COEITELL IBIIVER3ITY. 
 
 EXERCISES IN HONOR OF FRANCIS MILES FINCH. 
 
((ortipll ICaui irlyonl IGibrary 
 
Cornell University Library 
 KF 368.F49C81 
 
 Exercises in honor of Francis Miles Fine 
 
 3 1924 018 821 813 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924018821813 
 
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 From the Painting by J. Colin Forbes. 
 
CORNELL UNIVERSITY, 
 
 EXERCISES 
 
 IN HONOR OP 
 
 FRANCIS MILES FINCH 
 
 Dean of thb Faoultit of Latt 
 
 TJPOIS" TME OCCASION OF HIS 
 
 SEVENTY-FEFTH BIRTHDAY 
 JUNE », i9oa 
 
 ITHACA, NB'W YOKK 
 
 PCTBrilSEtBD BY TECH UNIVERSITY 
 
 I002 
 

INTRODUCTORY 
 
 On Monday, June 9, 1902, Judge Francis Miles 
 Finch, a former Associate Judge of tlie New York 
 Court of Appeals, and now Director of the Cornell 
 University College of Law and Dean of its Faculty, 
 reached the age of seventy-five. The University 
 celebrated the anniversary occasion with appropriate 
 ceremonies in Boardman Hall and at the same time 
 exhibited the admirable portrait of Judge Finch 
 painted by Mr. J. Colin Forbes and recently pur- 
 chased by the Board of Trustees for the library of 
 the College of Law. 
 
 The exercises were held in Boardman Hall at 
 five o'clock. The large lecture room had been taste- 
 fully decorated with palms and other potted plants 
 and the new portrait hung over the platform at the 
 west end of the room surmounted by a wreath of palm 
 leaves and of laurel in full blossom. A large num- 
 ber of students, professors and townsmen were in 
 attendance. 
 
 Shortly after five o'clock Judge Finch escorted 
 by President Schurman, Hon. Samuel D. Halliday, 
 
4 
 
 Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board 
 of Trustees, and Professor Ernest W. HuflFcut, Secre- 
 tary of the College of Law, entered the room and 
 was greeted with hearty applause, the whole audience 
 rising to receive him. 
 
 The exercises were opened with an address in 
 behalf of the Board of Trustees by Mr. Halliday. 
 This was followed by brief remarks from President 
 Schurman and the reading by him of letters from all 
 the present and former members of the New York 
 Court of Appeals who had served with Judge Finch 
 in that tribunal. An address in behalf of the Faculty 
 of Law was then delivered by Professor HuflFcut. 
 The exercises concluded with a response by Judge 
 Finch. As he rose to speak the entire audience also 
 rose and greeted him with repeated cheers and wav- 
 ing of handkerchiefs. As the audience dispersed at 
 the conclusion of his address the chimes rang out 
 with the familiar tunes to which some of the well 
 known songs of Judge Finch are set. 
 
ADDRESS IN BEHALF OF THE TRUSTEES 
 
 BY HON. SAMUEL D. HALLIDAY 
 
 Cornell University has been fortunate in many 
 respects. It was the good fortune of Cornell Uni- 
 versity that years ago Judge Finch was the legal 
 adviser of its Founder. It was the good fortune of 
 Cornell University that Judge Finch was also its 
 legal adviser during some of its darkest days. It 
 was also the good fortune of Cornell University that 
 Judge Finch, at the very beginning and for years after- 
 wards, was a member of its Board of Trustees and 
 one of its Executive Committee. It is now also the 
 good fortune of Cornell University that Judge Finch, 
 hale and hearty, at the age of seventy-five, is still 
 Dean of its College of Law. 
 
 Many persons have done a great deal for Cor- 
 nell University by endowing it with some of their 
 riches. They are justly called its benefactors. 
 Other persons also have done a great deal for Cornell 
 Universitj' by giving it their advice, their counsel 
 and the benefit of their wisdom, and by long and 
 patient attention to the endless details, careful atten- 
 tion to which always contributes so much to the suc- 
 cess of any institution of this kind. These also 
 should be called benefactors and in this latter class 
 prominently stands forth Judge Finch. 
 
 I shall mention but one example out of many. 
 In 1874 this University was involved in complica- 
 
tions so serious that they seemed almost fatal. At a 
 meeting of the full Board of Trustees, held in June 
 of that year, Judge Finch, then a practicing attorney 
 of Ithaca, presented the difficulties under which the 
 University was laboring with that marvelous clear- 
 ness which has justly made him famous. He had 
 carefully thought out a plan of action. But that 
 plan involved the necessity of getting the consent 
 of the State of New York ; a consent which it was 
 thought the State would never give. He recom- 
 mended that representatives of the Board should be 
 immediately sent to Albany to try to accomplish 
 that result. His plan was adopted and he, of course, 
 was sent as one of those representatives and as 
 spokesman for them all. It is needless now to go 
 into details, but the mission was successful and a 
 great crisis in the history of the University was 
 successfully passed. 
 
 It is not generally known, but it is a fact, that 
 the national grant of lands, out of which has ulti- 
 mately been obtained the great bulk of Cornell's 
 present endowment, was originally given to a college 
 in the little village of Havana in the adjoining county 
 of Schuyler. It was known as "The People's Col- 
 lege" and its promoter or benefactor, its Ezra Cornell, 
 was one Charles Cook of that village. That institu- 
 tion failed to comply with the national grant and 
 that endowment was taken away from it and given 
 to Cornell University. That college soon thereafter 
 disappeared as a "People's College" or as a college 
 of any other name. Its sole and only building then 
 existing is now known as the "Cook Academy." 
 
If Judge Finch's mission to Albany in 1874 had 
 failed, a similar fate might have befallen Cornell 
 University. It is entirely certain in that event that 
 there would have been no College of Law upon this 
 hill. It is entirely probable that there would not 
 have been any Cornell University for any consider- 
 able time after that event ; and it is entirely possible 
 that if any institution of any kind had existed here 
 to-day, it would have been known simply as the 
 "Cornell Academy." Is not a person who success- 
 fully carries through such a mission with such results 
 quite as much of a benefactor as he who nobly gives 
 to the institution a portion of his riches ? I will not 
 mention other examples, but if the history of the 
 business management of Cornell University is ever 
 written, as it may some time be, with the sole excep- 
 tion of the name of the Founder, no name will be 
 found interwoven in its earliest records more exten- 
 sively or more honorably than that of Francis Miles 
 Finch. 
 
 I desire to add here one more idea. It is the 
 custom now-a-days among all active practitioners in 
 this State to run through the decisions of the Court 
 of Appeals as they appear and read only those 
 relating to matters in which they are personally 
 interested. That custom did not prevail to the full 
 extent during the fourteen years or more that Judge 
 Finch was a member of the New York Court of 
 Appeals. During that time all active lawyers read 
 clear through all the opinions of Judge Finch 
 whether relating to subjects in which they were par- 
 ticularly interested or not. This was because of the 
 metallic clearness, the apt expression, the beautiful 
 
style and the matcliless power of statement whicli 
 characterized all those opinions. If some enterprising 
 person should collect all the opinions of Judge Finch 
 and publish them in a series of volumes, they would 
 furnish charming, interesting and entertaining read- 
 ing, not only for every practicing lawyer, but for all 
 persons who are interested in and enjoy good litera- 
 ture. These readers would not only acquire a vast 
 amount of legal information, but they would be bene- 
 fited by imbibing and becoming imbued with the 
 literary style of that man who, as everybody justly 
 concedes, is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, 
 judicial writer in the English speaking world. But 
 enough of this. My duty here to-day is a simple one. 
 On behalf of the Board of Trustees of Cornell 
 University I will not present this portrait to anybody. 
 Some six weeks since Cornell University bought this 
 portrait with its own funds and presented it to itself 
 My duty is only to make public announcement of 
 this selfish fact. It will be placed upon the walls of 
 this building and it will not only reflect the features 
 of the man whom it represents, but its purchase by 
 the University will also to a limited extent reflect the 
 great respect this University has for the present 
 Dean of the College of Law. 
 
REMARKS, AND READING OF LETTERS 
 OF CONGRATULATION 
 
 BY PRESIDENT JACOB GOULD SCHURMAN 
 
 Of the distinguished services rendered by Judge 
 Finch to the cause of legal science and legal educa- 
 tion it is not my part to speak to-day. But his 
 intellectual pursuits have not been exclusively in 
 the domain of law. 
 
 Only ten days ago in many parts of this country 
 one of Judge Finch's poems was widely sung, recited 
 and spoken on Memorial Day. Some months earlier 
 in the autumn of last year when I attended the bi- 
 centennial at Yale University I found one of his 
 poems forming a principal part of the programme 
 and that the same poem had been read and sung 
 there fifty years before. 
 
 I remember having heard that when Judge Finch 
 was a college student he was particularly interested 
 in the study of philosophy and that he took great 
 delight in reading the works of Sir William Hamil- 
 ton. The philosophical bent of his mind appears I 
 am told in some of his opinions where fundamental 
 questions are involved and has especially asserted 
 itself in the course of lectures he now delivers before 
 our students upon the History and Evolution of the 
 Law. He is known to us not only as a great lawyer 
 
to 
 
 and a great judge but also as a poet and a philo- 
 sophical jurist. 
 
 The College of Law througli its Secretary has 
 invited on behalf of the University those judges 
 who had formerly been associated with Judge Finch 
 upon the bench, and whose friendship he deeply 
 prizes, to be present on this occasion ; but they have 
 been unable to attend, and I will read the letters re- 
 ceived from them which I think you will be inter- 
 ested to hear. 
 
 from ex-chief judge andrews. 
 
 Syracuse, N. Y., May i8, 1902. 
 
 I have your favor of the 15th inst., conveying an invita- 
 tion from the President of the University to participate in the 
 proceedings in honor of Judge Finch. I regret exceedingly 
 that engagements which I cannot postpone prevent my accept- 
 ance. 
 
 I feel a warm personal friendship for Judge Finch and in 
 common with the bar of the State I appreciate the value of 
 his illustrious services on the bench. 
 
 From what I know of his preeminent qualifications as an 
 original investigator in the science of the law, I am confident 
 that his work at Ithaca when it comes to be known beyond 
 the circle of the class room will form a most valuable and 
 permanent contribution to general jurisprudence. 
 
 Again sincerely regretting my enforced absence on the 
 day of your contemplated anniversary, I am, 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Chari.ES Andrews. 
 
 from ex-jxjdge eari,. 
 
 Herkimer, N. Y., May 22, 1902. 
 
 Your invitation to participate, in some ceremonies in honor 
 of my very dear friend, Judge Finch, has come to hand, and 
 
II 
 
 I regret to say that my engagement as referee in a very im- 
 portant matter during the week of the gth of June will prevent 
 my acceptance. It would give me great pleasure to associate 
 with others in doing honor to one so worthy and so dis- 
 tinguished in law and literature. Tell the Judge after it is 
 all over, that one who is nearing his seventy-eighth birthday 
 considers seventy-five quite youthful. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Robert Earl, 
 from ex-judge tracy. 
 
 New York, June 7, 1902. 
 
 It would give me great pleasure to accept your courteous 
 invitation to be present at the celebration of Judge Finch's 
 seventy-fifth birthday and I regret that professional engage- 
 ments will prevent my being present. In the year in which 
 I had the honor to be associated with Judge Finch in the 
 Court of Appeals I came to have a very high esteem for him 
 and great respect for his character and learning. These feel- 
 ings of esteem and respect have been strengthened by the 
 subsequent years in which he has contributed so much to the 
 jurisprudence of our State. Will you ask Judge Finch to 
 accept through you my very cordial congratulations and good 
 
 wishes. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 B. F. Tracy. 
 
 from mr. justice peckham. 
 
 Supreme Court of the United States, | 
 Washington, D. C, June 4, 1902. j 
 
 Your invitation has reached me just as I am starting for 
 the North to fulfill another engagement which will prevent 
 my acceptance of yours to be present on the occasion to do 
 honor to Judge Finch. I greatly regret my inability ; for too 
 much honor cannot be paid to his sterling merits as a man, a 
 lawyer, a judge, and now last of all as a professor of the law. 
 
12 
 
 which he has expounded from the judgment seat for so many 
 years. I have had the honor, and advantage of a personal 
 acquaintance with Judge Finch for many years, but since our 
 close association for a number of years as judges of the New 
 York Court of Appeals my acquaintance broadened into 
 admiration and friendship. The sturdy integrity of the man, 
 the perfect independence of the judge, the kindly disposition 
 of the friend, all come before me as I think of him in what 
 were fatiguing days of similar labor in and out of court, and 
 I linger with special fondness upon those times, when in the 
 intervals of work, we passed from legal subjects to the discus- 
 sion of any thing and everything of current interest. The 
 views of Judge Finch were those of a highly educated man, 
 of broad mind and charitable inclinations, always holding up 
 the purest and best ways for attaining any definite object. I 
 admire his ability and I love his genial nature. 
 
 I shall be with you in spirit, and in honoring him you 
 will honor the University which has the benefit of his services. 
 
 Very truly, 
 
 R. W. Peckham. 
 
 from judge gray. 
 
 State of New York, Court of Appeai<s, ) 
 Albany, May 31, 1902. j 
 
 I very much regret to find myself unable to accept the 
 invitation of Cornell University, so courteously extended to 
 me through you, to be present, and to make an address, upon 
 the occasion of the presentation of the portrait of Ex-Judge 
 Finch, Dean of the Law School. In addition to the very 
 grave inconvenience which my absence would cause to my 
 associates upon the bench, particularly, at that time, a per- 
 sonal engagement interferes to prevent my attendance. 
 
 My association with Judge Finch for many, years the 
 sincere friendship which resulted, and my admiration for his 
 eminent judicial abilities, would make the duty devolving 
 upon me in complying with the request of the University, a 
 most pleasant one. It would be a grateful task to speak of 
 
13 
 
 his great talents as a jurist, and of those admirable and gentle 
 personal traits which endeared him to all who were privileged 
 with his friendship. 
 
 As Judge, his opinions were conspicuous for the conclu- 
 siveness and clearness of their reasoning and they are among 
 the most valuable of those which have given repute to the 
 reports of this court. Remarkable for their purity of English 
 and elegance of composition, they lack nothing in force or 
 logic. Their discussion of questions was characterized by a 
 breadth of thought and by a grasp of the arguments for and 
 against which satisfied the bar. His associates in the court 
 found him wise, firm and helpful in consultation, and they 
 found him lovable in the daily intercourse. Nor does his 
 title to the respect and admiration of the public depend, only, 
 upon his possession of remarkable juridical talents. Well 
 stored with the learning to which a catholic literary tastehas 
 contributed, intensely human in its interests and sympathies 
 and keen in its perceptions of the pathos, or of the senti- 
 ment, in human events, his mind has set no boundaries to its 
 expressions. 
 
 His reputation for learning and ability as a judge will 
 live, while the science of the law has its followers ; but as 
 imperishable will be the verse, which, as college song, ballad 
 or epic poem, has stirred the hearts of young and old. 
 
 That, in the fullness of his years, his mind knows no 
 diminution of its graceful and rich fruitage, is a pleasing 
 thought to his friends, as it must be a cause for congratulation 
 to the University to whose work he has devoted so many 
 years of his life and whose success has been so dear to him. 
 It is most fitting that his calm, strong face should be per- 
 petuated upon canvas and I congratulate the University upon 
 having secured a faithful and satisfactory portraits for its 
 Halls. 
 
 I beg you to convey to the President and Faculty of the 
 University the expressions of my regret at being unable to be 
 present and of the profound respect I entertain for them. 
 I am very truly yours, 
 
 John Clinton Gray. 
 
14 
 from judge o'brien. 
 
 State of New York, Court of Appeals, ) 
 Albany, June 4, 1902. j 
 
 It would be a great pleasure to me to be able to join with 
 the neighbors and friends of Judge Finch in doing honor to 
 him on his seventy-fifth anniversary. I would like to greet 
 him in his own home, among his own friends and neighbors, 
 an old friend and associate, now full of years and of honors, 
 whose life and character have always commanded my admira- 
 tion ; but I fear, for reasons which will readily suggest them- 
 selves, I will not be able to do that and hence must convey to 
 him in this form my best wishes for his health and happiness 
 for many years to come. 
 
 He has passed the alloted years of man according to the 
 Psalmist but in these modern days that saying is regarded as 
 the opinion of the poet rather than the prediction of the pro- 
 phet and certainly in the case of Judge Finch we may consider 
 it as expressing the exception rather than the general rule, 
 since a kind Providence has vouchsafed to him the full enjoy- 
 ment of all his physical and mental powers with apparently 
 many years of future usefulness. 
 
 On his seventy-fifth birthday Judge Finch and his friends 
 will have the pleasure of looking back upon a life well spent 
 and exceptionally honorable and useful. Perhaps the most 
 enduring monument that he has erected for himself is to be 
 found in his work as a jurist. His opinions in the Court of 
 Appeals constitute a true picture of the man as he was and as 
 he is, — a correct thinker, a sound reasoner, one who loves 
 justice and hates iniquity. Adorned as they are with all the 
 attractions of a clear and graceful literary style they will be 
 read with pleasure and profit by generations yet to come. 
 
 One who has spent his early years in the successful prac- 
 tice of an honorable profession, who has adorned the bench of 
 the highest court of the State, who has contributed much to 
 law and literature, who in his leisure hours occasionally 
 courts the muse, cautiously but with singular success, who 
 
15 
 
 dedicates his declining years and his ripe experience to the 
 instruction of youth in the laws of their country, and who is 
 now surrounded by all those delightful accompaniments of old 
 age such as "honor, love, obedience, troops of friends," has 
 achieved a measure of success and happiness that but very 
 few of us can hope to attain. 
 
 With my best wishes and kindest regards to Judge Finch 
 and his friends, I am, 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Denis O'Brien. 
 
 from judge bartlett. 
 
 Court of Appeals, State of New York, ) 
 New York, June 4, 1902. J 
 
 I have your letter of second inst., inviting me to be pres- 
 ent at the ceremonies on the ninth inst. , in honor of the seventy- 
 fifth birthday of Judge Francis M. Finch. 
 
 I regret that my previous engagements are such as to 
 make it impossible for me to appear in person and say some- 
 thing on that most interesting occasion. 
 
 I was fortunate enough to sit with Judge Finch for several 
 years in the Court of Appeals. 
 
 I entered the court entertaining, in common with the bar 
 of this and other States, a profound respect for his great learn- 
 ing and high character as a judge. 
 
 The judicial intimacy of the court, however, revealed to 
 me, at close range, not only the great judge, but those delight- 
 ful qualities of head and heart, which have resulted in life- 
 long friendship and affectionate regard. 
 
 I congratulate the Cornell University College of Law that it 
 had the supreme good fortune, years since, to secure as Dean 
 of its Faculty, Judge Francis M. Finch. 
 
 You have him in all the splendid maturity of his powers ; 
 the rich mellow autumn of his years. 
 
 Your students are enjoying the latest productions of a pen 
 that in youth wrote some of the best loved songs of old Yale ; 
 
i6 
 
 that in midlife gave the country "The Blue and the Gray" ; 
 that in later years combined in a rare degree profound learn- 
 ing with a delightful and finished literary style, in opinions 
 that occupy a commanding place in the classics of the law. 
 
 I realize this is bringing '''coals to Newcastle," so will 
 close by assuring you all that I will be present in spirit on the 
 ninth inst., and shall entertain the hope of soon looking upon 
 "fair Portia's counterfeit," which will pass into your posses- 
 sion at that time. 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Edward T. Bartlbtt. 
 
 telegram from judge haight 
 
 Albany, N. Y., June 9, 1902. 
 
 Please convey to Judge Finch my congratulations and 
 best wishes for many happy returns of the day. 
 
 Albert Haight. 
 
ADDRESS IN BEHALF OF THE FACULTY 
 
 OF LAW 
 
 BY PROFESSOR ERNEST W. HUFFCUT 
 
 In behalf of the Faculty of Law it is my pleasant 
 mission to add a word of congratulation and good 
 wishes to those already spoken. Since January, 1896, 
 when he returned to us from his official duties, Judge 
 Finch has been closely associated with us in the work 
 of our College of Law, both as its Director and as a 
 regular class room teacher. Our more intimate rela- 
 tions with him, while serving to increase our high 
 estimate of his scholarship and juristic attainments, 
 have especially strengthened the bonds of affection 
 and reverence. His kindliness, thoughtfulness, and, 
 may I say, affectionate fatherliness, have won our 
 hearts as his great attainments as a jurist and his 
 eminent services as a judge had before won our pro- 
 found admiration. Greater than the scholar, the j urist 
 or the teacher, is the man, whose heart is as gener- 
 ously endowed as his mind, and who in the fulness 
 of his age and honors has come modestly and help- 
 fully among us as a friend and fellow worker. He 
 has left the indelible impress of his strong and cul- 
 tivated intellect upon the jurisprudence of this State 
 and this age ; but he has left it also upon the history 
 of this University and of this School of Law. 
 
i8 
 
 Thirty-four years ago next October lie stood near 
 this spot among tlie little group of courageous men 
 who then opened wide for the first time the doors of 
 Cornell University. On that occasion he spoke in 
 behalf of the gentle and gracious lady to whose 
 thoughtfulness we owe the chime of bells now hung 
 in our library tower. From the first he had been the 
 friend and counsellor of the Founder and had shared 
 with him his hopes and borne with him his trials. He 
 was closely united by ties of college and fraternity 
 with the first President. He was the friend of the 
 second Founder. From the first, conception of the 
 University to this day he has been intimately in touch 
 with its growth and progress — as a trustee from 1865 
 until his judicial duties led to. his retirement in 1882,' 
 as a lecturer in the School of Law from its founda- 
 tion in 1887 and as the Dean of its Faculty since 
 1892. We have laid here large claims to his time 
 and thought and have always found a ready and 
 generous response. 
 
 But even larger claims have been made upon 
 him by the State. For fifteen and a half years — 
 from June i, 1880, to December 31, 1895 — he sat as 
 a member of the court of last resort in the most 
 populous and wealthiest English-speaking common- 
 wealth outside of England herself. Aside from the 
 House of Lords and the Judicial Committee of the 
 Privy Council in England, and the Supreme Court 
 of the United States, no court of last resort ad- 
 ministering the common law affects by its decisions 
 so many individuals or such a range and extent of 
 interests as the Court of Appeals of the State of 
 New York. From 1880 to 1895 was a period of ex- 
 
19 
 
 traordinary activity in every sort of industrial enter- 
 prise and in every variety of legislative experiment. 
 The court calendar was crowded during these years 
 with cases of the first importance, besides the great 
 multitude of ordinary cases affecting private interests 
 that always find their way to that tribunal. Proba- 
 bly over 8,000 cases were argued before the court 
 during the period that Judge Finch sat upon the 
 bench. While he participated in the decision of 
 most of these, upward of 1,150 were especially as- 
 signed to him for the formulation of the opinion. 
 In these cases he wrote over 750 opinions, tbe re- 
 maining 400 cases being decided upon his advice 
 without opinions. These opinions are scattered along 
 the highway of our law from volume 81 to volume 
 148 of the Reports of our Court of Appeals. 
 
 Many of these opinions have already become 
 thoroughly familiar to all students of the law. It is 
 doubtful whether any living judge is so largely re- 
 presented in the selections of cases reprinted for the 
 use of law schools. Some of the opinions have 
 already taken rank among the "leading cases" of the 
 law, to be hereafter the landmarks from which men 
 shall measure the true course and direction of our 
 jurisprudence. Such a case as the People vs The 
 North River Sugar Refining Company (121 N. Y. 
 582) in which it is decided that a corporation enter- 
 ing into a trust, even though by the indirect method 
 of the transfer of stock by the stockholders in ex- 
 change for trust certificates, has violated the law of 
 its being and incurred the penalty of corporate death, 
 must always remain a classic statement of the true 
 nature of a corporation and the limits of the fiction 
 
of the artificial entity. So also the books will be 
 searched in vain for a clearer or more rational dis- 
 tinction between a mere breach of contract and a 
 tort involving a breach of contract than is to be found 
 in Rich v. The New York Central & Hudson River 
 Railway (87 N. Y. 382.) One might also refer to 
 Badger v. Badger (88 N. Y. 546) on the evidence of 
 marriage where the decedent had led a double life, 
 or Will of O'Hara (95 N. Y. 403) on fraud, undue 
 influence, charitable trusts and perpetuities, or White 
 V. Rintoul (108 N. Y. 222) on the Statute of Frauds, 
 or scores of other similar cases in which his extra- 
 ordinary powers of insight and of expression are 
 exhibited. I merely mention these by way of illus- 
 tration of the juristic range and value of these incom- 
 parable opinions, since this is not the proper occasion 
 for a detailed examination of them. What distin- 
 guishes them all is the dramatic marshalling of the 
 facts, the lucidity and logic of the reasoning, the 
 soundness of the legal deductions, and the surpass- 
 ing excellence of the literary form. 
 
 Of the rare literary quality of these opinions I 
 need hardly speak in this presence. All who hear 
 me know the accuracy and felicity of diction, the 
 charm and picturesqueness of illustration, the sinewy 
 strength and mobility of style, that characterize the 
 writings of our illustrious friend. If one were called 
 upon to name three judges who have most perfectly 
 embodied sound law in strong and beautiful E^nglish, 
 he might name Sir George Jessel or Lord Bowen or 
 Mr. Justice Bradley, or possibly one or two others, 
 but he certainly must name Francis M. Finch as one 
 of the trio. It is not too much to say that had 
 
21 
 
 Judge Finch not been so scrupulously faithful to his 
 jealous mistress, the law, who exacts as the price of 
 her favors the fullest measure of devotion, he might 
 easily have taken a place in American letters com- 
 parable to that occupied by James Russell Lowell. 
 Who that has read the exquisite verses which he has 
 given reluctantly to the world, has not felt the thrill 
 that is the involuntary homage paid to the true 
 poet I Who could read the address delivered upon 
 this hillside thirty-four years ago in presenting in 
 behalf of Jennie McGraw the chime of bells that 
 calls us to our daily task, or the memorial address 
 upon Ezra Cornell, or the anniversary address upon 
 John Marshall, or any one of the too infrequent ad- 
 dresses he has delivered, without recognizing the 
 indefinable but convincing and authentic touch of 
 the perfect master of the art of expression ? 
 
 All this accumulated learning and experience of 
 more than fifty years at the bar and on the bench, 
 all this exquisite literary power, he has turned in 
 these latter days to the service of our School, and 
 particularly to the preparation of his lectures on the 
 History and Evolution of the Law. When these 
 lectures shall claim, as they surely must some day, 
 a wider audience than these halls can furnish, they 
 are certain to take their place in the foremost rank of 
 legal scholarship and of permanent American litera- 
 ture. 
 
 As lawyer, judge and teacher, as scholar, poet 
 and man of letters, he, whom we delight to honor 
 to-day, has occupied a wide field of interests and has 
 adorned and elevated every vocation and every avoca- 
 tion that he has followed. It is our greatest pride 
 
that for tlie past six years he has belonged pecul- 
 iarly to us — not having disdained after bearing the 
 highest judicial honors to share with us the daily 
 work of the teacher. In the plenitude of his powers 
 and honors he has come among us, the wise coun- 
 sellor, the ripe scholar, the eloquent and inspiring 
 teacher, the generous and open minded friend. 
 
 And so to-day, dear and venerated friend, we bring 
 you our congratulations that on the completion of 
 your seventy-fifth year you still find yourself in the 
 full possession of all those splendid faculties which 
 you have so long employed in the service of our 
 common mistress, and our sincere good wishes for yet 
 many peaceful and happy returns of this anniversary 
 day, and finally our heartfelt tribute of constant and 
 aflFectionate regard. May you long be spared to us 
 in health and strength. May we long go about our 
 accustomed tasks in the presence and under the daily 
 benediction of a noble, gracious and inspiring per- 
 sonality. 
 
RESPONSE 
 
 BY JUDGE FRANCIS MILES PINCH 
 
 I had planned to slip by this anniversary with- 
 out being detected. Silence about one's age comes 
 early to the woman but arrives at last for the man. I 
 should have kept that silence, but there were too 
 , many detectives around and too many records avail- 
 able. And so I must plead guijlty to my seventy-five 
 years. 
 
 I wish I could honestly plead guilty to the many 
 kindly things that have been said about me. They 
 have made me feel as if I were being carefully 
 wrapped up in tissue paper and tied with red and 
 white ribbons, with here and there a strand of blue, 
 and so prepared to be tenderly laid away on the shelf 
 to scare away the mice and fight the moths. 
 
 Not quite yet, if you please ; though the inevit- 
 able fate is near and growing nearer. But I have 
 things to do which are not yet done and for which I 
 hope a few years more of life and health may be 
 granted me. 
 
 Meantime my thanks are due and sincerely 
 given to those who have planned the courtesy of this 
 occasion : to the President who, not content with the 
 burden of the University, is taking on his shoulders 
 the future of the Philippines and bearing both burd- 
 ens marvelously well ; to my friend who shares with 
 him the care of this institution, and when I left the 
 bar jumped promptly into the vacant place and filled 
 it better than it was filled before ; to my associate 
 
24 
 
 wlio was one of the earliest and one of the best 
 products of this College of Law and of whom I shall 
 soon be sure to ask that consideration which he has 
 fairly earned and thoroughly deserves ; and to all 
 those other friends in the University, and out of it, 
 who have gathered about me and brightened the col- 
 ors of the approaching sunset. 
 
 To the young and even to those in the middle 
 life three-quarters of a century seems long. On 
 the contrary it is brief — so brief that one needs to 
 utilize every hour for the work set him to do. And 
 yet it has been long enough to breed many marvels. 
 I have seen the lumbering stage coach, taking three 
 days to reach the metropolis, give place to the rail- 
 way landing us in a few easy hours : I have seen the 
 modest wires which our Founder strung over a few 
 city blocks to turn sneers into belief, spreading their 
 net work over the world and building a roadway un- 
 der the seas : I have lived through many wars here 
 and elsewhere and felt their alternations of victory 
 and defeat : I have seen the nation barred by the 
 mountains forcing its way through the barrier — flow- 
 ing to the Pacific and reaching out to the islands of 
 the Orient : and to come nearer home, I have seen 
 this University — born amid storms and struggling 
 for a doubtful life — in one swift generation taking 
 its place well at the front of the institutions of the 
 land. 
 
 Through it all I have learned this lesson : that 
 two chief sources of content and happiness are the 
 pleasure of hard work and the blessing of good 
 friends. I have had both in large measure and 
 therefore I know. 
 
25 
 
 Allusion lias been made to my judicial life and 
 it is brought back to me by the words of my old asso- 
 ciates. It looks to me now like a dream. And yet it 
 was full of hard work that had no end. It absorbed 
 every hour and all thought, but rapidly became a 
 pleasure and ceased to be a task. I had associates 
 who became sincere and warm friends. Four of 
 them are gone: Folger, who was our Chief, Rapallo 
 with a marvelous gift of legal reasoning. Miller, 
 whose patience and industry never failed, and Dan- 
 forth alert and active who went back to the bar and 
 died in the harness. Those who remain are busy 
 yet and happy only while busy, and well maintain- 
 ing the high reputation of the court. 
 
 The same alliance of work and friends came to 
 me when I left the bench for the professor's chair. 
 Still there was work to do and friends with whom to 
 do it. There came changes in our Faculty, more 
 often than I wished. We had men so good that 
 other institutions made love to them and sometimes 
 led them away — but always there was a Faculty, har- 
 monious, united, ready to help each other and if 
 need be bear each other's burdens. 
 
 And so my years have been in the main happy 
 and contented. There has been sorrow ; that always 
 comes — but he who loves his work and does it with 
 all his might, who deserves his friends and keeps 
 them, will get the most of happiness out of life. 
 
 Fortunately, I am not yet to say farewell though 
 that occasion is coming near. I wish you all many 
 birthdays as pleasant as you have made this one of 
 mine. 
 
KF 368 Fl^9 C8l 
 
 Author 
 
 Cornell University- 
 
 Vol. 
 
 Title 
 
 Exercises in Honor of 
 
 TiVa ni-iff M-i 1 ps Wnph. 
 
 Copy 
 
 
 
 Date 
 
 Borrower's Name