address, his courtly salutation, his kindly interest, his sympathetic tenderness, his hearty 'God bless you.' He was always enthusiastic in be- half of the best interests of his profession, his friends, and the community. "It is in this Club, of which he was the recognized founder and always the honored and well-beloved head, where he filled to the full the measure of all his duties, where he will be chiefly missed. The history of the Club is but a record of his devotion to its interests, of his unselfish and sacrificing labors in its behalf; of his unbounded generosity and hospi- tality within its walls; of his hopes for a future of good and usefulness, which would best evidence the wisdom of its founding and the reasons for its existence. Standing at the bier of the beloved dead, the members of the Club express to his family their deep, profound, and sincere sympathy, and would say of him, in the language of a life-long friend, that although his star of life 'is lost to human vision here, it has risen above another horizon, and sheds its soft and gentle radiance over other scenes, where there is no more night and no more death.'" Henry M. Dechert, Esq.: — After Ustening to that eloquent minute presented on behalf of the association, touching the points of Judge Brewster's 67 life so tenderly and so completely, perhaps it would be bet- ter not to attempt to add to it, and yet that would be a poor service to render to our friend who has passed away, in view of all that he has done for us. His death has brought a deplorable loss to his family and the host of devoted friends, to our city and State, to the Bar, and the members of this association. The many knew of him as a distinguished lawyer, judge, orator, and author; but we, his associates and friends, knew him, here and elsewhere, as the always wise counselor, the gracious host, the accomplished gentleman, and the self- sacrificing friend. His life work, covering a period of fifty- four years, seems to us, who have witnessed portions of it, to have been marvelous, in that one man could do so much; that during that brief period he could achieve the results which now become a part of his history. Before he had arrived at the age of thirty years, he was the leader of the junior Bar. Through his untiring study, industry, and love for his profession, by his logical argu- ments, and at times his matchless eloquence, he had then become so noted as a lawyer that he was retained as the junior on one side or other in almost every important case. Indeed, in some notable trials in the old Court of Nisi Prius in those early days, I remember him to have been alone and to have won in desperate cases and only by his learning and eloquence. An interesting article appeared in the Evening Star, writ- ten by Mr. John H. Fow, of this Bar, who said: "He is the only lawyer on record whose eloquence so swayed the minds of a jury that the court gave it as a reason in granting his opponent a new trial." Judge Ludlow, in his opinion, said "that it was impossible for the jury to resist his eloquence." The Court of Nisi Prius, presided over by a justice of the Supreme Court, and having jurisdiction of cases involving large interests and those sounding in damages, furnished a field for the display of the striking qualities which distin- guished Mr. Brewster as an advocate. He seemed to be always ready, and, indeed, eager for the battle, either for the 68 assault or defense, and as difficulties sprang up from hostile witnesses, opposing counsel, or the presiding judge, Mr. Brewster's clearness of intellect and his perfect self-control in crowded and excited court-rooms, swept away all diffi- culties, by convincing the reluctant judge and the willing jurors. These younger men will appreciate the odds against which Mr. Brewster contended in reaching that exalted position, when they reflect that among those actually engaged in prac- tice, and who passed away during his professional life, were David Paul Brown, William M. Meredith, George M. Whar- ton, St. George Tucker Campbell, Charles B. Penrose, Henry M. Phillips, William A. Porter, Constant Guillou, Benjamin H. Brewster, William L. Hirst, Theodore Cuyler, Furman Sheppard, Daniel Dougherty, and Lewis C. Cassidy. The promise of those earlier years was fulfilled, for Mr. Brewster became the great advocate of our Bar, as he was, at the time of his death, its leader. After spending a few years upon the Bench, Judge Brew- ster resigned, to the regret of the Bar and the community; but he did so, to accept the Attorney-Generalship, and there- after, by his lucid arguments before our courts in banc and the Supreme Court of our State and the United States, he reached the highest rounds of the ladder of our profession. Col. A. K. McClure, an excellent judge of men, has given in The Times this estimate of Judge Brewster's character: — "As City Solicitor, Judge, Attorney-General, and as the counsel for great estates, Mr. Brewster's reputation was won and maintained by the qualities and the equipment that con- stitute the great lawyer. He had the gift of quick and ac- curate perception, of firm grasp of principles, of logical ar- rangement, and lucid expression, and his fine cultivation gave him an art of clear, dignified, and elevated eloquence that few of the great forensic masters have excelled. His knowl- edge of the law was enormous, and his judgment in applying it to the cause in hand was of the very highest. To all this was added the charm of an attractive personality, a gracious and courteous manner, a refinement of speech, and a wide 69 range of generous culture that would have given distinction even to a man of much less intellectual achievement." But, after all, we are now thinking more of Judge Brewster as our good friend who has gone out suddenly from among us. That our loss is his gain we cannot doubt, for his whole life was given to his fellow-men. What better thing can a man do than that? He was always ready to help them, to encourage by his wise counsel, and, if need be, to aid those in distress. We remember his charming courtesy, his un- failing cheerfulness, his apparent unconsciousness of his own distinction; to his two sons, members of our Bar, and to the other gentlemen who have passed from his office to active life at the Bar, indeed, to all of us, he was, to the last day of his life, as an elder brother. We, young and old, sincerely lament to-day that for each of us a lamp has gone out in the path of life, by the death of our friend, Frederick Carroll Brewster. Alexander Simpson, Jr., Esq. : — Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: — I cannot speak from personal experience, as you, Mr. Chairman, and Mr. Dechert did, of Judge Brewster's standing at the Bar in his palmiest days, because when I came to the Bar he had withdrawn largely from active practice, particularly before juries. Nor can I speak, as Brother Terry did, from the standpoint of a student in his office, and practically a lifelong friend. But I have an experience that none of you have, and probably no other man living to-day has. When my father came to the Bar in the early fifties. Judge Brewster was his colleague in his first case^ and in the last case that my father argued, Judge Brewster was his colleague. Is it any wonder that I felt drawn towards Judge Brewster? There was much criticism at this Bar of Judge Brewster, because of some of the things that he did. We are not apt to speak of these things at Bar meetings. I see no reason why they should not be spoken of. Perhaps he was criticised most because of what may be termed his suavity. It was 70 said to be overdone. Much of this criticism was, doubtless, because of inabihty to lay a finger on any real cause of com- plaint, and, perhaps, some of it was by those who thought they were a little better than Judge Brewster. He was a suave man. Whether it was a cultivated suavity, or whether it was inherent, I know not and care not. This I know, that if any man at this Bar had cause for rejoicing, the first congratulation he received was from Judge Brew- ster; if cause for sorrow, the first condolence came from Judge Brewster. It was so with me, and I have heard that it was so with many another man at this Bar. If, gentlemen, that is the result either of a cultivated or an inherited suavity, it is very much to be regretted that there is not more of it cul- tivated or more of it inherited. Unlike most of the juniors, I once tried a case against Judge Brewster; I never had him as a colleague. I was im- pressed in the trial of that case with the thought, which has impressed me more since, and more by reading, as I do at times, portions of his work on "Practice," with the patience and care with which he did everything. Everything was the subject of the most elaborate preparation. I have heard some of the lawyers at this Bar criticise Judge Brewster for writing that work. I have but this to say, that if the chap- ters in that work which treat of the preparation of a case for trial, and of the care to be exercised by an attorney in dealing with his client, were read once a month by the junior mem- bers of this Bar, they and we alike would be very much bene- fited by it. Valuable advice can there be had, that, so far as I know, can be obtained nowhere else. One other thing was certain about Judge Brewster. He was the friend of every man at this Bar. That has been re- ferred to over and over again to-day from one standpoint; I want to refer to it from another. Was there ever a man at this Bar, known or unknown to Judge Brewster before that time, who was in personal trouble and did not find Judge Brewster willing to take his case and help him along and out of his difificulties? And how many there were who thus successfully appealed to him! There was then no talk of his 71 suavity; there was then no talk of his being willing to bow to those in power. He was prepared then and always, with- out counting the cost to himself, to stand at the back of any man at this Bar when that man was himself attacked. There is only one instance further that I wish to refer to, and that is in relation to the appointments under the Official Stenographers' Act. Every man of that day knows the diffi- culties we were confronted with before the official stenog- raphers were in fact appointed. You know, sir, as every man at the Bar knows, how many times the judges of our Common Pleas Courts were asked to obey the mandate of the Legislature and appoint official stenographers; and you know how many times those requests were simply ignored. But when the younger lawyers, determined that Philadelphia County should not be behind her sister counties in that re- spect, determined that the appointments should be made, it was to Judge Brewster and the late George W. Biddle they went; and though it was a question of mandamusing the whole Common Pleas Bench of Philadelphia County, there was not the slightest hesitancy on the part of Judge Brewster in con- senting to act; and he signed the circular letter which was served upon every one of those judges, notifying them that unless they made the appointments as required by the Acts of Assembly within a time designated, he would, on behalf of the Bar, apply to the Supreme Court for that mandamus. People may say that Judge Brewster was suave. So he was, but it was not the suavity born of a desire to aggrandize himself, or which lacked in courage, but it was the suavity of the polished gentleman, who desired to lift up the Bar and to help and encourage others when and where he could, in season and out of season. Samuel M. Hyneman, Esq. : — The sense of personal bereavement which I have experi- enced since the announcement of the death of Judge Brew- ster, and which now crowds upon me, will, I fear, prevent me from adequately expressing the afifection and respect in 72 which he was held by those for whom I speak. But in the garland which we are weaving to-day to place upon the bier of our friend and brother, let me entwine for the students of Judge Brewster an immortelle which shall typify their undy- ing gratitude, veneration, and love for him who has passed away. I have said friend and brother. So, to many or all of you who, as members of the legal profession, have for years met Judge Brewster in your professional walks, he was a brother and friend, but to those who owe their professional life and being to his tender care and nurture, he was more — he was to them a father. From the moment when a student entered his office, through the years of preparation for admission to the Bar, and from thence on, through the struggles for professional eminence or material success, the watchful, loving eye of the parent was ever upon his professional offspring. The strong and steady hand and brain stood ever ready to help and encourage those of his intimate professional family who fal- tered by the roadside in the ofttime weary journey. In their successes he rejoiced, in their reverses he sympathized, and encouraged them to renewed efforts. In the active, bustling, and absorbing years of the lawyer's life, the hearts of his students have ever throbbed with emo- tions of endearment, veneration, and regard for him at whose feet they sat and from whom they drew the inspirations of learning and integrity. The memories of the happy days of their student-life in his office were ever green. Year after year, have we, his students, gathered around the festive board, drawn together by a feeling of good fellowship, engendered and encouraged by his amiable example, to do honor to him, our preceptor and friend. The Lawyers' Club, which has assembled to pay its tribute to Judge Brewster's memory, was the outcome of those gatherings, at which not only the stories of the students' life in Brewster's office were rehearsed, but the live interests of the profession were discussed. I see among those around me some who, like myself, were 73 privileged to not only have been a student of Judge Brew- ster, but to have been associated with him and to have re- mained with him after our admission to the Bar. It is in the almost hourly contact and in the observance of one, under all conditions, that a true estimate of character can be formed. It was by reason of such close intimacy for many years, dur- ing which I am proud to feel that I enjoyed Judge Brewster's confidence, that I grew to know his generous, honorable, and unselfish character. Men are inclined to attribute ulterior motives to actions they do not comprehend, and him whom we mourn escaped not calumny. He was too great not to have excited envy. Have we not seen our friend pause amid his pressing and multifarious duties to help some poor struggling lawyer over the obstacles which stood in his way, and what advancement could Judge Brewster have hoped to receive from him, "who no revenue had but his good spirits." Mr. Chairman, I could occupy several hours if I attempted to narrate to you the hundreds, yes, thousands of acts of pure and unalloyed charity performed by our friend. I could startle you if I but named those whose lives and happiness they owe to him — ^yet never, by word or sign, did he let the world know of his acts. I have seen the deadly ravages of disease checked and a whole family given sustenance by his ever open hand. I have seen the ragged newsboys follow- ing him into his office, and their shivering bodies have been covered with garments furnished upon his generous orders. Did ever a member of our profession require his services and obtain them not, and without compensation? I recall a celebrated trial in which Judge Brewster de- fended a prominent member of our Bar, which lasted several weeks. He worked indefatigably day and night. He won in the court below and again on the appeal to the Supreme Court, and when he had established the right of a woman to call herself wife, he refused to accept any compensation for what he said he did as a duty for a brother lawyer. Whilst fully appreciating the power and comfort-giving qualities of wealth. Judge Brewster paid no tribute to the 74 possessor of riches. The interview with the capitalist has often been interrupted by the laboring man. It was an in- flexible rule in Judge Brewster's office that the lawyer and the man whose hourly toil was his living should never be kept waiting or unannounced. His love for his profession made him a strict conservator of its ethics. He pointed out to his students that the dignity of the lawyer was always to be maintained, even in this pro- gressive age of business enterprise. His unremitting industry and his signal attainments se- cured for him a competency, but the acquisition of wealth was not an all-absorbing object. He paused in his work to let his brothers in the profession know that he was with them in heart and spirit, and that he was ever ready and willing to aid them morally, intellectually, or materially. The records of this Commonwealth, the State Reports, and the archives of institutions of learning, will forever testify to Judge Brewster's legal and intellectual attainments, but no record has been kept or item noted of those greater and more sublime qualities of the man, which, flowing from a generous and noble heart, made the lives of those around him better and happier. What a stimulus to weak or discouraged man was that cordial grasp of his hand. What latent energies were aroused by his encouraging predictions of success. What half-formed resolves took definite shape under the magic of his parental embrace. The man who says Judge Brewster was not sincere knew him not. His heart was overflowing with love and kindly feeling, and his lips uttered the words which made his fellow- men feel that they were something more than mere pawns in the game of life. Judge Brewster's life work is o'er. The teeming brain and untiring hands are at rest, but the principles of industry, in- tegrity, and love for God's creatures which he implanted in the breasts of his students will never die, and, in the years yet to come, they will rise up and call him blessed. The legal profession has lost one of its most eminent mem- bers; we have been bereft of a dear friend; and this commu- 75 nity mourns the death of a polished, courteous, and generous gentleman — " A combination and form indeed, Where every god did seem to set his seal To give the world assurance of a man." John C. Bell, Esq. :— Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Members of the Lawyers' Club: — Pausing in front of one of the newspaper offices on last Friday afternoon, I read with an indescribable shock the bulletin of Judge Brewster's death. Half way up the block I had met a friend who had told me of the death of his little daughter. Verily, I thought, as I gazed at the bulletin — " There is a reaper whose name is death, And with his sickle keen He reaps the bearded grain at a breath And the flowers that grow between." Two short days before I had seen him in the City Solicitor's convention, apparently in the Indian Summer of his days-, not even touched as yet with the Winter's frosts. I can see him now, Mr. Chairman, as, clad in black, his cape overcoat thrown open, he gracefully lifted his hat to the chairman of the convention and then stood facing the audience. The cynosure at once of all eyes, I thought I had never seen him look so distinguished. At the risk of being thought obtru- sive, I pressed forward and lost not a word of his speech. It was as clearly, earnestly, and incisively spoken as any I had heard. There was noticeable the same felicity of dic- tion, and it was studded with the same gems of wisdom we had come to always expect. Alas! I little guessed that it was his valedictory. When I was asked to speak on this occasion, I said "Yes," willingly, though I felt I was invading a privilege that more properly belonged to others; for my acquaintance with Judge Brewster, personally and professionally, was comparatively slight; and yet I had observed closely the prominent lines of his professional and public life, more closely, perhaps, than 76 many others who knew him more intimately. These prom- inent Hnes, as it appeared to me, were three: — I viewed him first as an honored son of the University of Pennsylvania; as a University man. I knew of his graduation there with the first honors of his class; that for a long time he had been President of the Society of the Alumni; that he was the orator on the laying of the cornerstone of the new college hall, and on many other notable occasions; that later the University had deservedly conferred upon him the degree of doctor of laws, and that throughout his long and brilliant career, while honors multiplied, his strong love and loyalty for his Alma Mater never abated. I observed, too, that as a true University man he still kept up his work in the field of literature and his rambles in the realms of science and art. Glance for a few moments over the pamphlet containing a practical transcript of his diary during his four months' trip around the world, and it will be patent that the author was a lover not only of stat- uary, painting, and the arts, but that he was also a student of sociology, of political history, and of Orientalism gen- erally. His works as an author, including his publications of "The Life and Writings of Disraeli," and his translations of Moliere, have already been alluded to. I knew that as late as December i6th last he delivered a lecture before the Philo- mathean Society of the University, on Malesherbes, the emi- nent French lawyer, litterateur, and great apostle of toler- ance and liberty of the press, who, you will recall, was guil- lotined because, like a true lawyer, disregarding thought of self, he acted as counsel in the perilous defense of his king before the convention which condemned him to death; the lecture was replete with instructive reference to the political and legal history of France under Louis XVL and the events of the French Revolution. Few can hope to possess talents the equal of Judge Brew- ster's in the avenues indicated, but it ought to be the pleasur- able duty of every lawyer to cultivate similar tastes. Who will say that Judge Thayer's classic knowledge and scholarly endowments do not mean both strength and adornment in 77 his legal equipment? Rufus E. Choate's love of metaphysics and the Greek and Roman classics is well known. When Webster examined his library at Washington, his remark was, "I find here seven editions of the Greek testament, but not a copy of the Constitution." And these, my friends, are our exemplars. This, then, is one of the prominent lines of Judge Brewster's life. He was, in the true sense of the term, a University man. My second, and, of course, the most natural view to be taken of Judge Brewster, was as a great and distinguished lawyer. We all know that his early efforts at the Bar soon stamped him as such; we know of his election to the offices of City Solicitor and Judge, and his appointment as Attorney- General of the Commonwealth. As a young practitioner, I inquired and learned from his former students of his method- ical exactness, of his attention to details; how every letter or paper that came into his office was properly indorsed and filed. I knew how he counseled famiUarity with the prepara- tion of all writs, saying that "the great Murat always groomed his mare"; how in every case he urged the preparation of a full brief of trial and a brief of law; how he carried out these precepts in his own practice and impressed them upon his students. One of his mottoes was, "Minima sunt minima, sed magnum esse in minimis bonum est." I knew him, too, as we all did, as a master of the whole science of jurisprudence, grounded in all the fundamental principles of the law and familiar with its scientific growth and development; and as a practitioner, we knew that for more than half a century he had taken part in all the important litigation of the city and State, and that as an advocate he was without a superior. In a word, he was an all-round, thorough, and complete law- yer. Something about one of his early and greatest tri- umphs — the case of the City of Philadelphia vs. Heirs of Stephen Girard, 45 Pa., i, I heard from his own lips, when, a few years since, I was a guest of the Board of City Trusts on its annual tour of inspection of the Girard lands in Schuyl- kill County. It was in the courts of that county that the litigation was begun by the heirs of Girard in an ejectment 78 suit to recover twenty tracts of land. With the aid of the best legal talent of the day, a victory had been gained for .the heirs in the lower court. Judge Brewster was fortu- nately, or, I should say, providentially, elected City Solicitor about that time. He appealed the case to the Supreme Court, and, after re-argument there, won a magnificent victory, not only for the city, but for humanity and civilization. The law of perpetuities was held not to apply to property devised to a charity. Had Judge Brewster failed in this case, the finest charity known — a college for orphan boys — (possessing to- day, as a result of the munificence of one man, Stephen Girard, an income equal in amount to that of either of the great universities of Oxford or Cambridge, endowed by kings, nobles, clergy, and potentates during a period of more than six centuries), would have been lost to the city and the world. But it is not as a legal giant "armed at all points — cap-a-pie," that I think Judge Brewster's fame will securely rest. On the contrary, it is those personal qualities, to which all the speakers, but more particularly you, Mr. Chairman, and Mr. Hyneman, have so feelingly alluded, that must make his mem- ory and influence live for all time with you and me and his brother members of the Bar. I refer to his kindly manner and conduct, his urbanity, his amity, his catholicity, taught and impressed upon his many students and shown by him on all occasions toward all his professional brethren. It was this spirit and feeling of fraternity that, on a larger scale, through the medium of this Club, which he founded, he sought to foster and promote among its members, by bring- ing them into more cordial and intimate relations with him and each other. And, through the Club, he sought to reach the Bar. In a word, sir, he stood for the principle of uni- versal brotherhood at the Bar; and for this he deserves to be immortalized. No truer observation has fallen from the lips of that philo- sophic critic, Mr. Isaac Zangwill, now in our midst, than his declaration at the recent dinner given in celebration of the seventieth birthday of Count Tolstoi, that it is impossible 79 to separate a man's art or profession from his life; to say we admire or approve of this man's genius or professional worth, but it is immaterial what are his ethics or moral qualities or. principles. The two are indissolubly linked together, but the second is the soul of the first. Tolstoi is Russia's greatest author, but his real fame rests in his being a disciple of peace and of practical Christianity. Zola is the foremost literary man in France, but his enduring fame will rest upon his having championed the cause of the poor persecuted wretch on Devil's Island against that despotic military power which rules his country. Standing, as he truly said, on the brink of the grave, that great lawyer and upright man, George W. Biddle, at the Bar meeting of Judge Allison, gave it as the result of the expe- rience of his life — that it is the moral qualities upon which a lawyer's fame must truly rest. Probably the most con- spicuous example of all is Washington, who is immortal, because as a patriot, he was, as some one has said, at once "the greatest of all good men and the best of all great men." And in a large sense, it is this altruism — this broad hu- manity for which our Government now stands, which has justly given her a liigher place and a nobler destiny than ever before. As a land of liberty conserved by law, of liberty en- lightening the world, we were conceded to be the foremost among all the civilized nations. But "earthly power shows likest God's," when it stands for the cause of humanity — for the principle of a "brother's keeper," among the nations of the earth. In my judgment, then, the most prominent line in Judge Brewster's character, that which makes him an exemplar, is his fraternity, his love of his professional brethren. One of his characteristic sayings, you know, was "lawyers are like scissors — ^they cut whatever comes between them, but they never cut each other." This, then, Mr. Chairman, is my composite photograph of Judge Brewster. In his essential life, he was a true Uni- versity man — a pre-eminently great lawyer, but, above all, he was a professional brother. 8o It is a poor delineation, sir, I know; but you will recall with me the "In Memoriam" lines of England's late poet laureate, as applicable to this great and good man: — " What practice howsoe'er expert, In fitting aptest words to things, Or voice the richest-toned that sings. Hath power to give thee as thou wert." This we can, however, do, sir; we can give him canoniza- tion in our hearts; think of him, to quote his own appropriate appellation, descriptive of the highest praise that the ancients could bestow upon a man — as avijp xp"!t6^ ; and remember that, like that noble Roman of old — " His life was gentle — and the elements So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up And say to all the world — this was a man." Lastly, sir, let us, one and all, as members of this Club and of the Philadelphia Bar, recalling the golden truth, "Vivit post funera virtus," resolve that the spirit of Judge Brewster shall serve as our inspiration and guide in the duties which lie before us. John I, Rogers, Esq. : — Mr. Chairman: — An incident occurred yesterday, perhaps a trifling incident, and yet, to some of us, momentous in meaning and significance. It happened in the church which our dearly beloved had attended for many years. It hap- pened when the religious services had concluded and the funeral cortege was passing from the chancel to the vesti- bule. An old man, whose clothes were threadbare, with bent form and face lined and wrinkled, leaned over the pew door and dropped a little sprig of green upon the wealth of floral offerings which concealed the lid of the casket in which was borne the relics of the mortality of Judge Brewster. It was a tiny little sprig, valueless in the coinage of the realm, of less value, perhaps, than the widow's mite of Scriptural his- tory, but richer than all "the wealth of Ormus and of Ind" in its significance — the unpurchasable, unappraisable grat- 8i itude and tearful farewell of a grief-stricken heart; for I learned in a few moments that he had been a prottg& or Bene- ficiary of Judge Brewster for many years. His trembling lips were mute, but his tear-bedewed eyes, through which his soul looked unutterable woe, spoke the most eloquent adieu to a benefactor that I have ever witnessed. Even at this late hour I would re-enact that incident for a moment. In this assemblage of his friends within these walls, so long dominated, I might say, by his presence, whilst from them yet his beloved image looks down upon us; here in the Club which he founded and guided; here before his mem- ory's shrine, upon which this afternoon so many rich and priceless flowers of speech have been wreathed, I would fain drop my poor little twig of remembrance and affection, even if its poverty is merged and made oblivious by the wealth of its surroundings. To speak of Judge Brewster as a distinguished lawyer, an upright judge, a brilliant Attorney-General, an erudite scholar or poetical translator of classic lore, after what has been said, and so well said, by those who have preceded me, would be like "gilding refined gold, smoothing the ice, or painting the lily" — "wasteful and ridiculous excess." But to speak of Judge Brewster, as it seems we all want to speak of him this afternoon, is to refer to the sentimental part of his nature, which touched us all so deeply and so constantly. To know him, to be with him, to share his confidences were privi- leges once enjoyed to be ever after coveted. His very pres- ence dispelled gloom. Shadows dispersed or shrank behind us and clouds became silver-lined when the sunbeams shone from his eyes or played upon his lips. How those manly features lit up when his warm grasp gave emphasis to the hearty greeting of his lips — lips that uttered only harmonies and kindliest greetings. He had the gifted faculty of mak- ing all of us feel we were personally dear to him, and so we were, though we wondered why so unusual partiality and solicitude should be shown us, fearing at times, lest we "lay the flattering unction to our souls" of an undue share in his thoughts. But our fears were baseless; for he had such 82 a big, overflowing heart, and such boundless love for fellow- man, that he could give to each of us a plenitude of affection and sympathy and still leave unexplored and undeveloped an inexhaustible mine of those golden treasures for dispensation to others. I remember, however, at the time of the foundation of this Club, and for many years prior to it, that little social gather- ings of lawyers had occurred, in which we had lamented the want of that clannish feeling, that co-operation, that esprit de corps, which is sadly lacking among the members of the Bar, and felt that it would be necessary to form some sort of organization, outside of a merely technical one, in order to draw us together in social intercourse and bring out the better parts of our natures by personal contact. Friction emits sparks. As has been well said. Judge Brewster was the inciting cause and founder of this organization. He had no prede- cessor and his successor need but emulate him to deserve — if not win — success. I feel the truth of what he has so often said, that our great need was sentiment. Sentiment in our public as well as our private lives. Sentiment in our homes. Sentiment in the practice of our profession. But it is business, business, busi- ness, predominating everything we do, discarding sentimental considerations as inappropriate and irrelevant. He was, him- self, the incarnation of sentiment, yet he has given life evi- dence that a man can be a great lawyer, a public-spirited citizen, a writer of books, and a man of many parts — in all of which he achieved paramount success — and yet not neglect that hospitality, that geniality, and that benign considera- tion which, magnet-like, drew myriads of hearts to his own. We felt, therefore, when we, yesterday, said good-bye to him forever this side heaven, that we had lost one who was, perhaps, dearer to us than some connected by ties consan- guineous, and our grief was inconsolable. But the words of the sacred ritual checked that grief and preached immor- tality and victory over death, and we bowed to the inevitable. When we saw the wealth of flowers upon his cofifin, including 83 the little sprig of green to which I have referred, we could not help thinking that they symbolized the many flowers of brilliant rhetoric that had fallen from his lips, flowers of kindly speech, flowers of personal compliment, meant to en- courage the young, the timid, and despondent, and lift up and make each feel that there was in himself something even better than his ambition had dared to dream or hope for. Therefore, cover his bier with the flowers of the field and his memory with the flowers of affection; for, like the good daughter of our fairy tales — ^who must have been his ances- tress, because of her consideration for old age and poverty — and who was so gifted that flowers fell thereafter from her lips whenever she spake — so spake Frederick Carroll Brew- ster. And how appropriate was the final summons when on his journey to the land of flowers; when on his journey to that land where another great traveler once sought the fountain of perpetual life — how meet and fit that he should be then sum- moned to another bright land, where flowers are thornless and fadeless, and where the fountains of life are eternal. And so, dear friend, Vale et Requiescat. fIDccting of tbe pbnat)elpbia Bar. A meeting of the Philadelphia Bar was held in the Supreme Court Room on Thursday, January 5th, 1899, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, to take action upon the death of Hon. F. Carroll Brewster. Henry C. Terry, Esq. : — My Friends : — We are met here to-day to do honor to our late brother, the Hon. F. Carroll Brewster, and I move you that Judge Thayer take the chair. Mr. Terry's motion was unanimously carried, and the Hon. M. Russell Thayer took his seat as Chair- man. Upon the Chair announcing that it was ready to hear any motions, it was moved, seconded, and unani- mously carried that Franklin L. Lyle, Esq., I. Hazle- ton Mirkil, Esq., and Horace M. Rumsey, Esq., act as Secretaries of the meeting, whereupon these gentle- men took their seats. The Chair announced that letters had been received from gentlemen who were unable to be present, and they were read by Mr. Rumsey, as follows : — 2106 Walnut Street, January 2d, 1899. Messrs. Henry C. Terry, I. Hazleton Mirkil, and Horace M. Rumsey. Gentlemen: — I regret that circumstances will prevent my being present at the Bar meeting in honor of Judge Brew- ster. I was greatly shocked when I heard of his sudden death; the more so that I was not aware of his illness. To one prepared for the change, as I believe Judge Brewster to have been, such a death is not undesirable, however great (84) 85 the shock to family and friends. I know of no one whose loss will be more keenly felt by the Bar than Judge Brew- ster. I know of no one more universally beloved, especially by the junior Bar, to whom he was always conspicuously kind. Judge Brewster was a great lawyer. He was thor- oughly equipped in every branch of the law, civil and crim- inal. As a jury lawyer he was unexcelled, and some of his most brilliant triumphs were in that line. His arguments before the court in banc, of which I have heard many, were models of clear reasoning. I have never known him to wander from the point he was discussing or to utter an un- necessary word. To me Judge Brewster's loss is personal. Our relations have been close from the time I was admitted to this Bar, in 1852, until his death. I have been concerned with him in many cases. I have tried cases against him and felt his steel. I was his private counsel when he adorned the Common Pleas as one of its judges. I have been his companion in Europe, Egypt, and Palestine, and everywhere, at all times, and in every relation, I have ever found him the same kind, genial, gentle gentleman. I have reached a time of life when such a loss is irreparable; nearly all I love best are on the other side of the river. And if such is my loss, what must be that of his family. But at this point I must draw the curtain. Yours, in great sorrow, Edward M. Paxson. January 3d, 1899. Horace M. Rumsey, Esq. My Dear Sir: — I am in receipt of yours, informing me of a proposed Bar meeting to take appropriate action on the death of the late Judge Brewster, on January Sth. I sin- cerely regret my inability to be present. I would be glad to add my tribute of respect to his memory, if it were pos- sible for me to do so. I had a profound admiration for the high character and legal attainments of Judge Brewster. Very truly yours, Henry C. McCormick. 86 At the conclusion of the reading of the above let- ters, the Chair (Judge Thayer) addressed the meet- ing as follows : — The Bar of Philadelphia is again summoned to give ex- pression to its sorrow at the death of one of its most dis- tinguished members, and to lay upon his new-made grave a chaplet which will declare to the world the estimation in which he was held by his brethren and the affectionate re- gard which they entertained for him. He has gone from us under circumstances which cannot but excite our deepest sympathy, falling by the way, in a moment, far from the scene of his affections and his triumphs, surrounded by strangers, with one faithful friend at his side. He was taken so sud- denly from our midst, that the shock occasioned by the an- nouncement of his death lingers in our minds like the impres- sion of a painful dream, from which one awakes in tears. It is as if one, standing upon the shore, should behold a bark, freighted with the accumulated wealth of many years and the love and afifection of many hearts, founder in an instant be- fore his eyes, while sailing over untroubled seas and beneath serene skies. Such, at least, were my own feelings upon hear- ing the tidings of Judge Brewster's death; for we had been fellow-students at the old University on Ninth Street more than fifty years ago, he being in the class immediately below my own; and well do I recall now, at this distant day and at this sad time, the occasion upon which he — then a lad of fifteen Summers — made his first declamation in the old col- lege chapel before the assembled faculty and students, and the murmur of admiration which swept like a wave over all the benches at his graceful and animated delivery. It was the sunrise of his genius — the prophecy, it seems now, of the brilliant and successful career before him. From that time to the day of his death he and I were fellow-travelers in our profession, in the same general direction, although the jour- ney was diversified by varying episodes and often by diverg- ing paths; yet throughout the voyage of life our sails were 87 seldom out of sight, and we continuously exchanged friendly signals. In our professional careers we were, of course, occa- sionally concerned in the same causes; more frequently, according to my recollection, on the same side, than in oppo- sition. I had the advantage, if it be one, upon these occa- sions, of being the senior counsel, having come to the Bar two years before him. Among the most notable of the cases in which we were employed as colleagues, I recall now, upon the civil side, the case of the contested Shrievalty between Robert Ewing and John Thompson, in 1862, in which there were, besides the contest in the Common Pleas, two arguments in the Supreme Court, reported in 43 Pa., 372 and 384, and we congratulated each other not a little upon having won our case against two such astute lawyers as William L. Hirst and James E. Gowen, and upon our having successfully upheld the com- mission of that staunch citizen and good Sheriff, John Thomp- son. Among the more conspicuous of the criminal cases in which we were colleagues was the indictment of AUibone and Newhall, the former president, and the latter a director of the Bank of Pennsylvania. In this case we achieved what we regarded as a great victory, for we bore ofiE our clients harmless in the face of a very general but ill-founded popu- lar prejudice, making the case of the defendants so clear by an orderly and conclusive marshaling of our evidence, that when our case was completed. President Judge Oswald Thompson expressed his public disapproval of the prosecu- tion, and peremptorily directed the jury to find a verdict for the defendants, which they did with great alacrity without leaving the box. The charge upon which they were tried was an alleged conspiracy to misappropriate the funds of the bank. It was a field day for us, for we were both then young, in fine spirits, and correspondingly elate. It was, too, a fierce pitched battle, and at the end it seemed to be generally admitted on all sides that the rout of the prosecution was complete, and that we had driven the Philistines before us— even to the gates of Ascalon. 88 One of the best qualities in Judge Brewster's character was his unfaiHng amiabiHty. During all my association with him, professionally and socially, I do not remember a single in- stance in which a harsh word ever passed between us, or any act of any kind by which our friendly relations, were disturbed or overcast by even a passing cloud, and for this he was chiefly to be praised, for I never possessed the same equanimity or self-control which he did, but was of a hotter and more impulsive temper. Gentlemen of the Bar, the man whose sudden death we so much deplore had, by the force of his talents and his indefatigable industry, attained a distinguished place in the leadership of this Bar, and had occupied the highest places in our profession. When all is over, and the ceremonies of this hour are forgotten, he will take the place which belongs to him in our history, and he will be remembered as one of those lights of our profession which have illuminated the interval between the old Bar and the new, and which have helped, in no small degree, to transmit to the latter the reflected glory of our elder days. We do well, therefore, before we pass on, to build here a cairn to his memory which will be as endur- ing as the traditions of our profession. Upon the announcement that the Chair would hear motions, Hon. Thomas R. Elcock offered the following minute for adoption : — The Bar of Philadelphia, assembled in consequence of the death of Hon. Frederick Carroll Brewster, place upon record the following tribute to his memory: — Frederick Carroll Brewster, born in the city of Philadel- phia on May 15th, 1825, admitted to this Bar upon Septem- ber 7th, 1844, died upon December 30th, 1898, was for all his life in close communion with his brethren of this Bar. From his admission in 1844, by his brilliancy, eloquence and learning, he became a most formidable advocate and counselor, winning the confidence of the judiciary, the Bar, and the people. 89 As City Solicitor of Philadelphia, with some of its most important cases under his guidance, he proved himself to be most faithful and successful. As Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia, he was ever able, prudent, and wise. As Attorney-General of the Commonwealth, he won re- nown for his faithful guardianship of the interests of the whole people. Returning to the ranks as a general practitioner, with his vast experience and accumulated learning, he rose to the pinnacle of his fame as a leader of his profession. He was the admiration of his fellow-members of the Bar, not only for his brilliancy of learning and eloquence, but for his high integrity and honor, guided by that deep sense of charity which made him a model for both his profession and the people. We bow.in sorrow at the loss which the Bar and his country have sustained. After the reading of the minute, Judge Elcock said : — Frederick Carroll Brewster, whose loss we mourn this day, was in my opinion, mentally and morally, the best-equipped general practitioner this Bar has ever known. He was alike great in the criminal as in the Supreme Court, and whether it was the refinement of a homicide or the measure of a trust, he was master of all, and could control the spirit of each, like a Mozart the strings of his harp. Why repeat the numerous cases in which he was victorious? The genius of a lawyer is not always exhibited in large, and what the public may deem, important cases. The highest principles and purest philosophy are often required to win cases small in amount, and for clients to correspond. The detail of the life of an active practitioner is hard work, and thorough equipment for it is ever essential. Our deceased friend passed through every stage of it. He was laborious to exhaustion, and whilst he was the quickest and brightest 90 to see and to measure all that appertained to his cause, the strain of labor was ever hard, and this is what whitens the locks and weakens the heart throb of so many. I made his acquaintance when I entered his office as his first student, many, many years ago. The kindly smile and the courtly bow with which he received me as a boy, I have never forgotten. He was ever before my eyes the same amiable, genial, kind man. He was always the same, and his sincerity could never be doubted. We never knew a separation or an unkind word in our many years' connec- tion. He had trials and disasters, because he was only a man, but no one ever heard him complain that his lot was harder than another's. He was silent as to his own griefs. He had success because he deserved it, because he worked to win it, and he worked not only in the mastering of his own profession, but he was a deep student in science and art. He traveled for rest, until he had passed around the world and up and down two continents, and added the result of his travel to the study of the books. His information and learning made him a delightful companion, full of wisdom, wit, and pathos; so that no one ever listened to his recitals but came away charmed and captured. This fascination was irresistible, and conquered court and jury when he chose to become eloquent to enforce his argu- ment. His charm of manner when addressing a court, his courtesy to his opponent, his brilliancy in repartee, his raillery at human nature, with its follies and freaks, made him a great advocate. His learning in the law may be epitomized in his opinions as City Solicitor, as Judge, as Attorney-General, and in the volumes which he has contributed to the literature of the profession. They have never been assailed. He was of sturdy mind and well-balanced judgment; so that whatever he ruled upon or decided, and whomever he was to guide, he was like the mariner standing by his compass, steady and true, and like the mariner in more ways than one, for as he at the wheel in the storm may see his earthly mon- 91 itor destroyed, and looks aloft to the polar star in the heavens for guidance and light, so did our friend ever look on high for like guidance and hope. I knew him well and I knew him to be a most devout and religious man. When others would be resting or enjoying some passing amusement, he could be caught unawares in odd places with his Bible in hand in deep study. He was not making a cloak or a shield of his religion, but "deep in his heart the still prayer of devotion, unheard by the world, rose silent to God." Endowed with this devotion and love^ it made him the most charitable and forgiving of men. He never said an unkind word or harbored revenge; although he had slurs and indig- nities cast upon him, he would rise above them and forgive them all, not for humility, but in his independence he de- spised such small things as beneath the spirit of a gentleman. These lessons he taught to all, by both precept and ex- ample, and he was a good teacher, not only of law, but of public and private morals. The students of his ofifice out- numbered that of all others at the Bar, and he taught them well, lessons of law, and when they separated to find their own way, he was still their guide and brother. He exhibited to the world the novelty of the teacher who tied his student so close to him by his confidence and affection that they never ceased to respect and love him, and he kept up this kind of relation with all of them until many of them now advanced in years bow in sorrow that the tie is broken. No member of this Bar ever secured such an extraordinary attachment. It was only a few days ago when his students gave him their customary annual feast. At it, he was the gayest of the party, and made one of the happiest speeches I ever heard. He made all of the party alike happy, but he was head and front of it all, and, like the fabled swan, he sang sweetest ere he died. But taps have been sounded and the light has gone out. He whom we loved and respected has passed away. Let us hope that amidst the gloom he may see the light and find his reward in those words of eternal joy, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." 92 The Hon. Michael Arnold, after seconding the minute just read, spoke as follows: — Mr. President: — If, in speaking of Judge Brewster, I shall speak of myself in connection with him, it is because of the very close relationship which existed between us, and also because of a long-continued friendship which brought me so near to him that I feel as if I were speaking of one of my own family when I speak of him. My acquaintance with him began shortly after the year 1863, when I was ad- mitted to the Bar. Not long thereafter Mr. Brewster was elected Solicitor of the city of Philadelphia. At that time the force of the office consisted of the Chief Solicitor, an as- sistant, and a clerk. The Solicitor personally attended to the duties of the office, even so far as accepting service of the writs. He attended trials and arguments in court. We have seen the office grow into a great department, with a large corps of assistants, clerks, and messengers. Such has been the wonderful growth of our city. Judge Brewster was elected a judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1866, and served until 1867, when he was appointed Attorney-General of the State. As judge of the Court of Common Pleas he was ex-oMcio justice of the Court of Oyer and Terminer, judge of the Court of Quarter Sessions, and judge of the Orphans' Court. The varied nature of the duties he performed, as well as the volumes of them, may be found in the four books of Reports published by him, and also in the Philadelphia Re- ports published at that time. Two judges were required to sit in capital cases, and he did his full share of duty in that respect. He was always an industrious judge, and wrote many opinions to show the reason for his judgments. As the practice of writing opinions by the Common Pleas judges is approved by some persons and disapproved by others. Judge Brewster's work indicates that he was on the side of those who favored the writing of opinions. Besides publish- ing four volumes of Reports, he indulged in much instructive diversion in general literature and the study of languages, and in time gave us the result of his study in translation from 93 his favorite authors. I have before said that he was indus- trious; indeed, I can truthfully say he was a model of industry and methodical labor. He never permitted time to pass with- out filling in every moment of it with useful work. Even in the railroad cars he had his paper and pencil before him, jotting down his thoughts and keeping up with his work. He was one of the most careful and painstaking counselors I ever knew. He always came prepared to meet every turn the case might take, and was seldom taken unawares. The volume of work done by him is shown not only by the nu- merous and useful books he published, but also by the num- ber of cases in the Reports in which his name appears on one side or the other. His reputation as a lawyer, who gave all his time and study to his cases soon became well known, and it is not surprising that he, at a very early day, had one of the largest practices in the city. Other lawyers, noticing his zeal and success, took him into their cases, and at an early period he became a consulting counsel in important cases. In the litigation of a political character, with which we were at one time sorely afflicted, Mr. Brewster always had a part; and while such litigation often engenders bad feeling and leaves sore wounds behind, yet Mr. Brewster preserved kind, per- sonal relations with his antagonists, thus showing that an intellectual contest is not a brute quarrel. Mr. President, as I said before, I had close personal rela- tionship with Mr. Brewster. At one time I had offices with him as his assistant. Just after he accepted the appointment of Attorney-General and had not fully established himself in practice, he engaged me to commence suits, prepare the pleadings, and assist him in the trial of cases. It was thus I gained an insight into his true character. It is sometimes said that excessively polite men are insincere. This, Mr. Presi- dent, is the time for one who knew Mr. Brewster well, to say that in all my acquaintance with him I never heard him utter an unkind word of any one. Let the curtains be drawn aside and the truth be told of this man, who, not lacking a cause, nevertheless always spoke kindly of other men. 94 I next speak, Mr. President, of Mr. Brewster as a char- itable man. Much was done by him, but Httle was known of it, in the way of kindness to others. I have known him to deliberately make copying work to be done by gentlemen who needed help, and who received assistance on the basis of a contract for work and labor done. At least one promi- nent man, who in his early life filled a large space in current public history, owed his living in his later life to Mr. Brew- ster. Let truth and justice prevail, Mr. President, and let us give, as is most justly due to Mr. Brewster, the judgment of truth — he was sincere and he was charitable. And let us also say of him that he was a true friend. He has gone from us, Mr. President, but he has left an example which we would do well to follow. Hon. William N. Ashman : — Mr. Chairman, Gentlemen of the Bar: — The secret of Judge Brewster's pre-eminence is, I think, easily told. He resolved at the beginning of his professional career to make others happy, as he himself at a later day told us, and he did it. He was courteous to all, regardless of conditions or stations, but his heart went out to young men, and he drew them to him with magnetic force. He was wise in this, be- cause the play of human sympathies kept him young when younger men were already old. He cared, as we have just heard, for the destitute and the helpless, but he never pub- lished his almsgiving. He resolved, when a young man, to do with completeness whatever he attempted to do, and he did it; and it was wise that he did so, because he was thereby enabled to do more and better work than most of his con- temporaries. He was a student; nothing in the world of books or in the world of art was too remote for him, and mingling, as he did, with men in their homes in every clime, he was enabled to touch with a master's skill every chord of the human soul. He had a fine presence, and a voice which could command or implore at his will. These gifts 95 and these acquirements would of themselves, Mr. Chairman, have made him a great lawyer and a greater advocate; but he had other and rarer endowments; the pictures of a glow- ing fancy enriched and vivified his speech, and they almost concealed the potency of the argument which charmed while it vanquished; yet, higher and grander than this, he possessed the God-given attribute of genius, through which he saw by intuition the truth for which other men are content to grope. It was the rare felicity of his lot that up to the final moment his mental vigor showed no sign of abatement. The last speech he made in the Orphans' Court was a masterpiece. I venture nothing whatever in saying of that speech, that in its transparent clearness of statement, in the subtlety of its logic, and in the exquisite drapery of its imagery, it would have added to the fame of an Erskine or a Webster. It was wonderful by reason of the strength it displayed, and still more wonderful by reason of the reserve strength which it suggested. Men felt, as they listened to the orator, that be- neath the measured utterances of scorn and righteous indig- nation against the wrongdoer, there lay a volcano of passion, which, if he had permitted it to burst forth, would have over- whelmed his antagonist. Mr. Chairman, I shall say no more. Judge Brewster, as we have heard, was a great man, of whom it would be pos- sible, perhaps, to make up a catalogue of virtues and gifts; of whom it would be possible, perhaps, to compile a record of his more public efforts; but to those who knew him and loved him I shall draw a picture, which is all they will ask for, and at the same time I shall pronounce the loftiest eulogy, when I say, with all the wealth of meaning which that single word can cover, that Judge Brewster lived, and died as he had lived, a Man. John A. Clark, Esq. : — Judge Brewster was one of my earliest acquaintances, and my friendship for him dated from that period when I was a schoolboy in the Episcopal Academy. His father, Francis 96 Enoch Brewster, took a pew in St. Andrew's Church, which my family attended, and brought with him his two sons. It was there that I first came to know Judge Brewster. He was then but recently admitted to the Bar, was fragile and delicate in his physique, but full of energy and vitality. Fre- quently, when a schoolboy, I heard him try cases in the Court of Quarter Sessions, where his eloquence and intelli- gence strongly appealed to my imagination and formed a link in the chain of circumstances which led me to select the Bar as my profession. In September, 1853, I was entered as a student at law in the office of the late E. Spencer Miller. Mr. Brewster had then been admitted nine years to the Bar, had acquired a large clientage, and was regarded as one of the youthful lead- ers of the profession. The legal reputation which had pre- ceded him in the great success of his father had unquestion- ably given him a very great advantage in becoming known to the community. At an early period of my career I had been frequently told by eminent practitioners, who had been contemporary with Francis Enoch Brewster, that he had shown himself to be a man of great ability, by reason of his eloquence, force of char- acter, and prodigious energy. In jury trials he was repre- sented to me as being irresistible in his force. He died June 2 1 St, 1854, about ten years after his son had been admitted to the Bar. As a young practitioner, Judge Brewster was remarkable for the same sterling qualities which distinguished him in later life — industry, vigilance, indefatigable perseverance, ur- bane manners, and attractive oratorical powers. From his early career he was remarkable for his persistent industry. He was never idle. While in court waiting for cases, he was engaged at a side table in writing out pleadings, letters, and briefs in cases which he had on hand, and doing such as is usually reserved for the office. He lost no time in conversa- tion with members of the Bar, or in listening to the cases that were being tried. On the lists of the old District Court especially, he had cases for every day that trials were going 97 on. During the period from 1855 to 1875 ^^ was trying or arguing a case almost every day. I have known him to try as many as three or four cases the same day. Of course during this period of twenty years he was, during part of the time, City SoHcitor, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and Attorney-General of the State of Pennsylvania. He was entirely devoted, during this time, to his profession, for he knew the law was a jealous mistress and tolerated no rivals. He was at this time eminently a jury lawyer, and between 1850 and 1875, barring his short judicial experience and his occasional absence from Philadelphia when he was acting as Attorney-Greneral, he tried as many, or more cases than any lawyer that ever practiced at the Philadelphia Bar. He lived like a hermit and worked like a dray horse. His work did not stop at sunset, but continued far into the night, gener- ally to midnight. Mr. David W. Sellers, who assisted Judge Brewster at quite an early period in his professional life, has often spoken to me of his great capacity for work. Mr. Brew- ster, he said, at midnight would write as clear a hand as he had at ten o'clock in the morning, after a long day of arduous labor. Mr. Brewster has frequently told me that he never had a strong constitution, and that at no time in his life had he been able to address town meetings in public halls, owing to a very delicate throat. During the past twenty years he has been trying fewer cases before juries, devoting himself to practice in the Su- preme Court. During this time he had a literary career which alone would have distinguished any lawyer. He has produced digests and many valuable books upon the practice of the law. He has, also, for the past twenty-five years, been a great traveler, flitting backward and forward from the United States to Europe. About three years ago he made a flying trip around the world. His whole career has been one of intense activity. I have often heard hira at Bar meetings speak of men being called away from this busy life. That was a favorite expression of his. His was, indeed, a busy life. Although during his earlier years he had but scant time for much enjoyment, he has, of late, been remarkable for his 98 hospitality to his friends of the Bar and his other acquaint- ances. We have all of us been recipients of his hospitality, and therefore nothing need be said upon that subject to this audience. In the midst of a beautiful career, surrounded by troops of friends, and loaded down with honors heaped upon him by the community, he has, without warning, been suddenly called away. The loss is ours, not his. Our lives will be in the future less enjoyable because we have lost his golden pres- ence. Hon. John H. Fow : — Mr. Chairman: — Were you ever charmed by the use of language; did you ever dwell upon the words that fell from the lips of a speaker, and, when it was all over, with what satisfaction you have gone to your home and thanked God that such a man lived. I have had that experience, and the man that dominated so over my mind and whose words were like the sweet in- cense burned before the consecrated altar, was my pre- ceptor; he has passed quietly to his eternal rest. But he has left a lasting impress for good upon the records of his country and the hearts of his fellow-men, a consolation that partly cures the poignancy of unutterable grief which we, who gathered knowledge at his knee, feel above all others. It is said that Philip of Macedon had a slave at his elbow who said to him daily, "Remember, thou art a man," to remind him that, notwithstanding his exalted position, he was mortal and, like all mankind, subject to the same inevitable fate. It was not necessary to so notify our dead friend. He always remembered that he was a man, and all his actions tended toward obtaining the love, respect, and esteem of his fellow-men; and he never uttered a greater truth exemplifying his own conduct in life than when, at one of his enjoyable reunions of his students, he said: "Riches and fame are nothing, compared with the love of your fellow- men." 99 What was greatness to him? He had had it thrust upon him and put it aside like one who tires of a glittering bauble that simply dazzles the eye. What were riches to him except to make his fellow-men happy; and so far as regards acts of unostentatious charity, his name, like Abou Ben Adhem, to those who know, leads all the rest. His whole conduct was that of a gentleman to the manor bom, and no young man can say that he was treated by Frederick Carroll Brewster in a perfunctory, patronizing way. His language, his advice, and all that he did, breathed of sin- cerity. His charming personality, as a chevalier of the old Bar, was happily combined with the business qualities of the pleader of to-day. He lived and practiced over the forma- tive period of our judicial history; he lived to see the rapid strides that civilization, with its attendant arts and sciences, has made, and his wonderful mind grasped all these prolific problems, and to the last his conversational powers were re- plete with a knowledge of them. He let no day pass that he did not, with tenacity of purpose seldom equalled, labor to widen the boundaries of his knowledge. His accomplishments included law, literature, and lan- guages. He considered a knowledge of all to be essential to a successful career. His acquirements in all branches have been used for the benefit of his fellow-men, and in years to come his works will be read with profit and pleasure. There was no divorce of law from literature with him. While the two branches are so closely interwoven, yet most of us pay little attention to the latter, practically applying all our time to the law. Some do so because of want of time; others because they believe that of all knowledge essential for a people to preserve, is a knowledge of their laws, but with Judge Brewster it was just as important to have a full knowl- edge of history and literature as that of law; and now, as he rests in his silent grave, we can rejoice with each other that he has left behind him glory and honor that will exist as long as the Philadelphia Bar, yet without the majesty of his presence; for — " Death made no conquest of him, For he lives in fame, though not in life." lOO Mr. Chairman, the Athenians sat at their banquet board with garlanded images of their honored dead to keep the memory of their greatness alive in their minds. It will need no such ceremony with us. The garlanded image of Fred- erick Carroll Brewster is best represented by his acts and deeds that will ever stand out in bold relief on the pages of law and literature, leaving an impress on minds and hearts for all time. Humanity never had a more able champion, and no crusade in its behalf had any terrors for him. He believed that as the ancients sought for truth at the bottom of the well, so should we seek it at the bottom of our hearts. Mr. Chairman, from the bottom of my heart the cry goes forth, I loved and respected that man, and I truthfully say — " I have that within which passeth show ; These but the trappings and the suit of woe." Men, nations, customs perish, but affection and love are immortal. The lowly Nazarene, as he wended his way along the shores of Galilee, taught us the law of ceaseless genera- tions — "for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." So let his epitaph be written on our hearts. John M. Patterson, Esq. : — Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Bench and Bar: — ^As the humble representative of the F. Carroll Brew- ster Law Club, I wish to pay a poor but sincere tribute to that departed representative of real "manhood and heroic nobleness" in whose name we are now assembled. I wish to speak of him, not as the eminent lawyer whose keen mind grasped all the subtleties of pleading, compre- hended all the intricacies of practice, understood all the rules of evidence, and whose depth, learning, and intelligence made him so familiar with the principles of the substantive law and the ethics of our profession; not as the fair and upright judge whose ideas of right and justice contained no alloy save mercy; not as the busy man of public affairs whose civic virtues and well-known executive ability won him, so many times, the honors of office and the encomiums of his fellow- lOI citizens; not as the profound scholar, deep-read in science and philosophy, and filled with thoughts of sublimest poetry; not as the gifted orator whose chaste thoughts were clothed in beautiful words which could not fail to delight the mind, while the rich and musical voice that uttered them charmed the ear and held the listener a willing captive; not as the accomplished author who added immortality to dying facts, awakened interest in what before had seemed but common- place, and illuminated with classic lustre that which, till then, had been dark and obscure; not as the world-wide traveler familiar with strange people and foreign lands — ^no — not as these, though Judge Brewster had, with rare ability and easy grace, played all these parts. To speak of such qualities, talents, virtues, and achieve- ments belongs to older men, who have known Judge Brew- ster for years; who have shivered lances with him in legal jousts; who have pleaded before him when he was judge, and who, by reason of age, can lift the curtain of memory and entertain and instruct with anecdote and reminiscence. I crave the privilege of saying a few words in reference to— " That best portion of a good man's life, His little nameless, unremembered acts of Icindness and of love." For, aside from all else. Judge Brewster was remarkable for his extreme kindness and uniform courtesy — especially to the young or the lowly. Once he told me that, when he was a student in his father's office, he was requested by him to take a petition around to the various members of the Bar and obtain their signatures thereto. The petition was addressed to the Legislature, and asked that body to repeal a certain Act of Assembly which was obnoxious to the members of the Bar. Judge Brewster said that after his father had carefully read the petition and subscribed to the same, he handed it to him with a request that he take it to certain persons, a list of whose names he furnished, and obtain their signatures to the petition. The first person on the list of names was the great Horace Binney, 102 at that time at the height of his fame. The future judge opened the door of Mr. Binney's office with a feeling of awe and a nervousness almost akin to fear, sensations which often take possession of youth when he approaches greatness. A smiling face met him as he entered, and a cheerful voice asked him what he wished. He said he wanted to see Mr. Binney. "That is my name," replied the owner of the smiling face and cheerful voice; "what can I do for you?" After young Mr. Brewster had recovered from the pleasant surprise that he received at finding this great man so kind to him, a youth and stranger, he handed the petition to Mr. Binney, and said that his father, Mr. Brewster, would like him, Mr. Binney, to sign the same. "A very wise petition, and one which every member of the Bar should sign," said Mr. Binney; "but, my dear young sir, before I sign the same, I must ascertain whether or not the date of the Act is correctly set forth in the petition, and whether or not the title, as the petition states it, is verbatim with the statute book." "But, sir," replied young Mr. Brew- ster, "my father drew up the petition and there is his signa- ture." "True, true; but in such matters I depend entirely upon myself." So saying, Mr. Binney went over to the bookcase, took down a volume, and verified the citation; after which he placed his signature on the petition, handed it to the future leader of the Bar, and, with a hearty handshake, bade him good-day like an old friend. The next person on the list was Mr. Sergeant, who, after inquiring in kindly tones of the young law student's busi- ness, asked him with deepest courtesy to be seated. When Mr. Sergeant had read the petition, he told young Mr. Brew- ster that he heartily approved of it, and as soon as he veri- fied the citation and words of the Act as they appeared on the petition, he would be most happy to sign it. "But, Mr. Sergeant," said the young man, "my father and Mr. Horace Binney have already done that." "I know, my dear young man; but in such matters I always look myself." 103 After Mr. Sergeant had satisfied himself and signed the peti- tion, he handed it back to young Mr. Brewster and, after grasping him warmly by the hand as if he had known him for years, wished him God-speed. Judge Brewster, after telling the above, said that he learned two lessons from it: first, always to be kind to every one, especially the law student and the young lawyer; second, in matters of law never to depend upon memory or upon some one's word, but always to look for himself. How well he learned both of these lessons need not be said by me, for his kindness to every one is proverbial, and the records of our courts testify far better than words to his care and industry. He was one of the welcome everywhere. The lowly ac- counted him their friend and magnates did him honor at their table. Many a smile of love, many a tear of pity, many a word of comfort, many a deed of magnanimity, many a stream of milk and honey poured he freely on the earth, and always without obtrusion, without show or ostentation. We younger men were drawn to him, not so much by the rare gifts of his mind, lustrous in the livery of knowledge — for if you but observe, you will find that great minds usually attract great minds and often frighten away the weak and inexperienced, who, realizing their frailty and inconversance, fear to expose the same, and cling to each other for support — we were drawn to him by his kindness and his goodness. We did not, when in his company, feel our insignificance nor appreciate our lack of ability or education. He made us feel that — " It is enough — Enough— just to be good ! To Hft our hearts where they are understood. To let the thirst for worldly power and place Go unappeased ; to smile back in God's face With the glad lips our mothers used to kiss. Ah ! though we miss All else but this, To be good is enough." 104 And when we would leave him after he had given us some good advice, or cheered us with words of encouragement, or amused us with some entertaining story, the hearty "God bless you, dear," which fell from his lips and followed us at parting, would ring in our ears and fill us with renewed hopes and higher resolves. He was ever ready to minister the balm of pity to the sor- rowful. He would seek the house of mourning, and peace would follow in his train. He would mark the gloomy, brood- ing silently in the cavern of regret, and a sunbeam of heav- enly hope would dance where the shadow had been. He would find the cottage of the poor, where disease and famine dwelt, then the bed of the sick would be smoothed, famine would flee, and the laborer would whistle at his toil. He would seek the wayward who had made a false step, and penitence and a promise of better times would follow his visit. He had always an alms for every want, a solace for every sorrow, a relief for every affliction, a balm for every grief, and word of cheer for every one, no matter how high, no matter how low. It was a great year which ended a few days ago, and by a strange coincidence a great life ended almost the same time. Hampton L. Carson, Esq. : — Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Members of the Bar: — The day before Judge Brewster started for the South on that journey which was to prove his last earthly pilgrimage, I re- ceived a note from him on a matter touching a function of the Bar, and as it contained no suggestion of ill-health or depression of spirits, the news of his death came to me, as to others, with painful suddenness. To me he never seemed to grow old. He had attained such prominence, at the time when I first knew him, that he could not add one cubit to his stature, and he maintained so easily this high position that I could not perceive the in- sidious attacks of age. When I came to the Bar he had 105 filled all of the offices which have been referred to. He had been City Solicitor, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and Attorney-General of Pennsylvania; he had argued the great cases of the Girard will, the Chestnut Street Bridge, and the Mintzer will; he had published the Reports containing those cases which form so interesting and so peculiar a feature of our legal history. He could do nothing more to win a title to fame; it was his already. All that he could do was by new proofs of his prowess to strengthen and confirm his proud position. He had every requisite of the great advo- cate — a handsome face, ah! how handsome it was; an eye of penetrating power — I have seen it flash like an electric spark; a voice of melodious strength; a commanding person; appropriate action; variety of treatment; a vein of humor; an inexhaustible fund of anecdote and illustration, historical, legal, literary, and practical, as well as an ample treasury of legal knowledge. There are some men so learned that their minds move but slowly beneath the weight; there are others so technical that their thoughts are choked by form; there are others so lightly balanced that they trip as they run; there are others so practical that they never suspect that the law is a science; there are others so bookish that they forget that they must deal with human nature. Judge Brewster committed no such errors. He was learned without ped- antry; he was exact and scrupulous without technicality; he moved swiftly, but clad in shining mail; he was philosophical and systematic, but he dealt with men and not with abstrac- tions. He exchanged blows, which were often-times victori- ous, with Theodore Cuyler, Jeremiah S. Black, William M. Meredith, E. Spencer Miller, William Henry Rawle, Lewis C. Cassidy, Furman Sheppard, George W. Biddle, and Rich- ard C. McMurtrie. He stormed courts by his legal logic and jury boxes by his impassioned speech. He persuaded, as though the fabled bees of Hybla had shed upon his tongue the choicest extracts of Attica. He poured about an oppo- nent the sparkling and laughing waters of wit and happy anecdote, or overwhelmed him with a full and resistless flood of fact and principle. He consumed and destroyed the io6 miscreant witness witii the eruptive lava of his denunciatory invective. I have heard from his lips words as eloquent as ever fell from human tongue, and I have caught my breath with astonishment at the power and penetration of his argu- ment. He seemed so full of life and vigor that I could not believe that he was mortal. A little more than a year ago I gazed into the depths of a great valley in the Rocky Mountains, through which the storm king had swept year after year, prostrating the tallest trees of the forest and piling them up in picturesque ruin. Here and there a noble hemlock of gigantic size and deeply driven roots still stood on some lofty eminence in proud de- fiance of the tempest, and waved its solitary boughs above the fallen forms of its once mighty companions, while a young and vigorous growth of saplings crowded the landscape with a new and ambitious hardihood. As I look to-day into the depths of that dark valley of the shadow of death and sum- mon to recollection the mighty spirits of that mysterious realm, and recall how long the proud form of Brewster tow- ered in his pre-eminence, his feet firmly planted on the earth, his brow kissed by the airs of heaven, his soul holding high communion with the stars, and now bend over the prostrate form of our last lost friend, I take comfort in the thought that from the rich mold of ambition, of learning, of devo- tion to principle and to truth, there will spring up for our encouragement the white flowers of purity, self-sacrifice, honor, and sanctity, which constitute the crown and the glory of all those who are privileged to act as high priests of justice. Ovid F. Johnson, Esq. : — Mr. Chairman and Brethren of the Bar: — Permit me to pay tribute to my dead friend. It was my privilege to have known Judge Brewster for a great many years, and I can say of him, that he was a man. There has not been a word uttered at this Bar meeting to-day that was not a word of truth. If F. Carroll Brewster were your friend, he was 107 your friend. He was a wise counselor and a foeman worthy of any man's steel, and the Bar of Philadelphia may well be proud of him, and it may well rear a tablet to his mem- ory. There is a tablet to-day to his memory in the many great and good works he has done; a tablet more lasting th^n brass, more enduring than steel, one that must stand out for the world to read in all its inscriptions. He was a lawyer, a good lawyer, and as you know well, Mr. Chairman, he was a very great lawyer; a man who would reflect honor and distinction upon any Bar in this country or any other country. He was one of the greatest lawyers Pennsylvania has ever produced. He had not one superior, at the time of his death, in this State, and I say, without fear of contradiction, in this direction, he had very few equals. He was a man in every sense of the word, and I feel it is as little as I can do, at this meeting of my brothers at the Bar, to contribute my humble voice to the memory of that man who was to me a good, kind, warm friend; a man for whom I have the highest regard; a man whose integ- rity was untainted and whose manhood rose to the grandest stature attainable. He went out from among you the other day, weak, almost falling, as it were, to regain strength in another State, but like a flash he was gone, and it was as the poet aptly said: — " Like the dew on the mountain, Like the foam on the river ; Like the bubble on the fountain ; He is gone, and, alas, forever." As Mr. Fow has said of the Greek who employed the slave, truly Judge Brewster needed not the repetition to him of that phrase, "Memento mori:" "Remember, man, thou art ■ but mortal." F. Carroll Brewster needed not another to re- peat to him those words, for he well remembered that he was but a man among men. It is as little as we can do to say of him what has been said, to pay tribute to the memory of this man who has gone out from among us, but who will live in our recollections as one of our most striking and last- ing monuments. When public men die, little of them can io8 be said at once; it rests with futurity to mould their history. It is human nature that when we are brought daily into con- tact with a man, we lose some of the respect due to him; but of all the men I have ever known, F. Carroll Brewster was the only man that never lessened or dwarfed in my es- teem by reason of my being brought in close personal contact with him. I came here to-day to say what I have said in memory of my friend, F. Carroll Brewster, and I unite with you in saying that he is an honor to us all, and his memory is a tablet in itself that will rise up and stand forever, as enduring and lasting as it is pure. Mr. Terry moved that the minute read by ex-Judge Elcock be adopted. Unanimously carried. Mr. Terry moved that the Chairman, officers, and speakers of the meeting be appointed a committee to see to the engrossing of the minute and reports of the speeches, and that a copy be properly certified to the family of Judge Brewster. This motion was unanimously carried. On motion of Judge Arnold, the meeting adjourned. meeting of tbe **3f. Carroll Brewster Xaw Club" of tbe Xaw Scbool of tbe •mniversiti? of pennsi^Ivania. Report of proceedings held at Room 676, City Hall, Philadelphia, on Thursday, January 5th, 1899, at 8 P. M. John M. Patterson, Esq., presided, and called the meeting to order. He said: — Fellow-Members of the Brewster Club: — We are called together to give public expression to our sorrow at the great loss which we and the community have sustained by the decease of Judge Brewster. No words can adequately express, no demonstration can appropriately show, the regret and sor- row we all feel at the departure of this great man. It is in vain that meetings have been called and "In Memoriams" will be written to testify the esteem and love the lawyers, the citizens of Philadelphia, and all who knew him, bore Judge Brewster. We knew him more intimately, perhaps, than did the community at large, and it seems to me we should be good judges in estimating his character and in perceiving his many and manly virtues. So much has been said and written of him of late that it seems almost superfluous for me to attempt to express my feelings in the matter; I will close by stating — " He was the first, the last, the best, by far, The Cincinnatus of the Bar." Samuel D. Ephraim, Esq., then offered the following resolution : — The F. Carroll Brewster Law Club, assembled on the death of its generous patron and kind friend. Judge F. Carroll (109) no Brewster, in sorrow and regret bowing to the divine decree, and paying this tribute to his memory, Resolves: — First. — That in the death of the Hon. F. Carroll Brewster the Club has lost the one who, by his support and protec- tion, did most to further the interest of the Club, and the individual members of the Club have lost a friend whose in- tegrity of character, manly friendship, and general courtesy endeared him to all, and thus added to the respect and honor which was entertained for his great ability, and we bow in great grief at his loss. Second. — That the Club tenders to the family and relatives of the late Judge Brewster in their hour of affliction its sin- cere sympathies. Third. — That a committee of five be appointed, who, with the officers of this meeting, shall deliver to the family of the deceased a copy of these proceedings. Cornelius Haggarty, Jr., Esq. : — Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Members: — As I gaze around this hall of justice and see you assembled to do honor to the illustrious dead, the first thought that enters my mind is the beautiful quotation, "O Death, where is thy sting! O Grave, where is thy victory!" The Philadelphia Bar met to-day and paid its tribute to its late leader. Oh, how much more appropriate it is for us, who are honored by bearing his sacred name, to meet and express our sorrow at his death. The Bench and Bar have lost their most eminent member, the community its most polished orator. But the Brewster Club has lost more. We have not only lost our preceptor, but also a father. If I were endowed with the eloquence of Cicero and had the genius of Shakespeare, it would be impossible for me to portray to you the love he had for us and the interest he took in our Club, both individually and collectively. There was nothing that gave him greater pleasure than to have the members of the Club, which bears his name, assembled around him as his guests, to urge them to work hard, to give Ill them good advice, and to shpw them the road to fame, glory, and wealth; when it was necessary, he was willing to assist them financially and intellectually. How well many of us remember his favorite maxim, "The law is a jealous mistress; beware how you treat her." He not only preached but he practiced it. He worked hard and faithfully for over fifty years. What was the result of his bard labor? He rapidly rose to the topmost rung of the ladder of fame, and at his death was the recognized leader, not only of the Philadelphia Bar, but of the State Bar. He was not only very learned in the law, but also as a classical scholar he had few peers. I have heard many speakers tell the good qualities of Judge Brewster, such as his great learning, his kind, courteous, and gentle manner, his reputation as a host; but these, in the eyes of God, are nothing when compared with his great charity. There are people who are not members of the Bar, or of the Brewster Club, who feel his loss as keenly as we, and who will suffer a great deal more. He never turned a deaf ear to distress. His name is a household word in many families, because of his charitable acts, while many poor persons bless his name. They have not only lost their friend, but also their benefactor. Although our dear preceptor has gone from our midst, his memory still lingers with us, and will remain when we, too, have joined the silent army and will meet him inside the golden gates. "He is not dead, but sleepeth." Frederick Beyer, Esq. : — Mr. Chairman and Friends: — But a few weeks ago we were assembled as his guests and entertained by his good humor; to-night "the past rises before me." The record of his generous life runs like a vine around the memory of our friend, and all his sweet, unselfish acts now are like per- fumed flowers. How wonderful and mysterious are the vicissitudes of hu- man happiness ! Man is said to be the boasted lord of all cre- ation, and yet he is the sport of every wind that blows and every wave that flows. He flourishes like the grass of the 112 field, and is cut down and withers ere the sun has passed beneath the distant mountain vale. He is like the flowers of the Springtime, full of fragrance and delight, but soon to wither and to share in that divine injunction: "Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return." There is nothing cer- tain but death. I regret exceedingly that I have not the power to extol by speech the feelings of my heart. My love for Judge Brew- ster was no less than yours. I followed the tall, white plume of Brewster's fame with all the idolatry of my boyhood days. I was then, and am to-night, a student proud to follow in the footsteps of his noble life. He was an able lawyer and an upright judge. He was a man of men, exemplifying by his noble life the highest ideals of true manhood. Like a soldier on the field of battle, he knew duty, but not fear. He was the champion of our Bar, and he gloried in her proud achievements, and added, by his fame, another jewel to her crown. The records of our courts of justice speak out in eloquent silence of his power as a pleader and an advocate. He was known for his trans- parent logic and his choice of language. He never tired in presenting reasons without number to sustain his argu- ments, and when the time had come for him to close, his auditors, court and jury alike, felt that he had closed too soon. Mr. Chairman, he was as great in the arts and in literature as he was in law. His love of nature carried him across the great oceans unto foreign shores, to bring back with him increased knowledge to bestow upon his friends and fellow- men. He loved to sit in close communion with intelligent men. He loved to hear, as well as to tell, of strange expe- riences and incidents of human life. The student of to-day was just as welcome to his study as the graduate of old. I recall with pleasure many a happy hour that I spent with him in talking over the future of this Club. He loved us all. He was indulgent even to a fault. He saw no fault in others, and if he did, he never mentioned it, but looked with charity towards all. Like the mariner whose life is spent "3 upon the waters of the deep, he sailed his bark in many a storm, and smiled upon the raging billows that cried out in fury to engulf him. He knew every breaker in the channel of life's voyage, and was glad to point them out to those of us about to venture on the ever-raging waves of an uncertain professional life. What we say here to-night will pass away and be forgot- ten. We cannot honor such illustrious dead. The record of a man like this grows grander as time rolls on. The power of speech cannot contain our love. We never can repay his acts of personal kindness. There was, there can be, no grander, gentler, truer, manlier man than Judge Brew- ster. Of him it might be well said, as was said of Brutus: — " His life was gentle ; and the elements So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up And say to all the world, ' This was a man ! ' " Mr. Chairman, it was my pleasure to attend, this afternoon, a meeting of our Bar. I listened with pride and pleasure to the words of praise that were like wreaths of ivy thrown upon his new-made grave. I could scarcely realize he had gone from among us, and that we could no longer behold those sparkling eyes of kindness. I realized then the sad and solemn truth, that in his death there was a loss that time could scarcely ever repay, and now that he has gone and landed on the shores of that celestial home of which we cannot speak, let me, in the words of the poet, sing across those darkened waters to the other shore — " While Summer days are long and lonely, And Autumn sunshine seems to weep ; While midnight hours are bleak and lonely, And only the stars and clouds their vigils keep : All gentle things that live shall mourn thee, All fond regrets forever wake. For earth is happier having known thee, And heaven is sweeter for thy sake." Daniel J. Shern, Esq. : — Mr. Chairman:— I did not anticipate, upon attending the meeting of the Club held this evening to do honor to the 114 memory of Judge Brewster, that I would be called upon to make any extended remarks, but as I sat, listening to my fellow-members and the remarks which they have made, I felt I would be doing violence to my conscience, if I did not, in my humble way, rise and pay my tribute of respect to the memory of Judge Brewster, whom I revered and whom I loved. His death to us is a sad one, sadder, perhaps, than we now realize, because we all know what a faithful friend he was. We never called upon him that he did not meet us with a gracious smile and a courteous hand- shake. The collations which he used to give to us, and which we attended, were sources of gratification, and it seems to me they have been inspiring lessons to each of us. We should go along in the future, trying to emulate the ex- ample which Judge Brewster has set before us. He has earned the honor and respect of the community at large. It may be well said of him, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Lewis C. Cassidy, Esq. : — I need not assure you, gentlemen, that from my heart I mourn with you to-night the loss of our beloved friend. The noble elements of his nature, his heart, his intelligence — ^all attracted and won me and made me love Judge Brewster. Henry H. Rosenfeldt, Esq. : — Mr. Chairman : — It is no part of my purpose to pronounce a studied panegyric upon either the genius or the public serv- ices of the distinguished man to the memory of whose irir- tues we would pay a becoming tribute of respect. I seek, sir, to add but a single leaf to the garland we would lay upon his tomb. I rise simply to express my high appreciation of that gen- uine manliness and true nobility of soul exhibited by the illus- trious deceased. In every age and in every country of the world, homage has been paid to the great and the good; "5 and still more appropriate has the custom obtained of paying a just tribute to the heroic and meritorious dead. The chisel of the sculptor and the pencil of the artist have been invoked to preserve their forms and features for other times. The life of F. Carroll Brewster is full of instruction. He was possessed of more unusual abilities than mere in- tellectual power, general knowledge, the gift of eloquence, or personal character. No man shared more largely in the affections of the Bench and the Bar of this State; no man was more beloved by his immediate constituency. He has won a great name which will grow brighter and brighter as time passes on, and although the grave covers him and all that was visible to us is forever hidden from our sight, yet, sir, it is not death. The noble example which his won- derfully useful life has furnished to the young men of this Club will long endure and serve to help us. His sun went down without a cloud upon its disk. Thomas H. McCaffrey, Esq. : — Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Brewster Club: — It seems to be the general course among societies which are about forming, not to name the society after any eminent person who is still living, but rather to name the society or club or association after a person who has built up his name in this world and has passed beyond. But when this Club was about forming in the Law School, and it was asked whose name it should bear, it was decided it should bear the name of F. Carroll Brewster. No matter what a man is thought of in this world, no matter how affable he may be, his name is soon forgotten after his death. Unless he leaves some lasting monument behind him, he is soon forgotten. Our patron has certainly left a monument behind him. To be Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, to be City Solicitor of Philadelphia, and to be Attorney-General of the State of Pennsylvania, is surely a very great record for one man to make, and make it with- out a spot of any kind upon his integrity. ii6 Those of you who have read Ian MacLaren's book, "Under the Bonnie Brier Bush," will perhaps remember the last story in it, of the doctor who had ministered to the wants of the people in a small Scottish village — not alone to the people who were then living, but had ministered to their fathers and mothers, perhaps forty years. When it came time to bury this venerable doctor, all the people in the village turned out to do honor to his name, and the lord of the manor went out of his way to be present at his funeral, and all because they loved the man. So it is with us. We assemble here to-night simply be- cause we love and venerate the man who was our patron. Bernard F. Owens, Esq. : — Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Members: — As a member of the Brewster Club I have attended, perhaps, as many meet- ings as others who are upon its rolls, and this is the first time when the occasion of attendance at a meeting of the Club has been a sad one. The ranks of the Club have, in no case, heretofore, been broken by death. I feel there is little I can add to the eulogies which have already been pronounced upon our departed friend and bene- factor; and while much was said at the Bar meeting held this afternoon in this building, it seems to me that one of the speakers very correctly summarized the character of Judge Brewster when he said, "This was a man." No higher tribute could be paid to Judge Brewster than to say he was a man in every respect. That means much in this latter part of the nineteenth century. As has been said by previous speakers, none ever applied to him for assistance of any kind in vain; he was never too busy, although his practice was immense, to turn aside and give of his time in unstinted quantity to any of the young men of the Bar, whose acquirements were, of course, much less than his own; and his assistance was always given freely and gladly, without any hope of reward. It is a source of peculiar gratification to think that the Judge has left behind 117 him monuments in the deeds of charity and in literary labors which shall live when the Brewster Club, perhaps, shall have passed out of existence and been forgotten. Ellis S. Abrams, Esq. : — Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Members of the Brewster Club : — ^There has been said of Judge Brewster almost every- thing it was possible to say. Few things have been said which, while true, have not still more truth in them, because much could have been added to them. One was that Judge Brewster liked to have intellectual people around him. Judge Brewster did — but, as between the intellectual and the unin- tellectual, I doubt if the Judge ever showed any partiality. He had all of us around him, and we are not as intellectual as some of the members of the Philadelphia Bar. Still, you all know that it was as great a pleasure for him to have us around him as the older members of the Bar. What gave the Judge more pleasure than to bring us into contact with those members? He did that for our own good, out of the goodness of his heart, and if he had not brought us into contact with them, possibly it would have been years before we would have met them in our profession. That was one of the pleasures that the Judge enjoyed — doing good to others. It is one of the greatest principles a man can possess — that of unselfishness. Though it is said that man was born to be selfish, it cannot be said of Judge Brew- ster, because he was, as we all know, most unselfish. All his actions clearly indicated that what he did, he did not for the good of himself, but for the good of others. At the Bar meeting held this afternoon, one of the gentlemen present gave expression to the feeling, that Judge Brewster was the only man he had ever come in contact with who, on close acquaintance, had not been dwarfed in his estimation. My experience is not very wide, my connection with the world at large is not very great, but I can still say the same thing that gentleman did. I have never met a man, whom, upon knowing him better, I have felt that I liked more. Some ii8 people, when you meet them twice, instead of advancing in your estimation, go backwards; but this was not true of Judge Brewster. That is the feeling I have always entertained, and always will entertain, towards Judge Brewster. Mr. Shern moved that the resolution offered by Mr. Ephraim be adopted. The motion was seconded by Mr. Maguire and carried unanimously. The Chair appointed Messrs. Ephraim, Scott, Ken- drick, Haggarty, and Owens a committee of five, with the Chairman of the meeting, to deliver to the family of Judge Brewster a copy of the proceedings. On motion, the meeting adjourned. ^^PMv • .\, • - I, •jt, * . * F.si;a(abaK .V ..•> . » ji V3R-A