We are indebted to R. McPhail Smith, of the Nashville Bar, for the following very interesting fragment of autobiography which is now published for the first time. It is from the pen of no less a personage than Chancellor Kent. The history of it is as follows: In the year 1828, the late Thomas Washington, one of the most eminent of the Bar of Tennessee, and a warm admirer of Chancellor Kent, wrote to the latter, enclosing a very elaborate argument of his own, and requesting to be favored with a familiar account of his life, studious habits, etc. This request was complied with. The letter containing the desired autobiographical sketch was at different times shown by Mr. Washington to several of his professional brethren, and among others to Return J. Meigs, John M. Lea, and John Trimble. Mr. Smith first heard of the document from Mr. Trimble, who related in conversation Chancellor Kent's description of the manner in which he was accustomed to make up his judgments. Afterwards, upon mentioning this to Mr. Meigs, in Washington, D. C. where he now resides, Mr. Smith was informed by him that he had retained a copy of the letter in question, which, however, he could not just then conveniently lay his hand upon. Subsequently, at the urgent request of Mr. Smith, the copy, having been found in the meantime, was mailed to him at Nashville, who copied it accurately before returning it; VOL. I-NO. III-1.

and Mr. Smith's copy of Mr. Meigs's copy of the original letter of Chancellor Kent to Mr. Washington, is now laid before the reader.

Since this letter was written, nearly half a century has rolled by, and every person therein alluded to has passed away. The letter was written in a spirit of entire unreserve, implying the absence of any idea in the mind of the writer of its ever being made public; but the contents are not such as to render its publication at all improper. Chancellor Kent is one of the brightest stars in the firmament of American jurisprudence, and he was hardly more distinguished for pre-eminent ability than for the simplicity, purity, and elevation of his character; and everything nearly relating to him is matter of profound and general interest, at least to the legal profession; and this delightful narrative from his own pen ought not to be permitted to die.

Mr. Smith informs us that a friend, formerly one of the ablest and most accomplished of our state judiciary, and now hardly less useful and influential in private life, who had read the original of the letter in question, said to him that while upon the bench he often recalled Chancellor Kent's statement of the manner in which he formed his judicial opinions, and that from the recollection thereof he derived additional impulse to act in the same spirit."

Upon the arrival of the news of Chancellor Kent's decease in December, 1847, there was a meeting of the members of the Bar of the middle division of the state, then in attendance upon the Supreme Court, to adopt resolutions appropriate to the occasion. The preamble and resolutions adopted, which are prefixed to the 8th volume of Humphrey's Reports, flowed from the eloquent pen of Thomas Washington. We give the letter aforesaid, without further remark:

NEW YORK, October 6, 1828.

Dear Sir: Your very kind letter of the 15th ult. was duly received, and also your argument in the case of Ivey vs. Pinson. I have read the pamphlet with much interest and pleasure. It is composed with masterly ability. Of this there can be no doubt; and without presuming to give any opinion on a great case still sub judice, and only argued before me on one side, I beg leave to express my highest respect for the law, reasoning, and doctrine of the argument, and my admiration of the spirit and eloquence which animate it. My attention was very much fixed on the perusal; and if there be any lawyer in this state who can write a better argument in any point of view, I have not the honor of his acquaintance.

As to the rest of your letter, concerning my life and studies, I hardly know what to say or do. Your letter and argument and character and name, have impressed me so favorably that I feel every disposition to oblige you if it be not too much at my own expense. My attainments are of too ordinary a character, and far too limited, to provoke such curiosity. I have had nothing more to aid me in all my life than plain method, prudence, temperance, and steady, persevering diligence. My diligence was more remarkable for being steady and uniform than for the degree of it, which never was excessive, so as to impair my health or eyes, or prevent all kinds of innocent or lively recreation.

I would now venture to state briefly, but very frankly, and at your special desire, somewhat of the course and progress of my studious life. I know you can not but smile at times at my simplicity, but I cominit myself to your indulgence and honor.

I was educated at Yale College, and graduated in 1781. I stood as well as any in my class; but the test of scholarship at that day was contemptible. I was only a very inferior classical scholar, and we were not required, and to that day I had never looked into any Greek book but the New Testament. My favorite studies were Geography, History, Poetry, Belle-Lettres, etc. When the College was broken up and dispersed in July, 1779, by the British, I retired to a country village; and finding Blackstone's Commentaries, I read the four volumes. Parts of the work struck my taste, and the work inspired me at the age of sixteen with awe, and I fondly determined to be a lawyer. In November, 1781, I was placed by my father with Mr. (now called Judge) Benson, who was then Attorney General at Poughkeepsie, on the banks of the Hudson, and in my native county of Dutchess. Here I entered on law, and was the most modest, steady, industrious, student that such a place ever saw. I read the following works: Grotius and Puffendorf, in large folios, and made copious extracts. My fellow students, who were more gay and gallant, thought me very odd and dull in my taste; but out of five of them four died in middle life drunkards. I was free from all dissipation, and chaste as pure, virgin snow. I had never danced, or played cards, or sported with a gun, or drank anything but water. In 1782 I read Smollett's History of England, and procured at a farmer's house, where I boarded, Rapin's, (a huge folio) and read it through, and I found during the course of the last summer among my papers my MS. abridgement of Rapin's dissertation on the laws

and customs of the Anglo Saxons. I abridged Hale's History of the Common Law, and the old books of Practice, and read parts of Blackstone again and again. The same year I procured Hume's History of England, and his profound reflections and admirable eloquence struck most deeply on my youthful mind. I extracted the most admired parts, and made several volumes of MS. I was admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court in January, 1785, at the age of twenty-one, and then married without one cent of property; for my education exhausted all my kind father's resources, and left me in debt $400, which it took me two or three years to discharge. Why did I marry? I answer, at the farmer's house where I boarded, one of his daughters, a little, modest, lovely girl of fourteen, gradually caught my attention, and insensibly stole upon my affections; and before I thought of love, or knew what it was, I was most violently affected. I was twenty-one, and my wife sixteen, when we married; and that charming and lovely girl has been the idol and solace of my life, and is now with me in my office, unconscious that I am writing this concerning her. We have both had uniform health and the most perfect and unalloyed domestic happiness, and are both as well now, and in as good spirits, as when we married. We have three adult children. My son lives with me, and is twenty-six, and a lawyer of excellent sense and discretion, and of the purest morals. My eldest daughter is well married, and lives the next door to me, and with the intimacy of one family. My youngest daughter is now of age, and lives with me, and is my little idol.

I went to housekeeping at Poughkeepsie in 1786, in a small snug cottage, and there I lived in charming simplicity for eight years. My practice was just about sufficient to redeem me from debt, and to maintain my wife and establishment decently, and to supply me with books about as fast as I could read them. I had neglected, and almost entirely forgotten, my scanty knowledge of the Greek and Roman classics, and an accident turned my attention to them very suddenly. At thein 1786, I saw E. Livingston (now the codifier for Louisiana), and he had a pocket Horace, and read some passages to me at some office, and pointed out their beauties, assuming that I well understood Latin. I said nothing, but was stung with shame and mortification; for I had forgotten even my Greek letters. I purchased immediately Horace and Virgil, a dictionary and grammar, and the Testament, and formed my resolution promptly and decidedly to recover the lost languages.

I studied in my little cottage mornings, and dedicated one hour to Greek and another to Latin daily.

I soon increased it to two for

each tongue in the twenty-four hours. My acquaintance with the languages increased rapidly. After I had read Horace and Virgil,

I turned to Livy for the first time in my life; and after I had construed the Greek Testament, I took up the Iliad, and I can hardly describe to this day the enthusiasm with which I perseveringly read and studied in the originals, Livy and the Iliad. It gave me inspiration. I purchased a French dictionary and grammar, and began French, and gave an hour to that language daily. I appropriated the business part of the day to law, and read Coke Lyttleton. I made copious notes. I devoted evenings to English literature, in company with my wife. From 1788 to 1798, I steadily devoted the day into five parts, and allotted them to Greek, Latin, law and business, and French and English varied literature. I mastered the best of the Greek, Latin and French classics, as well as the best French and English law books at hand. I read Machiavel and all the collateral branches of English history, such as Littleton's Henry the second, Bacon's Henry the seventh, Lord Clarendon on the Great Rebellion, etc. I even sent to England as early as 1790, for Warburton's Divine Legation and the Lusiad.

My library, which started from nothing, grew with my growth, and it has now attained to upwards of 3,000 volumes; and it is pretty well selected, for there is scarcely a work, authority or document, referred to in the three volumes of my commentaries, but what has a place in my own library. Next to my wife, my library has been the source of my greatest pleasure and devoted attachment.

The year 1793 was another era in my life. I removed from Poughkeepsie to the city of New York, with which I had become well acquainted; and I wanted to get rid of the encumbrance of a dull law partner at Poughkeepsie. But, though I had been in practice nine years, I had acquired very little property. My furniture. and library were very scanty, and I had not $500 extra in the world. But I owed nothing, and came to the city with a good character, and with a scholar's reputation. My newspaper writings and speeches in the Assembly had given me some notoriety. I do not believe any human being ever lived with more pure and perfect domestic repose and simplicity and happiness than I did for these nine years.

I was appointed Professor of Law in Columbia College late in